DAM approach for small photography agency

[paull]

Hi, I hope this question is in the right place.

I have just started a new job managing the office of a small photographic agency and one of the tasks is to review and hopefully improve the archiving and cataloguing of photos. I've ordered The DAM book, but I was just hoping to get any thoughts as to the best approach.

We currently have roughly 8TB of images stored on network drives. They are basically stored in folders based on dates taken and subject. There is 1 iMac that has Mediadex on it, but the catalogues have become basically useless as files have been moved. In the past when more storage has been added files have been moved so that each drive is either for sport or news/pr, but I would like to be able to just add storage without having to rearrange anything. Each of the 5 others in the office have laptops to access the network drives, but no cataloguing software, they have to search for archived images by using the folder system and then using photo mechanic to browse.

There is also an issue with the amount of information that the files are tagged with. The best images for any job are fully tagged, but a certain proportion are only tagged with basic information, e.g. for a sporting event, the date and teams. I presume this will make cataloguing more complicated.

There is currently only one backup on external drives offsite, so I will be making another full backup next week. I would be grateful for suggestions of the best way to make a verified backup on external USB drives. Once I am sure that we have 2 full backups, then I will start looking at cataloguing and perhaps rearranging the way we store images. My problem is that there is an awful lot of current data and I am not sure what approach to take.

Many thanks in advance for any thoughts you have.

Paul

 

[Roelof]

In advance of reading the book you could take a look at dpbestflow: http://www.dpbestflow.org/
You will find a lot of the best practices from the book to start with.
Roelof

[paull]

Thanks, Roelof. I have had a scan through some of the pages on there and it looks like a really useful resource.

Hopefully the book will help me to devise a strategy. Does it cover approaches for dealing with a large existing archive, or is it mainly focused on setting a strategy going forward?

I would also be curious if anyone has experience of a multi-user set up in a small office like this. The multi-user software I have seen seems to be very expensive.

Thanks again

Paul

[Roelof]

Paull,

The book covers data migration, one whole chapter (12) is devoted to this topic. Additional questions can be asked in this forum of course 
Multi user setup however is not extensively covered because Lightroom, Expression Media, Bridge (the applications that are covered in the book) are single user applications. However there are opportunities to use them in a multi user environment with the right process.

Roelof

[rdonahue]

We use Canto Cumulus, running over an archive about 7TB, growing daily as we migrate material to the central asset store and shoot new materials.

Its a good counterpart to Extensis Portfolio.  We chose it over portfolio because of good server support for Solaris and Linux, which was a requirement for our infrastructure.

Considering photography is your business, proceed with caution!

-Good Luck!
Ryan