[MCN-L] Mac vs. PC
Drury, Rich is right. You wont have any real troubles, unless youre working with something exotic. Most of the issues are only user related. Be sure to have your imaging and color management performed on a Mac (for a bunch of reasons) but with some common sense workflow decisions everything will be fine. And if your doing any in-house printing, you'll like that better on a Mac too. My personal opinion is that most mac users I have worked with are somewhat more self sufficient than the PC users and can handle the smaller issues before they become bigger issues and need an IT person to assist. Please dont start a string with that :) jeff Jeffrey Evans Photographer, Digital Imaging Specialist Princeton University Art Museum 609.258.8579 www.princetonartmuseum.org On Jun 24, 2009, at 3:01 PM, Drury Wellford wrote: Thank you Rich. This is one of the answers I really wanted to get as we are already heading in this unfortunate direction! Ann Drury Wellford Photo Services Manager The Museum of the Confederacy 1201 East Clay Street Richmond, VA 23219 Phone: (804) 649-1861 x17 Fax: (804) 644-7150 www.moc.org -Original Message- From: mcn-l-bounces at mcn.edu [mailto:mcn-l-bounces at mcn.edu] On Behalf Of Rich Cherry Sent: Wednesday, June 24, 2009 1:51 PM To: Museum Computer Network Listserv Subject: Re: [MCN-L] Mac vs. PC Drury, Like many technology questions this has very little to do with the technology (although many will claim otherwise), it has to do with the religion the IT department practices. If an IT department has a strong MAC person then it's fairly easy to integrate and use without issues, if the IT department is ambivalent or hostile to MAC then it depends on the status of the requester in the institution on how good they are supported (sometimes outside support is contracted). So when I was CIO in a museum with no MAC person we resisted, when I was at a museum where I could hire a great MAC support person we supported and expanded it and our users benefited from the diversity. Rich -Original Message- From: mcn-l-bounces at mcn.edu [mailto:mcn-l-bounces at mcn.edu] On Behalf Of Drury Wellford Sent: Wednesday, June 24, 2009 9:23 AM To: Museum Computer Network Listserv Subject: [MCN-L] Mac vs. PC Help! The Museum of the Confederacy is seeking advice from fellow museum professionals. We are starting a digitization project, and are beginning by scanning over 6000 original photographs we have in our collection. We are looking at buying a 24 iMac, but are now addressing concerns about whether Mac software will be compatible with the museum's PC-based server, and whether we will be able to integrate Mac image files with our PC-based Collections databases. We plan to store the images on an external hard drive as well, but again are wondering how difficult it will be to retrieve the images and use them on PC software. Any suggestions? Thanks a lot, and sorry if this question is a repeat of one that has been asked of the listserv a million times before. Drury Wellford Ann Drury Wellford Photo Services Manager The Museum of the Confederacy 1201 East Clay Street Richmond, VA 23219 Phone: (804) 649-1861 x17 Fax: (804) 644-7150 www.moc.org ___ You are currently subscribed to mcn-l, the listserv of the Museum Computer Network (http://www.mcn.edu) To post to this list, send messages to: mcn-l at mcn.edu To unsubscribe or change mcn-l delivery options visit: http://toronto.mediatrope.com/mailman/listinfo/mcn-l The MCN-L archives can be found at: http://toronto.mediatrope.com/pipermail/mcn-l/ No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 8.5.339 / Virus Database: 270.12.88/2196 - Release Date: 06/24/09 12:49:00 ___ You are currently subscribed to mcn-l, the listserv of the Museum Computer Network (http://www.mcn.edu) To post to this list, send messages to: mcn-l at mcn.edu To unsubscribe or change mcn-l delivery options visit: http://toronto.mediatrope.com/mailman/listinfo/mcn-l The MCN-L archives can be found at: http://toronto.mediatrope.com/pipermail/mcn-l/ ___ You are currently subscribed to mcn-l, the listserv of the Museum Computer Network (http://www.mcn.edu) To post to this list, send messages to: mcn-l at mcn.edu To unsubscribe or change mcn-l delivery options visit: http://toronto.mediatrope.com/mailman/listinfo/mcn-l The MCN-L archives can be found at: http://toronto.mediatrope.com/pipermail/mcn-l/ ___ You are currently subscribed to mcn-l, the listserv of the Museum Computer Network (http://www.mcn.edu) To post to this list, send messages to: mcn-l at mcn.edu To unsubscribe or change mcn-l delivery options
[MCN-L] photography, digitization, and a color/grey card?
