Digital Humanities Questions & Answers » Topic: What are people using to manage large collections of images?

Digital Humanities Questions & Answers » Topic: What are people using to manage large collections of images? http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/topic/what-are-people-using-to-manage-large-collections-of-images Digital Humanities Questions & Answers » Topic: What are people using to manage large collections of images? en-US Thu, 08 Mar 2018 10:57:04 +0000 http://bbpress.org/?v=1.0.2 <![CDATA[Search]]> q http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/search.php ijohnson222@gmail.com on "What are people using to manage large collections of images?" http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/topic/what-are-people-using-to-manage-large-collections-of-images#post-2317 Sat, 04 Apr 2015 13:26:37 +0000 ijohnson222@gmail.com 2317@http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/ You might like to take a look at Heurist - <a href="http://HeuristNetwork.org" rel="nofollow">http://HeuristNetwork.org</a> It might not at first appear to be what you are looking for - it's a generic database for Humanities data - but it is easily configured to handle image metadata, including DC, so out-of-the-box might be a day to get set up. It handles remotely stored images eg. in Picasa, as well as indexing images in situ. It has good querying, including facetted queries in version 4 (to be released this month). Out-of-the box it gives you mapping and timelines, as well as connections between entities (which can include images, creators, owner, collections, auctions etc). It's currently handling in the 25,000 image range for a first world war project and a study on Balinese artists, including a mixture of jpg, tif and PDF. I'm happy to assist with setting up an out-of-the-box image database - it's something I need to do for another project - and once that's done it really will be a 5 minute job to build a new image database. Email me on: <a href="mailto:ian.johnson@sydney.edu.au">ian.johnson@sydney.edu.au</a> (in western Europe time zone until late June). ijohnson222@gmail.com on "What are people using to manage large collections of images?" http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/topic/what-are-people-using-to-manage-large-collections-of-images#post-2316 Sat, 04 Apr 2015 13:25:50 +0000 ijohnson222@gmail.com 2316@http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/ You might like to take a look at Heurist - <a href="http://HeuristNetwork.org" rel="nofollow">http://HeuristNetwork.org</a> It might not at first appear to be what you are looking for - it's a generic database for Humanities data - but it is easily configured to handle image metadata, including DC, so out-of-the-box might be a day to get set up. It handles remotely stored images eg. in Picasa, as well as indexing images in situ. It has good querying, including facetted queries in version 4 (to be released this month). Out-of-the box it gives you mapping and timelines, as well as connections between entities (which can include images, creators, owner, collections, auctions etc). It's currently handling in the 25,000 image range for a first world war project and a study on Balinese artists, including a mixture of jpg, tif and PDF. I'm happy to assist with setting up an out-of-the-box image database - it's something I need to do for another project - and once that's done it really will be a 5 minute job to build a new image database. Email me on: <a href="mailto:ian.johnson@sydney.edu.au">ian.johnson@sydney.edu.au</a> (in western Europe time zone until late June). Arno Bosse on "What are people using to manage large collections of images?" http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/topic/what-are-people-using-to-manage-large-collections-of-images#post-2315 Fri, 03 Apr 2015 21:29:27 +0000 Arno Bosse 2315@http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/ I don't have time now to post a proper description, but take a look at <a href="https://wolffapp.com" rel="nofollow">https://wolffapp.com</a> as well. hopegreenberg on "What are people using to manage large collections of images?" http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/topic/what-are-people-using-to-manage-large-collections-of-images#post-2314 Fri, 03 Apr 2015 19:31:39 +0000 hopegreenberg 2314@http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/ Replying to @Arno Bosse's <a href="http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/topic/what-are-people-using-to-manage-large-collections-of-images#post-2312">post</a>: I like the "back in the day" phrase - I remember these conferences at ALLC/ACH conferences in the mid-90s. The proffered solutions cost thousands of dollars. You'd think by now...*sigh* hopegreenberg on "What are people using to manage large collections of images?" http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/topic/what-are-people-using-to-manage-large-collections-of-images#post-2313 Fri, 03 Apr 2015 19:23:48 +0000 hopegreenberg 2313@http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/ I, too, have been looking for a solution but perhaps should define what I mean by solution before assuming this is what everyone wants. I want: - to handle a collection of hundreds of images. - ability to browse through them quickly (by image, not just by name--rather like you can do in a "Cover Flow" view in a Finder window on a Mac) because sometimes it's easier to see the one you want rather than try to remember what text strings are associated with it to search on. - ability to assign standard metadata (probably Dublin Core) as well as tags, then sort on those. Faceted sorting/browsing would be nice too. - ability to sort based on any metadata or tag field and deliver the browse view described above. (This is where things break down.) So, I've used dSpace - tedious metadata entry (when is that not the case?) but easy searching and the resulting view