Upgrade StorageHow to catalog images
My first post here.
Here is my problem. Say I am in the bowels of a library, peering through books, doing research. Say I am looking for diagrams, illustrations, drawings, and images of various kinds. When I find one I want to use, I scan the image into a laptop computer, using a portable image scanner. The problem is how to give that image a unique filename (or filenumber) that links (somehow?) to a record entry in my Zotero database catalog, containing my bibliographic data of that book. How do I streamline that process and make it easy? Zotero solves key parts of the problem, but I'm wondering if it can go further. (Perhaps I am requesting a new feature? Or perhaps I'm unaware the solution already exists within Zotero somewhere?)
There are several aspects of this problem:
1) Creating a unique filename (or filenumber) for each scanned image, and getting that unique filename attached to that image file -- this is the naming problem.
2) Obtaining the bibliographic data. Zotero does a great job at that, especially if the library offers a wifi connection to my laptop computer, so the bibliographic data can be easily pulled into Zotero along when the image is scanned. Or, if wifi is unavailable, perhaps a small portion of the bibliographic data can be entered by hand, and then later (after the laptop is hooked up the internet) then Zotero can pull-in the remainder of the bibliographic data.
3) The above two data -- the filename and the bibliographic record -- need to be linked together somehow, so that we know which image file goes with which bibliographic record. This linking process should be automatic, if possible. This is the linking problem. (If we had to type-in the unique filenumber for each image, that would be tedious, and result in needless transcription errors.)
4) A way to produce a finalized list of references that identifies exactly where each image came from. I believe Zotero already does that sort of thing.
5) Perhaps the unique filenumber could be automatically generated by Zotero, and placed within the current record entry, and also output (somehow?) in a manner that automatically becomes the image filename. In this way, Zotero becomes the central hub, or controler, of this process. Zotero would generate unique filenames, enter those into the database, and (somehow?) make that filenumber become the image filename.
How do I streamline this process?
Thanks for your help.
Here is my problem. Say I am in the bowels of a library, peering through books, doing research. Say I am looking for diagrams, illustrations, drawings, and images of various kinds. When I find one I want to use, I scan the image into a laptop computer, using a portable image scanner. The problem is how to give that image a unique filename (or filenumber) that links (somehow?) to a record entry in my Zotero database catalog, containing my bibliographic data of that book. How do I streamline that process and make it easy? Zotero solves key parts of the problem, but I'm wondering if it can go further. (Perhaps I am requesting a new feature? Or perhaps I'm unaware the solution already exists within Zotero somewhere?)
There are several aspects of this problem:
1) Creating a unique filename (or filenumber) for each scanned image, and getting that unique filename attached to that image file -- this is the naming problem.
2) Obtaining the bibliographic data. Zotero does a great job at that, especially if the library offers a wifi connection to my laptop computer, so the bibliographic data can be easily pulled into Zotero along when the image is scanned. Or, if wifi is unavailable, perhaps a small portion of the bibliographic data can be entered by hand, and then later (after the laptop is hooked up the internet) then Zotero can pull-in the remainder of the bibliographic data.
3) The above two data -- the filename and the bibliographic record -- need to be linked together somehow, so that we know which image file goes with which bibliographic record. This linking process should be automatic, if possible. This is the linking problem. (If we had to type-in the unique filenumber for each image, that would be tedious, and result in needless transcription errors.)
4) A way to produce a finalized list of references that identifies exactly where each image came from. I believe Zotero already does that sort of thing.
5) Perhaps the unique filenumber could be automatically generated by Zotero, and placed within the current record entry, and also output (somehow?) in a manner that automatically becomes the image filename. In this way, Zotero becomes the central hub, or controler, of this process. Zotero would generate unique filenames, enter those into the database, and (somehow?) make that filenumber become the image filename.
How do I streamline this process?
Thanks for your help.
This is an old discussion that has not been active in a long time. Before commenting here, you should strongly consider starting a new discussion instead. If you think the content of this discussion is still relevant, you can link to it from your new discussion.
Have a look at the description here:
http://www.columbia.edu/~jpl2136/zotfile.html