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Image Management: Third Light Image Management System (IMS)

Last updated: 18 March 2010
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 Third Light Image Management System (IMS).

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: March 2010

Third Light Image Management System (IMS)

www.thirdlight.com

We asked the system developer to use 50-100 words to sum up and promote their system to a very broad audience:

Third Light IMS is a digital asset management system, designed for businesses to establish a central library to store,  display, search and share digital media.  IMS has been widely deployed by businesses small and large around the world. Our software has a highly refined, easy-to-use web interface built with professional users in mind. IMS is available either hosted,  or to install locally.
Current version 5.9.9
Current version released March 2010
Next version due (approx) Bi-monthly software updates
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;  Librarians; Archivists; Museum/Gallery professionals; Educators; Scientific researchers; Humanities or Social Science researchers; Medical professionals; Agencies and internet services suppliers
Type of system tick icon, yes Folder viewer/image browser
tick icon, yes Web gallery system
tick icon, yes Image/photo management system
tick icon, yes Digital asset management system (DAM)
cross icon, no Musem/gallery/library/achive collection management system
cross icon, no Virtual learning environment (VLE)
cross icon, no Content management system (CMS)
tick icon, yes Digital repository system
tick icon, yes 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) Up to terabytes, millions of assets. Can be clustered.

Handling of images

Image- object- or workflow-centric? Project/workflow-centric - different versions of an image are kept and grouped together
Adding images to system cross icon, no Captures images directly from a scanner from within the system
cross icon, no Captures images directly from a tethered camera from within the system
tick icon, yes ‘Drag and drop’ into system
cross icon, no Scans a computer for new images
cross icon, no Scans external drives/memory devices for new images
cross icon, no Scans network servers for new images
tick icon, yes Sets up automatically ‘watched’ folders
cross icon, no Keeps system and folders in ‘sync’
tick icon, yes Other: Via FTP or upload tool provided free (Mac and Windows), plugin for Adobe Creative Suite
File formats supported tick icon, yes RAW formats
tick icon, yes DNG
tick icon, yes TIFF
tick icon, yes JPEG
tick icon, yes GIF
tick icon, yes PNG
tick icon, yes JPEG2000
tick icon, yes PSD
tick icon, yes PDF
tick icon, yes EPS
tick icon, yes Flash (Supported via separate plug-ins)
tick icon, yes SVG (Supported via separate plug-ins)
tick icon, yes Audio formats
tick icon, yes Video formats
Where can images be located? Must be held within the system itself or a designated folder/location
Image management tick icon, yes Ability to manage original image files (e.g. move, copy, rename or delete) from within the system
tick icon, yes Ability to organise images into virtual ‘folders’, ‘galleries’ or ‘categories’ to aid management and retrieval
tick icon, yes Image versioning
tick icon, yes Rating system (e.g. star or numbers for best images)
tick icon, yes Automatic generation of thumbnails and preview images
tick icon, yes Ability to zoom image to 100% (full size) within data entry interface
Image editing provision Basic editing provided by system along with ability to automatically open image in specialist editing software
Edits are stored and applied when user decides or image is copied or exported
Specific image editing functions tick icon, yes Resizing
tick icon, yes Rotating
tick icon, yes Cropping
cross icon, no Sharpening
cross icon, no Red-eye removal
cross icon, no Dust/noise removal
cross icon, no Brightness and contrast adjustments
cross icon, no Levels adjustments
cross icon, no Curves adjustments
tick icon, yes Support for ICC colour management
cross icon, no Creative filters
Other significant editing functions tick icon, yes ICC transformations, resizing, cropping and converting between formats, and DPI adjustments
Print templates tick icon, yes  
Auditing of who did what/when to image tick icon, yes  
Other image-related features tick icon, yes Annotation tools, GPS mapping of geotagged images, customisable templates for download sizes (wizard tool), duplicate image detection based on automated analysis

