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		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)	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		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: Via FTP or upload tool provided free (Mac and Windows), plugin for Adobe Creative Suite
File formats supported		RAW formats
		DNG
		TIFF
		JPEG
		GIF
		PNG
		JPEG2000
		PSD
		PDF
		EPS
		Flash (Supported via separate plug-ins)
		SVG (Supported via separate plug-ins)
		Audio formats
		Video formats
Where can images be located?	Must be held within the system itself or a designated folder/location
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 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		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		ICC transformations, resizing, cropping and converting between formats, and DPI adjustments
Print templates
Auditing of who did what/when to image
Other image-related features		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		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		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
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) - Shibboleth support is in development. OpenID and Active Directory, LDAP support available including support for groups.
		Built-in Digital Rights Management technology (e.g. watermarking)
Interoperability/interaction with other systems
Other significant delivery functionality		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?
UK-based training available?		On-site training based on fixed rate anywhere in United Kingdom. Overseas training available with expenses
System support		Free email support, telephone support option for corporate clients
Other services available		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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