With apologies to Eve, please consider the following: Regarding the second part of her email; If your budget allows you to use a good commercial printer who has printed art publications before, you will have exceptional results from an entirely digital workflow. True, we rarely see press-proofs any more, but that is due to the fact that color seps and printers have been able to produce very accurate guide proofs from newer generation studio printers. Capture software as well as CMYK printing is moving forward very quickly and at this point has surpassed film, allowing us to control color and ink densities like never before. Image quality control is far more ?in front of the curtain? now as we all see the images immediately at every point of the workflow. In some cases your printer may provide on-line services, allowing you to soft proof images and make edits on the fly (all before you go on press for quality control.) JEFF Jeffrey Evans Digital Imaging Specialist Princeton University Art Museum 609.258.8579 On 10/28/08 6:30 PM, Eve Sinaiko esinaiko at collegeart.org wrote: Imperfect as a color bar or grayscale may be, I would put in an ardent plea for their inclusion in all digital scans, whether of old rescanned transparencies or new scans of artworks. I speak on behalf of the publishers and printers who have been left with no visual cues to guide color correction on press. The quality of color printing from digital scans fluctuates wildly because the skilled eyes of editors and book designers have no guide. However good the embedded digital information may be, there is no substitute for looking at a color bar and grayscale to see if the press proof is running too warm or cold, too contrasty, or too saturated. Not to mention that digital presses are calibrated as variably as computer monitors, and most printers use standard settings. Every art publisher I know is deeply unhappy with the shift from transparencies to digital scans for this reason. We may love the financial savings in using digital files of art images at the design and layout stage, but we have completely lost control of the color process, and are dependent on the guesswork of printers. To be clear: The grayscale and color bar are normally not guides for the printer but for the editor and/or designer who checks the proofs. The color correction is made by them, and the printer follows those directions. Printers typically do not consult the color bar or grayscale, as they use their own standard settings at the proof stage. Comparison of a color proof with the original artwork is a vanished concept. Today's production budgets, schedules, and methods have done away with that step, except perhaps within a museum's own publication program. The digital scans made of artworks by museums are used not only internally, but also by myriad outside publishers. I will dodge the interesting but unresolvable question of what publishers mean by accurate color printing. To quote Justice Potter Stewart in another context, we know it when we see it. Regards, Eve Sinaiko Director of Publications College Art Association ___ You are currently subscribed to mcn-l, the listserv of the Museum Computer Network (http://www.mcn.edu) To post to this list, send messages to: mcn-l at mcn.edu To unsubscribe or change mcn-l delivery options visit: http://toronto.mediatrope.com/mailman/listinfo/mcn-l
[MCN-L] photography, digitization, and a color/grey card?
I read these fast, so I might have missed it, but no one is mentioning CMYK printing. That is what all this is about. If you're working with a good printer, especially one who reproduces fine art images on a regular basis, your color workflow will be guided by them. Color scales in the film will help you with selecting the best exposure as well as creating a balanced scan. Color targets in direct capture images will assist the software in creating a balanced image. Both targets matter to the color separator who is converting your file to CMYK. And, if your workflow allows it, you are hard proofing the CMYK print against the actual work under controlled lighting conditions. JEFF Jeffrey Evans Digital Imaging Specialist Princeton University Art Museum 609.258.8579 On 10/20/08 10:15 PM, Thiel, Sarah Goodwin sgthiel at ku.edu wrote: nicely put. -Original Message- From: mcn-l-bounces at mcn.edu on behalf of Stanley Smith Sent: Mon 10/20/2008 4:44 PM To: mcn-l at mcn.edu Subject: Re: [MCN-L] photography, digitization, and a color/grey card? A couple of comments regarding the use of grayscale and color bars: - due to differences between dyes and/or pigments used to make the color bars and the materials used to produce the actual artwork, accurately rendering the grayscales in a particular image may NOT produce the most accurate rendition of the artwork itself. - If there is some visual editing to tweak color into place (hopefully under calibrated viewing conditions with direct comparisons to the original artwork), then another operator who may be printing the image later will most likely UNDO those edits if they assume that the image is rendered correctly by printing a neutral grayscale. - There is some interest in the production of virtual grayscales and color bars. These would be digitally dropped into the edited and color corrected image with the same colorspace as the original image. Then other users would achieve better color when they match the grayscale and color bars. - If it is your decision to incorporate grayscales and color