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Asset Management: The Digital Asset Lab MediaFiler

Last updated: 28 April 2010
Published in: Managing your digital resources |
Tags: delivery | digital collections | software |

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JISC Digital Media has surveyed a range of image management software developers to gather specific information about their systems. These are the responses from The Digital Asset Lab MediaFiler.

Please note: The following information has been provided by the system developer/vendor in answer to a detailed survey carried out by JISC Digital Media, but has not been independently verified. It is provided to help you identify systems to evaluate in more detail, but you are advised to check with the system developer/vendor to see if the system has changed or there are later versions available.

There are a wide range of different image management systems available. To help identify those most suitable, we would recommend you also look at our introductory papers on Systems for Managing Digital Media Collections and Choosing a System for Managing your Image Collection.

To compare this system's features with those of others, please see the full list of systems who have responded to our survey on the Image Management Software page.

Information supplied: April 2010

The Digital Asset Lab MediaFiler www.mediafiler.nl and www.thedigitalassetlab.com
We asked the system developer to use 50-100 words to sum up and promote their system to a very broad audience: MediaFiler is an easy to use, proven DAM system; providing archiving, searching, viewing, selling and the distribution of images, video, PDFs, documents, presentations etc., All users comment on MediaFiler’s lightning speed. It is very fast. Accessed via the web, user experience is further enhanced by it’s intuitive simplicity, making it ideal for all public facing libraries as it reduces user support calls. MediaFiler is an enterprise platform, licensed by volume of assets held, therefore inexpensive to start building a future proof library. Buy MediaFiler to install on Windows, Linux / Unix or select a range of hosting & managed solutions.
Current version	4
Current version released	2010
Next version due (approx)	2010
Main sectors aimed at	Corporate or professional (private sector); Government (public sector); Primary or Secondary education; Further or Higher (Tertiary) education; Charitable/not-for-profit; Publishing, Advertising & Design, Heritage, Manufacturing
Main users aimed at	Professional photographers; Picture Library staff; Creative staff (e.g. illustrators, designers); Marketing staff; Records Managers; Librarians; Archivists; Museum/Gallery professionals; Educators; Scientific researchers; Humanities or Social Science researchers; Medical professionals; System integrators, Web designers
Type of system		Folder viewer/image browser
		Web gallery system
		Image/photo management system
		Digital asset management system (DAM)
		Musem/gallery/library/achive collection management system
		Virtual learning environment (VLE)
		Content management system (CMS)
		Digital repository system
		Digital library system
Open-source/Proprietary?	Completely open source
Complexity	Complex 'off-the-shelf' system - will require IT or programming expertise to install and set up
Maximum size of the catalogue (e.g. number of records or filesize)	Unlimited
Handling of images
Image- object- or workflow-centric?	Image-centric - seperate record for each image
Adding images to system		Captures images directly from a scanner from within the system
		Captures images directly from a tethered camera from within the system
		'Drag and drop' into system
		Scans a computer for new images
		Scans external drives/memory devices for new images
		Scans network servers for new images
		Sets up automatically 'watched' folders
		Keeps system and folders in 'sync'
		Other: High speed upload, Single, Zip, folder and batch upload via any web browser
File formats supported		RAW formats
		DNG
		TIFF
		JPEG
		GIF
		PNG
		JPEG2000
		PSD
		PDF
		EPS
		Flash
		SVG
		Audio formats
		Video formats
Where can images be located?	Can be anywhere online (i.e. locally or on networked server)
Image management		Ability to manage original image files (e.g. move, copy, rename or delete) from within the system
		Ability to organise images into virtual 'folders', 'galleries' or 'categories' to aid management and retrieval
		Image versioning
		Rating system (e.g. star or numbers for best images)
		Automatic generation of thumbnails and preview images
		Ability to zoom image to 100% (full size) within data entry interface
Image editing provision	Automated colour enhancement, resizing and drag & drop into editing software
Image editing provision	Selectable option for whether edits are made to originals or copies
Specific image editing functions		Resizing
		Rotating
		Cropping
		Sharpening
		Red-eye removal
		Dust/noise removal
		Brightness and contrast adjustments
		Levels adjustments
		Curves adjustments
		Support for ICC colour management
		Creative filters
Other significant editing functions		Automatic individual image analysis and enhancement module available.
Print templates
Auditing of who did what/when to image
Other image-related features		Batch processing, automated workflows & filters for image conversion, RAW images with JPEG previews and shadow archives for RAW images.
Handling of metadata
Metadata structure	Metadata is (soley or mostly) held within images themselves
Customising fields		Add new catalogue fields
