Hi Lisa,
We just faced this issue at my nonprofit. Our Library has masses of photos, both printed and electronic, to catalog and make sense of.
For our photos, we took this approach: (1) Last summer, interns sorted through our printed photos, categorized them, and scanned a good deal of them. They also assigned identifying keywords, when possible.
(2) Last Fall, we held a Photo Cleanup day. All electronic photos where assigned to staff members -- obviously, staff members were assigned photos that they themselves had taken but we also tried to assign the remainder as logically as we could to staff members for review. Their tasks were to review photos, identify photos which were not usable (too dark, too blurry, bad composition, etc) and use software to assign defined metatags to the remainder.
(3) The Library staff then takes the photos which are metataged and uploads them into a database developed especially for the photos. This database enables staff to search on a variety of keywords (using canned searches or custom searches). They can download photos from the database for reuse. This database also enables us to identify where photos were used (i.e., in what publications or other products).
We chose a combination approach for the software:
(1)The shareware iTag (Windows software): this small application enables staff to keyword/metatag electronic photographs at the file level so no matter what application the photos were used in, the metatag information is accessible. The software is easy to use. The only requirement is that the Windows computer have .NET version 2 installed. The limitation is that the iTag software only has three "fields" in which you can insert keywords or metatags. The Library staff spent considerable time creating a metatag schema which was then separated into three categories to correspond to the three "fields" that iTag provided. It has worked well but we are still early in the efforts.
(2) Extensis Portfolio/NetPublish (Windows or Macintosh software): this software was affordable and our Library staff created the "Photobase" within a web interface. Again, this application is quite new but, thus far, the Library has done an excellent job developing the "Photobase". The requirement here is a server to install the Extensis software on and the server must be running IIS version 6 (version 5 may be alright as well but I'm not sure) and accessible to the local network.
We looked at a lot of different systems for our needs -- Picassa, home grown, Adobe, etc. -- but the Extensis software offered flexibility while still being fairly intuitive to use and affordable. We also found that while the software was important, the considerable effort of the Library in developing the metatag schema was even more important. It helped direct the efforts of this project.
I've copied the Library staff who worked on the "Photobase" - if you have further questions, you should contact them directly (Mary Panke is PAI's Senior Librarian and Zach Miller is PAI's Library Assistant).
The only portion of this where you may require IT assistance (if you or the nonprofits don't have it in-house) is in terms of the server that runs the Portfolio/NetPublish system. If that is not workable, a single user version of the Extensis software can run on a Windows or Macintosh workstation as a standalone application. If that is the tact you take, you could easily set up a "Photobase" workstation.
The Photobase developed in the Extensis software took a good deal of planning and development. So, while the Library was able to develop this database, it did take a certain level of IT comfort and expertise on their part. I served as IT support (server setup, IIS configuraton, server/IIS maintenance) but all of the development work was done in the Library. You could develop a template that your clients could use. If your clients do not have any/much IT expertise, they may find developing this type of database too challenging.
I hope this helps.
- Sarah Reidy
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Sarah McCrea Reidy
Manager, Information Technology
Population Action International (PAI)
1300 19th St., NW #200
Washington DC 20036 USA
(202) 557-3453 direct line
http://www.populationaction.org
sreidy%40popact.org">sreidy
popact.org
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