bars, then it is really not good practice to only do it once for a batch. It is too difficult to mate up the correct grayscales with subsequent images-- especially years hence. Put them in every image. Stanley Smith Manager, Imaging Services J. Paul Getty Museum 1200 Getty Center Drive, Suite 1000 Los Angeles, CA 90049-1687 (310) 440-7286 mcn-l-request at mcn.edu 10/15/2008 12:00 PM Send mcn-l mailing list submissions to mcn-l at mcn.edu To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit http://toronto.mediatrope.com/mailman/listinfo/mcn-l or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to mcn-l-request at mcn.edu You can reach the person managing the list at mcn-l-owner at mcn.edu When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific than Re: Contents of mcn-l digest... Today's Topics: 1. photography, digitization, and a color/grey card? (Jansonius, Remko (Vizcaya)) 2. Re: photography, digitization, and a color/grey card? (Frank E. Thomson) 3. Re: photography, digitization, and a color/grey card? (Tim Atherton) 4. Re: photography, digitization, and a color/grey card? (Nilsen, Dianne) 5. IP SIG: No fair use for thumbnails in Germany (akeshet at imj.org.il) 6. IP SIG: McCain-Palin, DMCA, YouTube, and Fair Use (akeshet at imj.org.il) 7. Re: photography, digitization, and a color/grey card? (Genevieve De mahy) 8. Digitization - definition and strategic planning (Diane M. Zorich) 9. free ftp software? (Jansonius, Remko (Vizcaya)) 10. Re: free ftp software? (Edwards, Chris) 11. Re: free ftp software? (Daniel M. Bartolini) 12. Re: free ftp software? (Elizabeth Bruton) 13. Re: free ftp software? (Tracy Davenport) 14. Re: free ftp software? (Melissa Johnson) 15. The Museum System on Mac via VMWare Fusion (Jeff Evans) 16. Re: free ftp software? (Perian Sully) -- Message: 1 Date: Tue, 14 Oct 2008 17:04:21 -0400 From: Jansonius, Remko (Vizcaya) remko.jansonius at vizcayamuseum.org Subject: [MCN-L] photography, digitization, and a color/grey card? To: mcn-l at mcn.edu Message-ID: 9C2785C9A3152441B3AAC2E03346BC4C039C0AD3 at s0141136.miamidade.gov Content-Type: text/plain;charset=us-ascii Dear Colleagues, We are about to digitize a collection of photo albums containing 1910s/20s photographs; while they are black and white, many have discolored and turned sepia over the years. Since these are fragile, bound volumes we will be doing this through photography rather than scanning. Would you say it is necessary or advisable or standard practice to use a color card or a grey card during this process? As always, I greatly appreciate y'all's
[MCN-L] The Museum System on Mac via VMWare Fusion
Hi ? Is anyone running TMS on an new Intel Mac via VMWare Fusion? Pros and cons? Likes and dislikes? JEFF Jeffrey Evans Digital Imaging Specialist Princeton University Art Museum 609.258.8579
[MCN-L] managing digital files
HI Garry, you may want to look at the workflow going the other way. When individual users take their pics off the cameras, they upload them to an asset manager running on a server somewhere on your network. Most of those out-of-the-box will enable you to configure the upload process to force the user to enter data into the required fields. (Doesn't Mac's Aperture and Adobe's Lightroom do this sort of thing ??) I cant imagine one being able to control what individuals do with digital files locally, esp if they are on a MAC. Let me know if you find something - we are about to increase or creators too and I would be interested if something like this really works. Jeffrey Evans Digital Imaging Specialist Princeton University Art Museum 609.258.8579 On 8/3/08 9:03 AM, Garry Sommerfeld Garry.Sommerfeld at ngv.vic.gov.au wrote: The Gallery I work in has approximately 50 point and shoot type digital cameras being used by cataloguer's curators conservators etc. As you can all appreciate this leads to a lot of data being added to both individual desktop hard drives and network storage most of it is poorly documented. I am looking for a piece of software that will not allow files from either digital cameras or card readers to be downloaded until basic data is added to the file i.e artists name, title of work medium location with a simple naming system. We would need a system that would support approximately 200 PC's at a reasonable cost. Regards Garry Sommerfeld Garry Sommerfeld Manager, Photographic Services National Gallery of Victoria 180 St Kilda Road Melbourne Vic 3004 Australia Telephone: +61 3 8620 2163 Mobile: 0428 365 244 Fax: +61 3 8620 2505 ngv.vic.gov.au Keep informed of the latest NGV exhibitions, special events and programs at The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia and NGV International by subscribing to NGV at RT, the NGV's free e-newsletter. DISCLAIMER: This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential and intended solely for mcn-l at mcn.edu. If you are not the named addressee you should not disseminate, copy or alter this email. WARNING: Although National Gallery of Victoria has taken reasonable precautions to ensure no viruses are present in this email, the organisation cannot accept responsibility for any loss or damage arising from the use of this email or attachment. ___ You are currently subscribed to mcn-l, the listserv of the Museum Computer Network (http://www.mcn.edu) To post to this list, send messages to: mcn-l at mcn.edu To unsubscribe or change mcn-l delivery options visit: http://toronto.mediatrope.com/mailman/listinfo/mcn-l
[MCN-L] Department name question.
