Hi Sarah: If you're at all interested preserving your images and making sure you don't have multiple copies of the same image in your directories (albeit in different sizes), what you probably want is a digital asset management system. There are a number of them on the market, and some pretty decent open source alternatives. Since it seems like your needs are fairly modest, something like Razuna, DSpace, EnterMedia, or ResourceSpace would work well, or for a proprietary solution, Extensis Portfolio will probably suit you nicely. A good DAMS will automatically recognize the EXIF and IPTC data already embedded in the image and should write back to the image.
The problem with using Lightroom or Bridge or another photo management tool of that sort is that it's far too easy for your other users to make an "oops" and delete or overwrite your assets. Similarly, if you need a multitude of sizes, photo management software won't allow your users to create derivatives on the fly. For example, if you're using your assets for the web, for print publications, etc., you may want a bunch of different qualities. With a DAMS, a user can download what they need at will, leaving your master image untouched, and you servers uncluttered with multiples. Plus, you'd have to purchase a bulk license for the Adobe products if you wanted an instance on each desktop. There are some good tips about DAMS and digital preservation on the CHIN website: http://www.pro.rcip-chin.gc.ca/index-eng.jsp?Ne=8110&N=8110 Hope this helps, ~Perian Perian Sully Project Manager: Digital Asset Management and Online Access Balboa Park Online Collaborative On Wed, Apr 20, 2011 at 2:52 PM, SARAH PUCKITT <visionary62000 at yahoo.com>wrote: > Hello- thanks for your suggestions so far from my recent query. Before I > posted > the first question, we were looking at Adobe Lightroom. So my question now > is, > why not use Lightroom for this? I've not used it before, but I've > downloaded a > trial version along with many of the programs others have suggested. > > What I like about Lightroom, so far, is that its intuitive, which I see as > an > advantage for our various staff to be able to access it. I was able to view > and > enter data within 10 minutes of downloading the software. Also, it > automatically > loads in data that we want (EXIF) and I like the keyword function. > > I've been fumbling along with some of the other programs I've tried (i.e. > not as > intuitive), so they may be able to do all this and more, but I havent seen > that > yet. > > We are looking for something more sophisticated than iPhoto, but we're > primarily > interested in an image cataloguing software, not image editing. > Thanks again for the input- > Sarah Puckitt > Collections Information Specialist > Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts > spuckitt at mmfa.org > _______________________________________________ > You are currently subscribed to mcn-l, the listserv of the Museum Computer > Network (http://www.mcn.edu) > > To post to this list, send messages to: mcn-l at mcn.edu > > To unsubscribe or change mcn-l delivery options visit: > http://toronto.mediatrope.com/mailman/listinfo/mcn-l > > The MCN-L archives can be found at: > http://toronto.mediatrope.com/pipermail/mcn-l/ >
