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UCLA
Cotsen Institute of Archeology at UCLA Builds Digital Archeology Lab Using FileMaker Pro
But what happens when the dig is over? When it's time to put away
the trowels and brushes -- and begin the job of documenting and
classifying the relics for future study. In Los Angeles, at the
Cotsen Institute of Archaeology at UCLA, the science of preserving
the past has taken a digital turn -- thanks to FileMaker Pro, the
award-winning database software application from FileMaker
Inc.!
It's called the Digital Archaeology Lab -- and it's a
revolutionary new approach to sharing important new discoveries,
stressing the use of advanced multimedia techniques in the
distribution of archaeological data. Graphics, animations, audio,
video, and text -- all are combined in bringing this valuable
information to the scientific world. And FileMaker Pro has been a
vital component in bringing this vision to reality.
'The Digital Lab received funding for a project that we call the
'Digital Imprint,' explains Director Louise Krasniewicz. 'It's
designed to develop standards for the professional publication of
archaeological information on CDs and the web. What's been a
problem with this type of activity in the past is that individuals
would try to do this and spend a lot of time and money reinventing
the wheel each time by writing software from scratch and
designing graphics specific only for their project. We took a
different approach and decided to develop a 'template' which we
would design and test and then give away to any archaeologist who
would want to use it to publish.'
Early in the planning of this template, it was decided that the
only way to really make the project work would be to use the most
user-friendly, most flexible off-the-shelf database software
available - and the search took over a year. The winning choice --
FileMaker Pro.
'We'd been using FileMaker in our lab for all sorts of traditional
database needs,' explains Louise. 'But once we started using the
program for our template, it became clear that it could help us out
in a lot of ways and I became the one who would say, 'Let's put
that in FileMaker.''
It didn't take long for the Digital Archaeological Lab team to
discover just how flexible FileMaker can be. 'The most interesting
and innovative use of FileMaker came when we had to create a
production tool that would enable archaeologists to directly and
automatically import their images, text, databases, maps, 3D models
and movies into our template,' notes Louise. 'My project manager,
Ken Stuart, built a production tool completely in FileMaker which
enables an archaeologist, at the push of several buttons, to import
data into the proper place in our template so that the slides show
up in the
slide show, the databases show up with their own names in our
database interface and text is accurately imported into the
simulated book section.
Because FileMaker is scriptable and can be modified and expanded
with plug-ins, we found all the capabilities we needed to put
together exactly the type of production tool everyone has always
talked about but no one knew how to put together.'
The 'Digital Imprint' FileMaker template is already generating
excitement in the archaeological world -- proving a major hit at
the Society for American Archaeology's meetings in the spring of
2000. The template, combined with an ordinary web browser, will
help to bring the results of vital research to scholars,
researchers, and the general public, all around the globe.
Visions of the past -- built for the future with FileMaker Pro!
Contact information
Contact Info for Customer:Filemaker Contact:
Kevin Mallon
Public Relations Manager
FileMaker Inc.
408-987-7227
kevin_mallon@filemaker.com
http://www.filemaker.com
- The Cotsen Institute of Archeology at UCLA uses the FileMaker Pro-based Digital Archeology Lab, a system for documenting and classifying relics for future study. The Lab's flexible and easy-to-use 'Digital Imprint' multimedia database template allows archaeologists worldwide to exchange new discoveries in a uniform format incorporating graphics, animation, text, audio and video.
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