Rough Guide to Image Management CILIP, 31 March 2010 SESSION THREE Storing stuff

Rough Guide to Image Management CILIP, 31 March 2010 SESSION THREE Storing stuff Technology developments

Choosing a route  DIY  LMS  Specialised software  Open-source  Proprietary Rough Guide to Image Management CILIP, 31 March 2010

The DIY Option  Possible for small collections, ‘quick and dirty’ solutions, no-budget situations  Some photo-sharing software quite powerful, easy to manipulate Rough Guide to Image Management CILIP, 31 March 2010

Picasa  Easy to import, add tags/titles, export to web, share publicly  Good browse but little search functionality  Stores metadata in image header, but requires data file on disc where Picasa is installed. Take care when re-installing or moving computers or data can be lost  E.g. Oxford’s Flora GraecaFlora Graeca Rough Guide to Image Management CILIP, 31 March 2010

Flickr  Easy to upload  Hard to remove  Easy to tag  Easy to search  Non-academic context  Advertising Rough Guide to Image Management CILIP, 31 March 2010

Facebook  Use Groups to provide context and covering text, discussion  Confidentiality and ownership issues Rough Guide to Image Management CILIP, 31 March 2010

YouTube, iTunes  Growing amount of academic content  Podcasts of lectures etc very popular on iTunesU – 2 million downloads of Oxford contributions since joined iTunes in 2009  Not easy to do detailed searching Rough Guide to Image Management CILIP, 31 March 2010

LMS  Integrated library management systems may include image management modules  Unlikely to be main reason for LMS choice; therefore may not be ideal solution for particular collections  Ease of integration of search and metadata with catalogue; may increase user awareness and image collection use  Trend to disaggregation of products Rough Guide to Image Management CILIP, 31 March 2010

Specialised software Open source  for enthusiasts and the hard up  Eg GreenstoneGreenstone  Limited functionality and presentation  Used for some Oxford collectionsOxford Rough Guide to Image Management CILIP, 31 March 2010

Specialised software Proprietary  Costs  May require special processing to import images and metadata  May not be easy to export edited data  Long-term sustainability may be in doubt  Keep archive copies of all files separately if possible Rough Guide to Image Management CILIP, 31 March 2010

Selection  See dia/advice/systems-for-managing-digital- media-collections dia/advice/systems-for-managing-digital- media-collections  Choice will depend on many individual factors  JISC reviews give some basis for comparison, and ideas of what is possible Rough Guide to Image Management CILIP, 31 March 2010

Rough Guide to Image Management CILIP, 31 March 2010 SESSION THREE Storing stuff Storage and preservation: short and long-term issues

Digital Data Death  Digital data has a short lifespan  Carriers become obsolete or physically degrade  All digital archives must be regularly refreshed and transported to new media  This is not cheap!  Cf the BBC Domesday DisasterBBC Domesday  And the Betamax/VHS war Rough Guide to Image Management CILIP, 31 March 2010

Who cares for your data?  Major institutions will have own IT depts to archive  May entail SLA’s and other formal responsibilities and costs  May or may not understand more of the issues than you do  Keeping it ‘in the library’ generates its own headaches Rough Guide to Image Management CILIP, 31 March 2010

External bodies  Consider collaboration with other institutions in subject domain, or region  Or National ArchivesNational Archives  Take advice from national bodies  Data Curation Centre Data Curation Centre  JISC JISC  RIN RIN Rough Guide to Image Management CILIP, 31 March 2010

Look before you leap  Develop an integrated view of your collections vis-à-vis national/international resources  What is your collection for? Rough Guide to Image Management CILIP, 31 March 2010

Rough Guide to Image Management CILIP, 31 March 2010 SESSION THREE Storing stuff Repositories, DAMS

Repositories  Domain or institutional  May or may not be geared to receive and document image data  Deposit may be a requirement  Another body of people to help manage your collection  A growing source of material Rough Guide to Image Management CILIP, 31 March 2010

DAMS  Digital Asset Management Systems can be used for images alone, or all digital data archiving  Can be large-scale and expensive  May provide long-term data security  Usually need specialised software developers to set up and maintain  Good communications essential Rough Guide to Image Management CILIP, 31 March 2010

Oxford’s experience Rough Guide to Image Management CILIP, 31 March 2010