MoMA (Eliza Sparacino)

Our system of image management is fairly simple, we have a small hierarchy of images with three levels, which we've assigned as Media Types:

1) "Digital high res images" originate from our Imaging Services department. Since MoMA staff create these images, MoMA has the right to reproduce them.

2) "Digital low-res images (for ID purposes only)" can originate from any source, be it snaps taken by registrar or curatorial in storage, or scanned from a publication, etc. These images are meant for identification, but can be used in checklists for this purpose.

3) "Publications image (internal use only)" come from our Publications department, but were created by a source outside MoMA and are not to be used outside the Museum for any purpose.

For the "high res" images, our standard size is 768 x 768 ppi. For "low res" and "publications" images, we do not have a standard size, but we urge staff to keep the files well under 1mb for storage purposes on the server.

We do not include metadata with our media records at this time. Our Imaging Services department maintains a separate database to track metadata. We hope to integrate their information into our system at some point, but we have not yet started upon this endeavor.

We have not used the TMS media loader or thumbnailer, but I do want to look into these tools. My department is responsible for linking all images to TMS (including me, there are three of us). We have set up folders on the network for users to save images, including our Imaging Services department, and they then send an email to our TMS helpdesk notifying us that the images are ready to be linked.

MFA, Boston (Jeff Steward)

 

Do you have a standard image size that you use with TMS?

-Yes. All of our images in TMS are jpegs and are sized to fit within an area of 1600x1600 pixels. The baseline was to keep the jpegs around 5mb when uncompressed.

 

How much metadata do you include with your TMS Media records?

-We include caption info, camera/scanner model, view info (ie: portrait, 3/4, left profile, detail inscription, etc...), remarks (which includes project info), the file size of the archived image.

 

Do you use the TMS media loader and/or thumbnailer?

-No. We built our own tool several years ago.

 

Which staff is responsible for adding images to your database?

-It is a mix of staff. The images and metadata is prepared by the Visual Archives staff. I'm the one that actually loads the images and data in to the database.

 

Do you have a centralized TMS image folder, or do you have multiple image folder paths in TMS?

-We have one root folder for screen sized images (the 1600x1600 images) and one root folder for the thumbnail images. Within the root folders there are many subfolders (but there are never subfolders in subfolders). Each subfolder contains approximately 5000 images. Having one folder is definitely unwieldy if you have a large number of images. Currently we have around 200,000 images.

 

The folder structure looks something like this:

screen (root folder)

->vol0001

---->imagefile1.jpg

---->imagefile2.jpg

---->imagefile3.jpg

---->etc...

->vol0002

---->imagefile4.jpg

---->imagefile5.jpg

---->imagefile6.jpg

---->etc...

->etc...

 

thumbnails (root folder)

->vol0001

---->imagefile1.jpg

---->imagefile2.jpg

---->imagefile3.jpg

---->etc...

->vol0002

---->imagefile4.jpg

---->imagefile5.jpg

---->imagefile6.jpg

---->etc...

->etc...

 

 

Do you enter archival storage information in the Media module?

-Yes. All of the original hi-res image files are stored off-line on DVD, so we track the disc number and file size.

 

 

Colonial Williamsburg Foundation (Eunice Glosson)

Do you have a standard image size that you use with TMS?

For reasons based mostly on storage space and bandwidth needed to open each image on a TMS client (the larger the image, the longer the user will wait for the image to open in TMS), we have decided to utilize JPG images – each about 250K when closed, ~3.5MB when open.

 

How much metadata do you include with your TMS Media records?

We have elected to include the following: image number assigned to the medium (photograph, reflective, transparency, etc.) used for each object; object name and description; whether it is a “detail” or an “overall” view; date photographed.

 

Do you use the TMS media loader and/or thumbnailer?

Yes.

 

Which staff is responsible for adding images to your database?

A Digital Imaging Specialist specifically hired to carry out the TMS digitization project. The same individual is in charge of scanning, retouching and adapting each object image prior to being loaded in TMS.

 

Do you have a centralized TMS image folder, or do you have multiple image folder paths in TMS?

The overwhelming majority if all TMS images are loaded in one central folder, but other folders have been set up by other individuals within the Organization prior to the codification of the TMS project procedures. It is foreseeable that these “other” folders will be eliminated and the images contained therein moved to the “main” folder. This however, does not represent an obstacle to the proper utilization of TMS. As the number of digital files increases it is likely that another, secondary, “main” folder will be created to overcome folder size limitations (we are currently brushing against 1.5GB of information in the “main” folder).

 

Do you enter archival storage information in the Media module?