is reasonably browse-able. I've used Omeka: ditto on the metadata, not so great on the searching/browsing unless you can customize your own Collection display view. I've used iPhoto but as soon as you try to port the images somewhere else there always seem to be problems, not to mention the metadata is...metadata? what metadata? And other things that were even worse. Arno Bosse on "What are people using to manage large collections of images?" http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/topic/what-are-people-using-to-manage-large-collections-of-images#post-2312 Fri, 03 Apr 2015 19:23:22 +0000 Arno Bosse 2312@http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/ Back in the day, some of our Art History faculty in Chicago swore by Extensis Portfolio (<a href="http://www.extensis.com/digital-asset-management/portfolio/)" rel="nofollow">http://www.extensis.com/digital-asset-management/portfolio/)</a>. Another possibility for desktop tools might be Canto Cumulus (though it may not pass your "out of the box" test). I'm sure if you (or someone who is a member) posted this to a forum used by the Visual Resources Association community (<VRA-L@LISTSERV.UARK.EDU>) you'd get additional and fuller answers. Also (just guessing though) you might even be able to find some discussion of this in the abstracts for their annual conference. Miriam Posner on "What are people using to manage large collections of images?" http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/topic/what-are-people-using-to-manage-large-collections-of-images#post-2311 Fri, 03 Apr 2015 18:21:09 +0000 Miriam Posner 2311@http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/ Since a number of people are responding to this question directly on Twitter, I made a <a href="https://storify.com/miriamkp/managing-large-image-collections">Storify</a> of the responses I got. Miriam Posner on "What are people using to manage large collections of images?" http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/topic/what-are-people-using-to-manage-large-collections-of-images#post-2310 Fri, 03 Apr 2015 16:51:13 +0000 Miriam Posner 2310@http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/ Replying to @Patrick Murray-John's <a href="http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/topic/what-are-people-using-to-manage-large-collections-of-images#post-2309">post</a>: I kind of think … not? Unless I'm missing something. The problem is that, while Zotero does a lovely job with metadata, attachments are hard to see unless you deliberately open them up. That's why scholars are using iPhoto, I think — you can at least see at a glance what you have in your collection. I also have never tried bulk-importing things into Zotero, and I don't know how well that works. My sense is that a lot of people (*cough* me *cough*) already have large, disorganized collections of archival images, and entering metadata for them one at a time would be a lot to handle. Patrick Murray-John on "What are people using to manage large collections of images?" http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/topic/what-are-people-using-to-manage-large-collections-of-images#post-2309 Fri, 03 Apr 2015 13:40:32 +0000 Patrick Murray-John 2309@http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/ Not that I have, or know anyone who has, but would that other RRCHNM project Zotero work for some of these needs? Cynthia B Meyers on "What are people using to manage large collections of images?" http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/topic/what-are-people-using-to-manage-large-collections-of-images#post-2308 Fri, 03 Apr 2015 01:46:31 +0000 Cynthia B Meyers 2308@http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/ I am trying to deal with thousands of archival images--mostly documents but lots of visuals too--and am also struggling for a solution. A colleague has suggested that I convert the JPGs into PDFs, OCR them, and then manage them in DevonThinkPro, where I can tag, annotate, search, organize. I am new to this and am still figuring out a workflow. Adobe Acrobat is balking at OCR'ing PDFs I made from iPhone JPGs (saying they are too large in inches, not data) and I haven't worked with DevonThinkPro enough to say if it is the right solution for me. But I'm hoping DevonThinkPro, which can handle most formats, allows me to manage the images. Yes, it's a lot of steps, so if you come up with other solutions, I'm all ears! Miriam Posner on "What are people using to manage large collections of images?" http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/topic/what-are-people-using-to-manage-large-collections-of-images#post-2307 Thu, 02 Apr 2015 23:05:22 +0000 Miriam Posner 2307@http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/ I'm curious to know what software humanities scholars are using to wrangle large collections of images. I often encounter scholars who struggle to manage large image collections — it's not at all unusual to find people managing collections of historical images with iPhoto — and wondered if there are databases that make sense for visual collections. I'm especially interested in programs that: <ul> <li>work out of the box and have a GUI (sorry)</li> <li>are designed for individuals, not enterprises</li> <li>allow a scholar to quickly apprehend many images at once</li> <li>allow one to add metadata (like place and date) — something beyond tags would be nice — and construct queries</li> <li>make sense for people who have a lot of digital surrogates of primary sources (which is to say, systems that are optimized to retrieve the EXIF data from a photo of an archival document won't make a whole lot of sense)</li> </ul> I know about Picasa, LightRoom, and ImagePlot. I don't think an enterprise-level system like ContenDM or the like makes sense for individual scholars. Omeka, of course, is nice, but it's a bit unwieldy if you're just trying to manage a collection. What am I missing?