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Image Management: iBase Online Library and Asset Management

Last updated: 21 December 2009
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 iBase Online Library and Asset Management.

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: December 2009

iBase Online Library and Asset Management www.ibase.com
We asked the system developer to use 50-100 words to sum up and promote their system to a very broad audience: iBase Online Library is a professional digital media asset system for creating commercial picture libraries on the web, or presenting and distributing digital assets to authorised users on an organisation's intranet. It stores and displays not only images, but also video and sound clips; Microsoft Office documents; PDFs, etc; or any standard file format. It can be used on the web, or an intranet, or even on both at the same time with different sets of content on each - from the same source database. A demonstration iBase Online Library is available and other examples are at www.ibase.com/examples
Current version	6
Current version released	September 2009
Next version due (approx)	September 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
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
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	Configurable by either the vendor or system administrator
Maximum size of the catalogue (e.g. number of records or filesize)	Unlimited records and file sizes
Handling of images
Image- object- or workflow-centric?	iBase products are configurable as image-centric, and record-centric, and project-centric. The database schema is entirely configurable
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:
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 on or offline (i.e. system keeps record of offline storage such as CD-ROMs)
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	Basic editing provided by system
Image editing provision	Can be configured to apply changes to copies or to originals as required
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
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
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		REST (Representational State Transfer) server available for federated searching
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)
Interoperability/interaction with other systems
Other significant delivery functionality		Visible watermarking - text or graphic - can be applied to all or any of the surrogate images displayed. The size, transparency and position of a watermark on the image are globally configurable. REST Server available for federated searching.
Company and support information
Country in which system developers are based	UK
Approximately how many UK users are there?	Not known
UK office, representative or primary reseller	iBase Media Services Ltd Marsel House Stephensons Way Ilkley West Yorkshire LS29 8DD sales@ibase.com +44(0)1943 603 636 www.ibase.com
Independent user-group for this system?
UK-based training available?		Training is delivered on site, enabling the exact configuration of iBase Manager to be used. Cost is included within overall implementation price.
System support		Support is offered with a service level agreement (SLA) or in response to ad-hoc requests. An SLA is typically renewable at intervals of 1 year and includes: "A standard response target of 4 hours maximum; Automatic escalation of reports of a more serious nature, and the fastest possible response; Preventative support services; Free software revision updates and heavily discounted version upgrades; Regular contact from iBase; Priority response to reports; 24/7/365 support if required; Automatic notification of matters of interest." Annual SLA charges are usually 15% of the implementation price.
Other services available		Data migration - price on application Hosting - price on application Managed services - price on application

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: 21 December 2009
Published in: Managing your digital resources |
Tags: delivery | digital collections | software |

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