Wednesday, October 30, 2024

UFO archive links - 13,552 page overview searchable PDF

I have been doing some work to make it easier to find items in my online UFO archive kindly hosted by the AFU in Sweden, including creating some new AI tools and also some new documents.

I've added a few million pages of material to that archive in the last couple of years (including more scans of UFO magazines/newsletters, official documents, dissertations, transcripts etc). This means that the archive is becoming an increasingly useful resource, but also makes it harder to quickly locate all relevant items.

As one basic - but I think useful - new tool, I've used Python code (generated with the assistance of an AI chatbot) to compile a basic list of the files and folders in my online archive - with hyperlinks to each item.

Because the content of this list is limited just to folder/file names (and a link to that folder/file) without any additional details, the new PDF is relatively short searchable overview (just 13,552 pages).   

[Even this limited document can take a few seconds to download, as it is a 131MB file].

Once this single PDF is downloaded, you can quickly search the titles of the files (but not - currently - their content) for a keyword in those titles and the results will include a hyperlink to the relevant files. (I've written about performing offline searches of the entire archive and may add a full online search function at some point).

I'm currently torn between adding more to the archive or focusing on writing up the results of some deep dives I've been doing on specific cases/topics.  I'm increasingly focusing on the deep dives.



The single PDF is at the link below:

https://files.afu.se/Downloads/0%20-%20index%20koi%20-%20overview%20list%20of%20archive.pdf


That PDF can also be found at the bottom of the main page of the archive, i.e. at the bottom of: 

https://files.afu.se/Downloads/ 




Sample snapshots of parts of the results for quick searches of this single PDF (using the fast and free PDF-Xchange Editor, but similar searches can be done using virtually any PDF software):

"Australia":




"Wales":

  


3 comments:

  1. Acrobat reader is beaten here, far too slow. pdf-xchange editor has a portable version (no install needed) and is more than 100x faster for the first search. Instantaneous on the second search. www.pdf-xchange.com

    ReplyDelete
  2. Greetings, Isaac. It's been several years since I've been active in the UFO commentariat, but I still download many of your PDFs...just in case I make a comeback (I will never throw out my binders of notes on the Hill case). Since 2015, I have been distracted by my southern neighbour's disdain for democracy and hostility to the rule of law. I was hoping Tuesday would have put an end to that trend. Alas...no.

    ReplyDelete