All, We are renaming a Photo Services department here. Please reply with both department names as well as manager titles that you may have generated at your institution. Thanks in advance, JEFF Jeffrey Evans Digital Imaging Specialist Princeton University Art Museum 609.258.8579
[MCN-L] Archive materials - image sizes?
All, Resolution is only half the battle. Ensure that youre getting adequate pixels along the longer dimension of the image. 8000 without interpolation is a good starting point. Consider scanner quality as well. If youre looking to scan once make sure youre using a publication quality scanner such as an Imacon, Creo, or Kodak. I dont exactly agree with no color correction in Photoshop. Its best to keep your scanner calibrated and have it output the image to Adobe RGB 1998 as a working embedded profile. The scanner calibrations wont change very much, but it is something to watch. - JEFF Jeffrey Evans Digital Imaging Specialist Princeton University Art Museum 609.258.8579 On Jan 8, 2008, at 11:27 AM, Becky Bristol wrote: We scan at 3000 or 4000 dpi and burn the tiffs to DVD. NO need to ever rescan. Images are of publication quality with no to very little color correction. All color correction is also done within the scanning software NOT photoshop. Ideally scanning or photographing a RAW image is best save that as a TIFF convert or copy image to JPG and manipulate as needed. Becky Bristol Image Manager Ingalls Library Cleveland Museum of Art 11150 East Boulevard Cleveland, Ohio 44106 216.707.2544 -Original Message- From: mcn-l-bounces at mcn.edu [mailto:mcn-l-bounces at mcn.edu] On Behalf Of Perian Sully Sent: Tuesday, January 08, 2008 11:24 AM To: Museum Computer Network Listserv Subject: [MCN-L] Archive materials - image sizes? Hi all: We're currently having a debate about the appropriate scanned image sizes for archival documents. Our scanner doesn't scan into RAW, so we're batting back and forth whether to save the master TIFFs as 600 or 300 dpi. On the 300 side: 1) many of our archival materials were already scanned at 300 dpi (that being the original size I designated, but we've a long way to go yet) 2) the majority of our reproduction requests are for 300 dpi JPG 3) storage space concerns 4) archive materials are mostly documents and don't necessarily need 600 dpi treatment 5) since the documents aren't precious like the 3D materials and photographs, we can go back and rescan if we really need a 600 dpi JPG (ie. handling concerns aren't as great) On the 600 side: 1) scan once and be done with it 2) we do sometimes receive 600 dpi JPG requests 3) storage is cheap 4) make sure the master TIFF is as high as quality as possible, since we don't have RAW to fall back upon We're also thinking about scanning the documents at 300 dpi, and photographs and 3D materials in 600. What do other institutions do? Any best practices we should fall back upon here? Thanks in advance! Perian Sully Collection Information and New Media Coordinator Judah L. Magnes Museum 2911 Russell St. Berkeley, CA 94705 510-549-6950 x 335 http://www.magnes.org Contributor, http://www.musematic.org ___ You are currently subscribed to mcn-l, the listserv of the Museum Computer Network (http://www.mcn.edu) To post to this list, send messages to: mcn-l at mcn.edu To unsubscribe or change mcn-l delivery options visit: http://toronto.mediatrope.com/mailman/listinfo/mcn-l ___ You are currently subscribed to mcn-l, the listserv of the Museum Computer Network (http://www.mcn.edu) To post to this list, send messages to: mcn-l at mcn.edu To unsubscribe or change mcn-l delivery options visit: http://toronto.mediatrope.com/mailman/listinfo/mcn-l
[MCN-L] Digitial Image management software for Mac's
You might like Adobe Bridge or Canto Cumulus or Extensis Portfolio. All of them have demos you can download. jeff Jeffrey Evans Digital Imaging Specialist Princeton University Art Museum 609.258.8579 On Dec 6, 2007, at 12:58 PM, Tim Atherton wrote: Having worked on PC's for so long, I'm somewhat out of the loop on Mac software and options... I'm looking for some lower end (but not bottom of the barrel) image management/library software that's Mac compatible. It's not going to be for a huge number of images But there are enough images that i need to be able to keep track of archived files, working files, exhibit projects etc etc It's also probably only going to be used by a couple of people or so I don't need something large scale that will run with multiple users on severs, handle hundreds of thousands of images, or produce web front ends etc etc, but it needs to be sophisticated enough that I can work with some basic metadata, run searches and keep track of things and so on... This will be separate from our actual collections database and the images as part of the catalogued in there (though those images will also be an incidental part of what I'm looking to use the image management software for) thanks tim a Tim Atherton Assistant Curator (Archives Research) Mus?e H?ritage Museum, St. Albert (780) 459-1594 tatherton at st-albert.net ___ You are currently subscribed to mcn-l, the listserv of the Museum Computer Network (http://www.mcn.edu) To post to this list, send messages to: mcn-l at mcn.edu To unsubscribe or change mcn-l delivery options visit: http://toronto.mediatrope.com/mailman/listinfo/mcn-l