Image number only, not location

 

Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, The Netherlands (André Straatman)

• image size: largest side between 1600-1800 pixels, ppi 72, jpeg quality 95%. Some exceptions are allowed. When you use various ppi's for your jpegs you wiil get in trouble when printing thumbs in Crystal reports.
• media type, public caption (here we also put the photographer), text entries and for special projects specific attributes groups
• we do not use the loader and the thumbnailer. I have been using AutoIt (freeware to simulate key presses, mouse movements and window commands) some years ago when TMS got the possibility to store thumbs in the db.
• adding images to the db is limited to our TmsTeam (2 persons). it is not a good idea to allow many people to do this.
• in our image folder we have different subs for the different modules (with subs-subs fot the thumbs) or special project only using the Media module. This way we use images in Objects, Objects-conservation, (Historic) Events, Loans, Shipping. We paid special attention to imagefile-naming so that they contain direct information reffering to the subject and provide some usefull information when browsing images without being logged into TMS.
• archival storage information is not yet entered

 

Stockholm Moderna Museet, Sweden (Albin Dahlström)

• Do you have a standard image size that you use with TMS?
  > yes, as large as possible within the 2000 pixels limit, and for the images kept on CD A3 300dpi
• How much metadata do you include with your TMS Media records?
  > just basics photographer, date view and where to find the high-res image
• Do you use the TMS media loader and/or thumbnailer?
  > yes, but I guess we use the medialoader, with a script to generate, the metadata so it has to be more than 100 pieces for us to use it.
• Which staff is responsible for adding images to your database?
  > several, but only me do the most of it
• Do you have a centralized TMS image folder, or do you have multiple image folder paths in TMS?
  > well, there is one main folder and in that goes the thumbnails and one extra folder for portraits.
• Do you enter archival storage information in the Media module?
  > yes, cause we store the high-res images on CD/DVD

Hammer Museum, UCLA (Grace Murakami)

We are also interested in developing TMS media standards and I would be curious to know what other museums are doing as well.  We have a number of digital images that were scanned from transparencies by Luna Imaging as part of a grant-funded project and we converted them to JPEGs and thumbnails using the TMS image conversion tool.  We also purchased a scanner to scan other transparencies, slides, photos, etc. and we would like to establish a standard image size for those but need some guidance.

I suppose I am responsible (with the rest of the registrars dept) for adding images to the database.  We were using one folder on our image server until it was starting to get unwieldy, so I have just recently added a second folder.  We have not been entering much beyond the rendition date, the CD number and notes on how the image was created (in the Remarks field).

The Detroit Institute of Arts (Shell Hensleigh)

It will be interesting to see your results. Working with Brian Jennings at Gallery Systems, I have developed a workflow that works for us but it is not pretty. I often think that there must be a better way. Anyway, here are the answers to your questions.

• Do you have a standard image size that you use with TMS?

Yes, 2700 x 2250 pixels. This is a good size to use for either inkjet or color laser prints. I am hoping that Gallery Systems allows us to print these images at full size directly from TMS in the future. Currently we can only print them in a 6.5 x 6.5” box. I have talked to Jay Hoffman and he thinks that it is a good idea so lets hope it makes it into the next version.

• How much metadata do you include with your TMS Media records?

Width, height, bit depth, ppi.

• Do you use the TMS media loader and/or thumbnailer?

Media Loader. I have never been able to get thumbnailer to work properly. I also use Portfolio, Filemaker and Access during the whole process.

• Which staff is responsible for adding images to your database?

For now, it is just me. During the past 4 months, I have added 21,000 images and am working on a manual of sorts so that others in our department can perform routing updates in case something happens to me.

• Do you have a centralized TMS image folder, or do you have multiple image folder paths in TMS?

We use multiple folders. The directories are just too large otherwise. We have segregated the images from our department (Photography) from those from Inventory Control and we plan to add another directory for Conservation. I use Filemaker to assign paths depending on the source and file name.

• Do you enter archival storage information in the Media module?

No but it is something that I would like to add in the future.

Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology, UC-Berkeley (Josh Meehan)

...we have been primarily using the CDL documents. The table below is the quick info, which was derived from the CDL docs.

This is a general guideline for resolution choice; however you should read the short document, CDL Digital Image Format Standards (See Image Standards tab) for a good overview of this information.

Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology, UC-Berkeley (Leslie Freund)

From the RCAAM listserve:

Kelsey Museum of Archaeology

Sebastián E. Encina (Coordinator of Museum Collections)

See SI-NAA standards for digital photography (http://voom.si.edu/anthro/imaging_standards.htm)

A minimum resolution should be set.  NAA sets theirs at 3000 pixels along their longest dimension.  For example, an 8x10 image will have a dpi of 300 (10x300=3000).  A 5-inch image should be set at 600dpi (5x600=3000).  The minimum resolution will be 300dpi. This is done in order to print quality images directly from the file.

Files should be saved as tiffs (tifs), not jpegs (jpgs).  Tiffs create higher resolution images and thus would make for better print qualities.

Preferably, images will include the entire color bar.  This way, it will be easier to determine the true colors of the objects being viewed.  This will also allow the Registry to use Adobe Photoshop or some other imaging software to fix color and lighting scales (does not apply to scanned images, particularly any B&W images).

Files should be named according to their Kelsey Museum accession number/negative number, followed by brackets and image number.  In cases where multiple images (and close-ups) are made of one particular object, suffixes will be applied to the original number.  This will consist of brackets ([ and ]) with a two-digit image number inside.  Therefore, the first image of an object shall be named 1989_02_3678[01].tiff, with subsequent details or different angles named 1989_02_3678[02], [03], etc.  The original should always be numbered [01], regardless if it has subsequent images of the same object or not.

Lower resolution images should be kept in order to facilitate exchange of images electronically.  These will not be high quality images, but lower quality (perhaps jpegs) in order to view quickly what an image is and send quickly via e-mail, etc.