Top tips on managing your images

Compiled by: Roger Mills, Head of Science Liaison and Specialist Services, Bodleian Libraries of the University of Oxford; Revised by Michael Upshall, December 2011 

‘Finding pictures’ is an activity which can be problematic; although very large quantities of visual material are now readily available on the internet, indexing is rudimentary in comparison with book and article cataloguing and retrieval often depends on browsing or guessing appropriate keywords in the absence of controlled vocabularies. Delivery in a form appropriate for the intended use often requires some technical knowledge and understanding of copyright restrictions. Adding items to library stock adds another layer of complexity.

1. Take advice!

An excellent starting point whether you are new to digital imaging or require up-to-date, concise briefings on specific topics is JISC Digital Media. This service is provided for the UK's Further and Higher Education community but is open to all, and provides advice and guidance on the issues of:

• creating digital images (including raster, vector and animated formats)
• delivering digital images to users
• using digital images to support teaching, learning and research
• managing both small and large scale digitisation projects

The web site includes advice documents, resources, a useful glossary and an extensive annotated list of image sites, as well as news and training course announcements.

2. Be clear what you’re looking for

It is often difficult to describe a picture clearly in words, and it usually helps to discuss the enquirer’s request in more detail before beginning a search. In particular, it is important to establish the context: for example, knitting is the name of a process in making cheese as well as clothes! If the enquirer is not to hand, a quick search in a general image search engine (e.g. Picsearch) will probably reveal any obvious potential confusion. When searching for animal or plant species, search by both common and scientific names; beware however that the same common name may refer to different species in different regions.

3. Establish the intended end use

This may affect the final choice of image, and may provide useful parameters for the search. Simple factors like the required size and format (landscape vs. portrait) may be more influential than the actual subject. High quality images for publication may be more readily available from commercial agencies, but the cost may be prohibitive for some authors, so knowledge of the available budget is helpful. Low-res images may look fine on a web page but badly pixelated if projected on a large screen in a PowerPoint presentation etc.

4. Be aware of copyright implications

UK copyright legislation does not refer directly to electronic media, but photographs and images are protected as works of art and generally copyright of the photographer. The creator of the object imaged and the subject of the image, if a person, may also have rights. As for printed books, copyright currently lasts for 70 years after the death of the photographer (if a UK citizen); photographs taken prior to 1989 may be subject to longer or shorter periods. Images may be used under ‘fair dealing’ provisions for non-commercial research or private study, but inclusion on a web site (including intranets) is reckoned equivalent to multiple copying and therefore not normally permissible as ‘fair dealing’. Permission should always be sought for such use; establishing the copyright holder is often very difficult, though. Always clarify the format for which permission is required; it may not be transferable to another format at a later stage. Altering an image in any way, even simply cropping, can also be an infringement of copyright and should be avoided. Some images are available under Creative Commons or similar licenses.

5. Use an appropriate search engine

There are several types of search engine available for images: general, including images alongside normal links, e.g. Google; specialised, indexing only images, and sometimes offering value-added services such as suggestions for alternative search terms and scratchpad facilities; metasearch engines, allowing simultaneous searching of several services (be aware however that several engines may use the same source for images and therefore duplicate results); collection-based, which may be very large archives or small very subject-specific collections, including stock photo libraries and community collections like Flickr; and content-based search engines which search for particular shapes or colours; these are still experimental though. For a selection of evaluated links see JISC Digital Media (unfortunately not updated since 2008).

6. Establish reasonable charges

Reproduction fees are normally payable when authors or publishers wish to use images sourced from library materials for publication; however actual fees charged vary widely across institutions. This can lead to lengthy arguments. The V&A Museum is often taken as an example of best practice and may be used as a starting point in establishing appropriate charging levels. Remember that quoted charges will always be maxima; they can always be discounted or waived in particular cases, but not easily exceeded.

7. Be aware of metadata standards

The metadata attached to individual images varies widely in quality and extent; library-based digital collections may have high-quality descriptions with full subject indexing using controlled terms, while community collections may have no more than a single user-assigned tag. Different search strategies are needed to ensure successful retrieval. Many images are embedded within other items such as journal articles, with no specific metadata at all; products such as CSA Illustrata are in development to make these retrievable, but in many cases they can only be identified by manual browsing.

8. Consider archiving implications

Library digital image collections are often the result of funded projects where the long-term storage and retrieval implications have been considered and costed. Ad-hoc collections can however grow over time and become dispersed over various servers without common management. Where such collections are identified it is worth bringing them together so that they can be refreshed and transferred to new media as required, and given common indexing. Sometimes an institutional repository may prove the most secure environment and one that is readily cross-searchable without additional effort.

9. Keep in touch

Imaging is a rapidly-changing field; there are many newsletters and blogs available to help you keep abreast of what is happening and its implications for your subject area, which can help improve your level of service to readers and save you time. Beware though: it is easy to become so fascinated you have no time for anything else!

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