Handling of metadata

Metadata structure XML-based system
Customising fields tick icon, yes Add new catalogue fields
tick icon, yes Delete catalogue fields
tick icon, yes Hide catalogue fields from data entry interface
tick icon, yes Re-label catalogue fields
tick icon, yes Re-order catalogue fields
Time saving features tick icon, yes Set up templates or defaults
tick icon, yes Clone or duplicate records
tick icon, yes Automatically catalogue images upon import
tick icon, yes Batch edit metadata
tick icon, yes Global find and replace
Controlled vocabularies tick icon, yes Create drop-down pick-lists
cross icon, no Support for theasauri (with broader and narrower terms)
Spell-checking/validation cross icon, no Spell-checking
tick icon, yes Validation of terminology

tick icon, yes

Validation of dates and numbers
Support for UNICODE (non-Latin characters) tick icon, yes  
Importing tick icon, yes Import existing metadata in standard delimited formats
tick icon, yes Import existing metadata in XML formats
Exporting tick icon, yes Export of metadata in standard delimited formats
tick icon, yes Export of metadata in XML formats
Metadata interoperability (e.g. metadata harvesting, cross-searching) cross icon, no Automatic exposure of metadata as OAI-PMH data
cross icon, no Support for Z39.50 searching
tick icon, yes Support for search scripts
Embedded metadata support tick icon, yes Read IPTC metadata from within the image file
tick icon, yes Read EXIF metadata from within the image file
tick icon, yes Read XMP data
cross icon, no Read other metadata from within the image file
tick icon, yes Write IPTC metadata into image file
tick icon, yes Edit EXIF metadata
tick icon, yes Write XMP data
cross icon, no Write other metadata
Data-entry interface cross icon, no Client-based/program-based data entry interface
tick icon, yes Web browser-based data entry interface
Reporting/auditing tick icon, yes Auditing of who did what and when to the metadata
cross icon, no Editable templates or scripts for generating reports
Other metadata-related features tick icon, yes Ability to mark images with upload date /  time, owner and optional expiry or embargo dates. Searchable metadata-like fields combine with any form of meta data to create a “Smart Folder” system. This is used for storing searches, which are presented in folder-like format and update automatically. RSS feeds can be tied to Smart Folders to syndicate metadata searches.

Delivery to users

Web browser-based end-user interface tick icon, yes  
Customisability of interface tick icon, yes System manager can customise interface
tick icon, yes End-user can customise their view of interface
Publishing of images cross icon, no Publish as static gallery to Web
tick icon, yes Publish as dynamic searchable Web catalogue
cross icon, no Publish to CD-ROM
tick icon, yes Email images from system
Search/browse features tick icon, yes Browse collection by categories
tick icon, yes Search the collection
cross icon, no Search via thesaurus
tick icon, yes Advanced search features (e.g. Boolean logic, wildcard or ‘sounds like’ searching)
cross icon, no Content-based image retrieval (CBIR)
Zooming functionality tick icon, yes  
User interaction tick icon, yes Users can ‘bookmark’ or store images
tick icon, yes Users can annotate bookmarked images
tick icon, yes Users can upload their own images to the system
tick icon, yes Users can create slide shows
Security/Digital Rights Management (DRM) tick icon, yes Access control based on roles or profiles
tick icon, yes Access control based on individual usernames and passwords
tick icon, yes Compatibility with standard educational authentication services (e.g. Athens or Shibboleth) - Shibboleth support is in development. OpenID and Active Directory, LDAP support available including support for groups.
tick icon, yes Built-in Digital Rights Management technology (e.g. watermarking)
Interoperability/interaction with other systems cross icon, no  
Other significant delivery functionality tick icon, yes Web interface is templated and re-programmable. Provides a workflow environment for upload and download processes, to ensure that users provide required metadata before passing files through nominated approvers.  Includes printing and digital download sales systems with supplier channels in UK, EU and USA.

Company and support information

Country in which system developers are based England
Approximately how many UK users are there? 750
UK office, representative or primary reseller Third light Ltd
St Johns Innovation Centre
Cowley Road
Cambridge
CB24 0WS
Independent user-group for this system? cross icon, no  
UK-based training available? tick icon, yes On-site training based on fixed rate anywhere in United Kingdom. Overseas training available with expenses
System support tick icon, yes Free email support, telephone support option for corporate clients
Other services available tick icon, yes Free data migration. Customisation, advanced migration, installation and integration services based on day rate. For case studies, including a wide range of education users in the UK, please see Third Light Case Studies.

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: 18 March 2010
Published in: Managing your digital resources
Tags: delivery | digital collections | software

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