Copán Archive and Database Project

Notes on the Databases

Since the spring of 2001, the project staff has made substantial progress in gaining intellectual control over the massive archival material at the CRIA. Importantly, there were roughly 5,000 items inventoried in the library, 18,300 photo descriptions (~3,000 rolls) recorded, and 5,000 records added to the Sculpture database. This information can now be retrieved to aid all researchers. Additions and improvements can continue to be made now that the initial inventory is substantial and a provisional order (location) has been assigned for documents, photos, and sculpture.

The databases were carried out in Filemaker Pro 5.0 (Spanish version). One is able to search for keywords (or combinations of) in any text field and in any order. Team members (native Spanish speakers) did a remarkable job with the data entry of information often written in English. Understandably, this resulted in typos and occasionally misunderstood information (reports listed as books, etc.) The author has reviewed the entire database checking for transcription errors, but recognizes these will take some time to weed out.

As part of the FAMSI grant agreement, the database is to be provided on-line (FAMSI web-site). Users should note:

1. Gaps that appear in the records can usually be attributed to missing information.

2. Organizational and numbering systems that were in place prior to the start of this project were respected until further organization can be carried out.

3. For security reasons, artifact locations are available only to authorized IHAH and CRIA personnel.

4. Although listed here, unpublished material of on-going projects (photographs, field notes, informes, maps, drawings, sculpture details, etc.) are available only to the investigators and directors of those projects (this includes projects in their analysis phases). Neither IHAH nor the CRIA library will provide copies of this material without written consent from the above mentioned parties.

5. The drawings that were scanned from the Library collection and appear in the database are of published images. Copies can be arranged by written consent with IHAH and the publisher. (see also Further Recommendations and Activities)

6. The database as submitted with this report is provisional. As newer versions become available, they will be submitted to FAMSI for updating.

Modification of the database is on-going therefore, at this time, FAMSI will only provide an example of the type of information available.

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