[MCN-L] Image Server
Recently received an extensive demo on it. I didnt get the impression it was a proper image server. JEFF Jeffrey Evans Digital Imaging Specialist Princeton University Art Museum 609.258.8579 On Oct 25, 2007, at 10:40 AM, Stan Orchard wrote: Have any of you tried D-Space? http://www.dspace.org/ I'd appreciate any feedback on it. Thanks! Stan Orchard Web Publisher Pacific Science Center On Oct 25, 2007, at 7:28 AM, Landsberg, Erik wrote: Roger, One possibility (of many) you may want to investigate is NetExposure Image Portal. We are building our DAM in NetEx to match some of the same needs that you mention: keep the files on our own server, web access to the DAM allowing for easy implementation for many users. Also, important to us, SQL database underpinnings with reasonably good communication with TMS. Erik Erik Landsberg Head of Collections Imaging, MoMA Erik_landsberg at moma.org From: John Bedard jbedard at artsmia.org Reply-To: Museum Computer Network Listserv mcn-l at mcn.edu Date: Thu, 25 Oct 2007 08:25:09 -0400 To: mcn-l at mcn.edu Conversation: [MCN-L] Image Server Subject: Re: [MCN-L] Image Server I don't know the size of your organization, but it sounds like you should investigate Digital Asset Management Systems. There is a wide variety of systems from desktop to enterprise. John Bedard John R. Bedard Director of Information Projects and Services The Minneapolis Institute of Arts 2400 Third Avenue South Minneapolis, MN 55404 Phone: 612-870-3268 Fax: 612-870-3004 Email: JBedard at artsmia.org www.artsmia.org www.artsconnected.org mcn-l-request at mcn.edu 10/24/2007 2:00 PM Send mcn-l mailing list submissions to mcn-l at mcn.edu To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit http://toronto.mediatrope.com/mailman/listinfo/mcn-l or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to mcn-l-request at mcn.edu You can reach the person managing the list at mcn-l-owner at mcn.edu When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific than Re: Contents of mcn-l digest... Today's Topics: 1. Image Server? (Roger Zender) 2. Re: Image Server? (Jeff Evans) - - Message: 1 Date: Wed, 24 Oct 2007 14:16:58 -0400 From: Roger Zender rogerzender at hotmail.com Subject: [MCN-L] Image Server? To: mcn-l at mcn.edu Message-ID: BAY139-DAV278DFF016F01B7B024F0CA0940 at phx.gbl Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; delsp=yes; format=flowed Hi Everyone, I'm looking for suggestions on how your institutions are managing images. I've been looking into Microsoft's Expression Media application, but would like something with a web-based browsing ability. Another requirement is that we don't have to move the files off-site, such as with using something like Flickr. I would like them to sit on our server and be accessible via a web-browser so that we can just link to these images from our website. Any suggestions? Thanks, Roger -- Message: 2 Date: Wed, 24 Oct 2007 14:35:06 -0400 From: Jeff Evans jfevans at Princeton.EDU Subject: Re: [MCN-L] Image Server? To: Museum Computer Network Listserv mcn-l at mcn.edu Message-ID: CF7384EF-96D3-4B72-8EDC-05671F2D24BA at princeton.edu Content-Type: text/plain;charset=US-ASCII;delsp=yes;format=flowed Not a sales pitch, but: My friend runs a company called SeeFile. Its a simple-dimple web or NAS based appliance, that will allow you to link images, and view your files online. Images and metadata only, though. www.seefile.com Jeff Jeffrey Evans Digital Imaging Specialist Princeton University Art Museum 609.258.8579 On Oct 24, 2007, at 2:16 PM, Roger Zender wrote: Hi Everyone, I'm looking for suggestions on how your institutions are managing images. I've been looking into Microsoft's Expression Media application, but would like something with a web-based browsing ability. Another requirement is that we don't have to move the files off-site, such as with using something like Flickr. I would like them to sit on our server and be accessible via a web-browser so that we can just link to these images from our website. Any suggestions? Thanks, Roger ___ You are currently subscribed to mcn-l, the listserv of the Museum Computer Network (http://www.mcn.edu) To post to this list, send messages to: mcn-l at mcn.edu To unsubscribe or change mcn-l delivery options visit: http://toronto.mediatrope.com/mailman/listinfo/mcn-l -- ___ mcn-l mailing list mcn-l at mcn.edu http://toronto.mediatrope.com/mailman/listinfo/mcn-l End of mcn-l Digest, Vol 24, Issue 17 * ___ You are currently
[MCN-L] Image Server?
