Compiling 40,000 photos of a River Murray Works program into a useable and accessible format — ASN Events

Compiling 40,000 photos of a River Murray Works program into a useable and accessible format (10856)

Ben Berry 1
  1. NSW Office of Water, Albury, NSW, Australia

Many of us working on rehabilitation projects often take numerous photos, and if a project has multiple people working on it, or it has run for multiple years the photos can be on various computer drives, filed in personal folders, printed on film rather than digital, or in the hands of the many landowners who many of us work with.
When we start in a new position we often have to ask, where are the photos of previous works stored, how are they named or where are they filed? Are the photos specifically for monitoring, general photos, or of things such as fauna or unique landscapes? If someone is looking for a high quality photo of works where do I find it?
Not only is it difficult to ensure that everyone working on the same project compiles photos in a common drive, it is also very difficult to ensure naming conventions are easily followed and staff can accurately file photos in the necessary location.
The River Murray Works Unit has devised a methodology and database to assist with the accurate filing of 40,000 photos within the Hume to Yarrawonga reach of the River Murray. This system allows any staff member to locate photos of specific works, specific properties, specific dates, select between high or low quality, look at photo point monitoring or simply browse general topics. Photos are an integral piece to the long term archiving of programs, and if they cannot be easily located are often long forgotten about. 

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