Hi All
I agree with Greg, Sarah and Ben that embedding metadata using IPTC etc is a no-brainer. We did this at the Science Museum from the beginning of our NOF digitisation project in 2001 and I know that whenever those images were viewed on an image management system (eg via photo researchers or publishers) that information travelled with the image and enabled the source to be identified down the line (unless inadvertently stripped out). As you know, IPTC information automatically appears in the relevant IMS fields.
Of course, I would love to know how much of the metadata is/was retained on wider distribution and am very interested in all the good work done on this. But none of this can be an argument against embedding metadata. The more stuff there is out there: the more embedded metadata will be useful/used/vital. SEO needs everything it can get.
This will also be driven by the commercial sector which needs to maximize findability to survive. IMHO - the cultural sector should stay more in touch with what photographers, publishers, news and picture agencies etc are doing. Out there it is survive or die. The commercial world have pioneered the use of IPTC because it performs a useful function.
Unfortunately, the cultural sector has been slow to take this up as often their systems are object-oriented rather than image-oriented and don't have the image distribution functionality common to image management systems.
To ensure 'Best Practice' is performed and enabled, cultural organizations need an image management workflow that takes the up-to-date core object information from the Collection Management System into the IMS before it is disseminated in any way and then ports that information into the image headers. At least then they can be sure that their internal workflows are robust and ensure that information is embedded, regardless of the way they are distributed or downloaded. Otherwise what's the point of all that careful and knowledgeable curation ?
Interesting thread. Thanks for all the useful links.
Angela Murphy
DAM, Image Library and Rights Consultant
Sent from my iPad
> On 5 Jun 2015, at 13:38, Mike Ellis <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> Thanks Stephen for the workflow - that's really useful.
>
> Ditto, thanks Sarah for the very in-depth thoughts about all the background - ditto!
>
> Mike
>
>
>
> _____________________________
>
>
> *Mike Ellis *
>
> Thirty8 Digital: a small but perfectly formed digital agency:http://thirty8.co.uk <http://thirty8.co.uk/>
>
> * My book: http://heritageweb.co.uk <http://heritageweb.co.uk/> *
>
>
>
> Sarah Saunders wrote:
>> Hello Mike
>>
>> Yes, Museums are increasingly adding metadata to images that can be downloaded from the web.
>>
>> I am currently at the IPTC and CEPIC (Image LIbrary) Conferences in Warsaw and what I have seen here has confirmed that the direction of travel for image distribution is very much linked to embedded data and embedded links. I am sitting in a seminar on Cultural Heritage Images where the debate is raging. Here are my thoughts......
>>
>> We know that many museums embed data now (this was not the case some years ago).
>> Attribution is very important. The only practical way at the moment to retain any link between the source of an image and its appearance on the web is through embedded data. (there are other pixel level options, but these have been only possible by paying to belong to a commercial system).
>> The argument that people don't look there is one I have been hearing for many years - along with the original question, what is metadata anyway? I have seen an increased use in metadata among photographers (who are now very copyright aware) and museums, so that it has become an essential part of the professional workflow. We were right not to give up when people said 'no-one will enter data anyway' and developments now will support those institutions and creators who embed data in images for wider distribution.
>> Museums want to make their images available to the public, but also value the data associated with the image, both attribution and informative. Without this data, an image can become completely meaningless.
>> The effort to increase access to images goes hand in hand with the need for accompanying metadata. We know that images pass from one site to another and lose their context and data. But the question is, should museums work in the direction of attribution and information or simply throw their hands up because the technical web community for reasons of their own (often outdated ones) decide to strip data.
>> At IPTC we are calling on software providers of all types to support the use of XMP data. Even now we know that some limited data is viewable at system level information. This is better than nothing.
>> The public is curious. We can give them tools which make use of embedded data, for example a too that creates a powerpoint with data extracted from the XMP data. This can be useful to teachers and other interested in the content. (see my blog links below)
>> There are challenges to the very notion of copyright which the creative industries are responding to with solutions which will make licensing of all kinds (including CC) more user friendly and automated. The Copyright Hub and other collaborators ( RDI, PLUS, and others) are building systems that will provide licensing and copyright information via an embedded link .
>> It is very important that the web community comes to understand the importance that embedded data has in the creative image community. Images form the greater part of web content, and without the input of those who curate and organise images the web would lose much of its richness. The very idea of a museum is based on some kind of curation. On the web, that means valuing the 'label' on the photographed object and the image of it.
>> The professional image community and the pubic image creating community are very linked.The pubic is increasingly aware of data and privacy issues, and this will work its way into an increased awareness of the importance of copyright - ie a person's right to control use of their own images.
>> It is maybe not in the interests of Google and social media sites to retain attribution, as they make large amounts of money by using other people's content on their sites. However, along the lines of the statement 'the answer to the machine is in the machine' (Charles Clark), there is a growing movement, supported by the UK Government in the form of the Copyright Hub, that will demonstrate the global practicability of sharing data and income from creative content more evenly (perhaps enabled also by the social media sites).
>> There are some side issues around image recognition and digital fingerprinting, but the most likely scenario for tracking, licensing and information on web images will be a mix of methods, including the use of distributed registries and ID's
>> Finally, allowing images to circulate without attribution clearly damages the efforts of cultural institutions to make an income stream from images. This is for many museums essential to the continuation of their resource for the public.
>>
>>
>> Please reads my blogs on the issue (which include a link to the powerpoint utility which is free to download and use)
>>
>> http://electriclane.blogspot.com/2013/09/data-exchange-in-heritage-why-we-need.html
>>
>> http://electriclane.blogspot.com/2014/01/sunflower-launch-to-iptcscrem.html
>>
>> Mike I would be very happy to talk further on these things. Do get in touch.
>>
>> Sarah
>>
>>
>>
>>> On 4 Jun 2015, at 11:33, Mike Ellis wrote:
>>>
>>> Hi all
>>>
>>> Does anyone bother embedding museumy IPTC / EXIF data into (collections) images as part of their digitisation workflow?
>>>
>>> If so, why? I'd suspect that a "so that people knew where the image came from" reason may be one - but in reality do people actually _know_ about this data in order to get back to the source organisation? Or are tools like Google "upload an image" search or TinEye actually more used?
>>>
>>> Also - given that there is evidence that almost all social media sites strip out some or all of this data, is it still worthwhile? (http://www.controlledvocabulary.com/socialmedia/)
>>>
>>> cheers!
>>>
>>> Mike
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> _____________________________
>>>
>>>
>>> *Mike Ellis *
>>>
>>> Thirty8 Digital: a small but perfectly formed digital agency:http://thirty8.co.uk<http://thirty8.co.uk/>
>>>
>>> * My book: http://heritageweb.co.uk<http://heritageweb.co.uk/> *
>>>
>>>
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>>
>> Electric Lane
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>> +44(0)7941316714
>> +44(0)207607 1415
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