Not a sales pitch, but: My friend runs a company called SeeFile. Its a simple-dimple web or NAS based appliance, that will allow you to link images, and view your files online. Images and metadata only, though. www.seefile.com Jeff Jeffrey Evans Digital Imaging Specialist Princeton University Art Museum 609.258.8579 On Oct 24, 2007, at 2:16 PM, Roger Zender wrote: Hi Everyone, I'm looking for suggestions on how your institutions are managing images. I've been looking into Microsoft's Expression Media application, but would like something with a web-based browsing ability. Another requirement is that we don't have to move the files off-site, such as with using something like Flickr. I would like them to sit on our server and be accessible via a web-browser so that we can just link to these images from our website. Any suggestions? Thanks, Roger ___ You are currently subscribed to mcn-l, the listserv of the Museum Computer Network (http://www.mcn.edu) To post to this list, send messages to: mcn-l at mcn.edu To unsubscribe or change mcn-l delivery options visit: http://toronto.mediatrope.com/mailman/listinfo/mcn-l
[MCN-L] Three weeks until MCN Silent Auction 2006!
Bars are OK in Pasadena. Check out Crown City Brewery on Raymond and Fair oaks (south of the park, south of Colorado) Gin drinkers look elsewhere, it's beer only there! JEFF Jeffrey Evans Digital Imaging Specialist Princeton University Art Museum 609.258.8579 On Oct 18, 2006, at 3:41 PM, Perian Sully wrote: You might need that Guinness once the MPAA finds out ;) So how are the bars in Pasadena, anyway? amalyah keshet wrote: Great idea. Let's see, the IP SIG could organize a basket of unlicensed, infringing, action hero video clip file-shared downloads... Amalyah (first to bid on that Guiness!) At 16:33 18/10/2006, you wrote: Rob and fellow MCN'ers, Our VRA colleagues have a unique way of getting some really good items into their auction: their regional groups put together packets or baskets of things from their region -- local foods, museum gear, goofy items, etc. Some of these baskets have been really wonderful, creative combinations and the competition for them has been fierce. SInce ideas can be appropriated without violating any IP laws, and with full credit given to our creative VRA colleagues, I offer the following gentle suggestion: maybe MCN's various SIGs and regional groups could put together group contributions? How about some wine from the California SIG? Salmon from the Pacific Northwest SIG? Shamrocks (or maybe Guinness) from UK/Ireland SIG? Panic buttons from the IT SIG? Diane Hello again, everyone: MCN's Pasadena conference is drawing closer, and so is our Silent Auction. The 2006 auction will be held at the reception on Friday, November 10th--three weeks from this Friday! For many years, your generous contributions to this annual event have helped our nonprofit organization offer the programs and resources we all find so useful. As announced in the preceding auction reminder, we're delighted to note that all proceeds from this event will fund conference scholarships, which the MCN Board instituted for the Pasadena conference using 2005 auction income. All earnings from the 2006 auction will fund scholarships for MCN 2007. It's never too soon dream up novel (or truly excessive...) donations and stash them away to carry to Pasadena, where donations will be gratefully accepted in person. Items of any sort--new or old, seriously useful or happily useless--that may be attractive to bidders and carried by airline passengers are encouraged. Exhibition catalogs are always popular. Equally great are museum bags, clothing, and other souvenirs. Donations need not be tangible things--some popular lots have offered free services or special half-price registration for professional events. I'd say think outside the box, but in fact there is no box! Donations may be dropped off at the conference desk when you register. Auction volunteers also are needed. If you'd like to help, please email me off-list at rlancefield at wesleyan.edu. http://www.mcn.edu/conferences/index.asp?subkey=1233 has more details regarding the Friday reception and a wide range of other MCN 2006 conference events. See you in Pasadena! Rob (chair, MCN Silent Auction 2006) -- _ Rob Lancefield rlancefield at wesleyan.edu Manager of Museum Information Services / Registrar of Collections Davison Art Center, Wesleyan University www.wesleyan.edu/dac 301 High Street, Middletown CT 06459 USAtel. 