Image Management: Gallery Systems EmbARK

Last updated: 08 October 2007
Published in: Managing your digital resources
Tags: delivery | digital collections | software

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Summary

JISC Digital Media has surveyed a range of image management software developers to gather specific information about their systems. These are the responses from Gallery Systems EmbARK.

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: October 2007

Gallery Systems EmbARK www.gallerysystems.com
We asked the system developer to use 50-100 words to sum up and promote their system to a very broad audience: EmbARK is a user-friendly ImageBase suited for those that need to catalogue detailed information about objects. Advanced search tools allow for complex querying and the report writer provides for flexible layout design. Available in both Windows and Macintosh versions.
Current version	6.0.3
Current version released	2006
Next version due (approx)	November 2007
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
Main users aimed at	Picture Library staff; Creative staff (e.g. illustrators, designers); Marketing staff; Records Managers; Librarians; Archivists; Museum/Gallery professionals; Educators
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?	Proprietary but incorporates open/standard technologies
Complexity	Simple ‘off-the-shelf’ system - anyone can download/load disc and install
Maximum size of the catalogue (e.g. number of records or filesize)	16 million records per table/ filesize 128 GB
Handling of images
Image- object- or workflow-centric?	Object/record-centric - record can have more than one (or no) images associated with it
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: ASCII import with valid file path
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	No editing provided but ability to automatically open image in preferred editing software
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
Print templates
Auditing of who did what/when to image
Other image-related features		EmbARK allows for the creation of a batch script to convert images to Zoomify format for display on the Web.
Handling of metadata
Metadata structure	Relational database structure
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
		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
		Import existing metadata in XML formats
Exporting		Export of metadata in standard delimited formats
		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
		Web browser-based data entry interface
Reporting/auditing		Auditing of who did what and when to the metadata
		Editable templates or scripts for generating reports
Other metadata-related features		EmbARK reads the following metadata: file name, file type, storage size, height/width pixel dimensions, file creation/modification dates, File location. IPTC read/write planned for future version. OAI-PMH data access in development for EmbARK Web Kiosk. Audit trail limited to Record Creation agent and the name of the last Modification agent.
Delivery to users
Web browser-based end-user interface
Customisability of interface		System manager can customise 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)
Interoperability/interaction with other systems
Other significant delivery functionality
Company and support information
Country in which system developers are based	US
Approximately how many UK users are there?	5
UK office, representative or primary reseller	None
Independent user-group for this system?		There is a users listerv (only moderated to prevent mistakenly sent messages).
UK-based training available?		Training is available in the UK via online tools or by purchasing on-site training (daily rate plus travel expenses).
System support		Technical support is available via a per user annual contract ($500 US for Cataloguer/$1000 US for Collections Manager). It includes unlimited assistance via email, phone, fax or using web-based remote access tools.
Other services available		Data migration services are $1000/day (based on a not-to-exceed estimate). However, many users complete data transfer on their own with minimal technical assistance.

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.

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.

Last updated: 08 October 2007
Published in: Managing your digital resources
Tags: delivery | digital collections | software

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