		Delete catalogue fields
		Hide catalogue fields from data entry interface
		Re-label catalogue fields
		Re-order catalogue fields
Time saving features		Set up templates or defaults
		Clone or duplicate records
		Automatically catalogue images upon import
		Batch edit metadata
		Global find and replace
Controlled vocabularies		Create drop-down pick-lists
Controlled vocabularies		Support for theasauri (with broader and narrower terms)
Spell-checking/validation		Spell-checking
		Validation of terminology
		Validation of dates and numbers
Support for UNICODE (non-Latin characters)
Importing		Import existing metadata in standard delimited formats
Importing		Import existing metadata in XML formats
Exporting		Export of metadata in standard delimited formats
Exporting		Export of metadata in XML formats
Metadata interoperability (e.g. metadata harvesting, cross-searching)		Automatic exposure of metadata as OAI-PMH data
		Support for Z39.50 searching
		Support for search scripts
Embedded metadata support		Read IPTC metadata from within the image file
		Read EXIF metadata from within the image file
		Read XMP data
		Read other metadata from within the image file
		Write IPTC metadata into image file
		Edit EXIF metadata
		Write XMP data
		Write other metadata
Data-entry interface		Client-based/program-based data entry interface
Data-entry interface		Web browser-based data entry interface
Reporting/auditing		Auditing of who did what and when to the metadata
Reporting/auditing		Editable templates or scripts for generating reports
Other metadata-related features		Ability to view every metadata record associated with the file ( both XMP and IPTC), to add / build extensive complex search queries and supports 'Open Search' queries. Matches IPTC and XMP metadata.
Delivery to users
Web browser-based end-user interface
Customisability of interface		System manager can customise interface
Customisability of interface		End-user can customise their view of interface
Publishing of images		Publish as static gallery to Web
		Publish as dynamic searchable Web catalogue
		Publish to CD-ROM
		Email images from system
Search/browse features		Browse collection by categories
		Search the collection
		Search via thesaurus
		Advanced search features (e.g. Boolean logic, wildcard or 'sounds like' searching)
		Content-based image retrieval (CBIR)
Zooming functionality
User interaction		Users can 'bookmark' or store images
		Users can annotate bookmarked images
		Users can upload their own images to the system
		Users can create slide shows
Security/Digital Rights Management (DRM)		Access control based on roles or profiles
		Access control based on individual usernames and passwords
		Compatibility with standard educational authentication services (e.g. Athens or Shibboleth)
		Built-in Digital Rights Management technology (e.g. watermarking). Automated addition of watermarks dependent on rights or users.
Interoperability/interaction with other systems
Other significant delivery functionality		MediaFiler links to powerful software to automate image enhancement / conversion, file management, file distribution and e-commerce. Full DRM features, usage approval, keyword triggers, link individual images / or a selection "albums" via download link to press releases or web pages. Automatic browser scaling for ease of use. RSS feed. Individual or Zip download. Multiple download sizes. Streaming server for video. Discussion forum 'notes' linked to images, automatic weighting based on user popularity and also separate user rating.
Company and support information
Country in which system developers are based	The Netherlands/UK
Approximately how many UK users are there?	Not permitted to disclose
UK office, representative or primary reseller	Alastair McDavid The Digital Asset Lab The Research Centre Church Lane Edith Weston Oakham Rutland LE15 8EY admin@thedigitalassetlab.com
Independent user-group for this system?
UK-based training available?		Additional training is tailored directly to meet users requirements and priced accordingly.
System support		Full support available through both The Digital Asset Lab and MediaFiler and priced accordingly.
Other services available		"The team at The Digital Asset Lab provide a comprehensive range of services to deliver the right system configuration and get you up and running fast mindful that cost will always be a factor. From initial consultation, installation, data migration, working with you sorting out your existing mountain of files and uploading them into the library, key wording and captioning. We're here to help make your move to a DAM system easy. Naturally we offer full training of both your IT and user team. We can offer trial libraries for you to test. We provide fully hosted and managed media libraries or you can start with a hosted service and then move it in-house."

Please note: The above information has been provided by the system developer/vendor in answer to a detailed survey carried out by JISC Digital Media, but has not been independently verified. It is provided to help you identify systems to evaluate in more detail, but you are advised to check with the system developer/vendor to see if the system has changed or there are later versions available.

To compare this system's features with those of others, please see the full list of systems who have responded to our survey on the Image Management Software page.

Last updated: 28 April 2010
Published in: Managing your digital resources |
Tags: delivery | digital collections | software |

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