860.685.2965 Board of Directors, Museum Computer Network www.mcn.edu ___ You are currently subscribed to mcn-l, the listserv of the Museum Computer Network (http://www.mcn.edu) To post to this list, send messages to: mcn-l at mcn.edu To unsubscribe or change mcn-l delivery options visit: http://toronto.mediatrope.com/mailman/listinfo/mcn-l -- Diane M. Zorich 113 Gallup Road Princeton, NJ 08542 USA Voice: 609-252-1606 Fax: 609-252-1607 Email: dzorich at mindspring.com ___ You are currently subscribed to mcn-l, the listserv of the Museum Computer Network (http://www.mcn.edu) To post to this list, send messages to: mcn-l at mcn.edu To unsubscribe or change mcn-l delivery options visit: http://toronto.mediatrope.com/mailman/listinfo/mcn-l Amalyah Keshet Head of Image Resources Copyright Management The Israel Museum, Jerusalem Tel +972-2-670-8874 Fax +972-2-670-8064 ___ You are currently subscribed to mcn-l, the listserv of the Museum Computer Network (http://www.mcn.edu) To post to this list, send messages to: mcn-l at mcn.edu To unsubscribe or change mcn-l delivery options visit: http://toronto.mediatrope.com/mailman/listinfo/mcn-l -- Perian Sully Collection Database and Records Administrator Judah L. Magnes Museum 2911 Russell St.
[MCN-L] Tricky question - is Mac better than PC?
Marty- It's all about the business model. Apple designs it products for a certain user, both consumer and professional. Creative pros will reap the benefits of that. The new monitor on the MacBook Pro is one good example, without talking about anything under the hood. Also, Unix servers as well as industry-standard production tools such as Xinet FullPress, color management, or high-end image capture, will interface better with Macs. -Jeff Jeffrey Evans Digital Imaging Specialist Princeton University Art Museum 609.258.8579 On Sep 8, 2006, at 11:35 AM, Stein, Marty wrote: Hello, We are hoping that the wonderful members of mcn-l can help us with a question we are debating here in Houston. I hope this isn't a question that has been posed recently to the list and I've just missed it. We are currently involved in a project to convert out photo studio from film to digital. It's a very exciting project, but it has brought up an old question that I had hoped to avoid - the dreaded Is Mac better for graphic applications than PC? question. The MFAH is predominantly PC-based, with only a few Macs in our Graphics department. Our IT department would like to keep it this way, but a consultant has recommended that our new photo studio and imaging lab use Macs. Our current digital equipment is running on PCs and it seems to work just fine. Since we're making decisions about pretty expensive new equipment we want to make sure that we're not overlooking anything. Can anyone explain why Macs are better for graphics and digital imaging than PCs? Not just that graphic designers and photographers prefer Macs, but why they're different and better? This would be a great help and I would really appreciate it. Thanks! Marty Marcia (Marty) Stein Photographic Services Manager The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston PO Box 6826 Houston, Texas 77265-6826 Phone: (713) 639-7525 Fax: (713) 639-7557 Email: mstein at mfah.org ___ You are currently subscribed to mcn-l, the listserv of the Museum Computer Network (http://www.mcn.edu) To post to this list, send messages to: mcn-l at mcn.edu To unsubscribe or change mcn-l delivery options visit: http://toronto.mediatrope.com/mailman/listinfo/mcn-l
[MCN-L] informal survey of digital photography devices in museums
Will, At Princeton, we remain a film-to-press workflow, however we do use a Canon EOS-1Ds MarkII (and love it) for half page images and jpegs. Along with digital capture technology, you may want to inquire about match print / color management workflow. Those answers will be interesting to read as well. (unless commercial CMYK printing is not an issue for you) JEFF Jeffrey Evans Digital Imaging Specialist Princeton University Art Museum 609.258.8579 On Jul 30, 2006, at 10:19 AM, Real, Will wrote: As the time for submitting budget requests for our next fiscal year approaches I am curious to know what digital photography devices are being used in the museum community. Would any of you be willing to volunteer whether you are using any of the following for photography of collections? Please be as specific as you can. (respond offline directly to me if you wish to remain anonymous: realw [at] carnegiemuseums.org) Nikon D1X, D200, D2X Canon 5D, EOS 1Ds Mark II Leaf Aptus 75 Phase One P 45, etc. BetterLight 6000 etc. Sinar Bron 44, 54, emotion75, etc. Others (Imacon, Jenoptik, etc.) I would also be interested to know if you have switched to all- digital capture or not. Thanks, Will William Real Director of Technology Initiatives Carnegie Museum of Art 4400 Forbes Ave Pittsburgh, PA 15213 412.622.3267 412.622.3112 (fax) ___ You are currently subscribed to mcn-l, the listserv of the Museum Computer Network (http://www.mcn.edu) To post to this list, send messages to: mcn-l at mcn.edu To unsubscribe or change mcn-l delivery options visit: http://toronto.mediatrope.com/mailman/listinfo/mcn-l
[MCN-L] FW: Can a CIS be a DAMS too?
Yes - I like reading these too. Also if Dianne sends out her training document, may I have a copy please? Have a nice holiday. JEFF Jeffrey Evans Digital Imaging Specialist Princeton University Art Museum 609.258.8579 jfevans at princeton.edu On Jun 30, 2006, at 9:36 AM, Chuck Patch wrote: On 6/29/06, Richard Urban rjurban at uiuc.edu wrote: I'd be happy to discuss this further off-list (unless there is a hue and cry to continue here). Hi Richard, consider this a hue and cry. Chuck ___ You are currently subscribed to mcn-l, the listserv of the Museum Computer Network (http://www.mcn.edu) To post to this list, send messages to: mcn-l at mcn.edu To unsubscribe or change mcn-l delivery options visit: http://toronto.mediatrope.com/mailman/listinfo/mcn-l
Re: DM-SIG IT-SIG: costs of backup
Hi Deborah, I look forward to reading this string as it develops. FOR IMAGES: I am an advocate for near-line storage- SANs or NAS devices. This option can cut your costs dramatically (or somewhat anyway) and can help you in delivering files over the network. Usually after the databases have all the jpeg and reference files they need, larger tif files can be near line or off line. My past life as a system integrator always makes me question the ROI of housing large image files on a fully functioning server. An honest assessment of which files will actually be requested over the coming year or two, is a good one and may save you back-up headaches as well as network time and money. As you know the industry is moving fast in the direction of back-up servers. But I feel tape backups will be around for a while as well due to the fact that many firms have policies stipulating a copy of the backups is to be housed off-site. We are also keen on the idea of a fast server with limited space. Servers such as these can be deployed locally for the small group of users that need a given set of data/files. With a small deployment (less than 1TB) these size servers are easily backed up with a desktop type tape drive or a smaller backup server. Beyond price, a further advantage of a smaller server is that the users are forced to manage the files - especially archiving older files. For tape backup, I recommend AIT. AIT-3 and AIT-4 are the current flavors. JEFF Jeffrey Evans Digital Imaging Specialist Princeton University Art Museum 609.258.8579 On Mar 8, 2006, at 10:06 AM, Deborah Wythe wrote: Hello-- We've been having a discussion here about the exploding costs of network backup, as digital image collections grow, and also about potential future costs such as format migration. While the cost of backup tapes tends to go down as time passes, the formats are also continually being improved, with new formats then going back up in price, so the costs over time don't really decrease. And, of course, as we continue into digital imaging full speed, we're creating assets that are never going to be deleted. I'd be interested in hearing about any creative ideas people have implemented or are thinking about. I've floated the possibility of adding a fixed percentage to any digital imaging special project budget in order to create a longevity endowment. Not at all sure if that's workable, but it's an idea out of the box. Thanks, Deb Wythe Deborah Wythe Brooklyn Museum Head, Digital Collections and Services 200 Eastern Parkway Brooklyn, NY 11238 tel: 718 501 6311 fax: 718 501 6125 email: deborahwy...@hotmail.com You are currently subscribed to MCN-L, the listserv of the Museum Computer Network (www.mcn.edu). To post messages to this list, send emails to: mcn-l@mcn.edu To unsubscribe from this list, please send an email to mcn-unsubscr...@lists.mediatrope.com with any message. If you are receiving messages as they are posted and wish to change to daily digest format, send an email to listser...@lists.mediatrope.com with SET mcn-l DIGEST in the BODY of the message. If you are receiving messages in the daily digest format and wish to recieve them as they are posted, send an email to listser...@lists.mediatrope.com with SET mcn-l MAIL You are currently subscribed to MCN-L, the listserv of the Museum Computer Network (www.mcn.edu). To post messages to this list, send emails to: mcn-l@mcn.edu To unsubscribe from this list, please send an email to mcn-unsubscr...@lists.mediatrope.com with any message. If you are receiving messages as they are posted and wish to change to daily digest format, send an email to listser...@lists.mediatrope.com with SET mcn-l DIGEST in the BODY of the message. If you are receiving messages in the daily digest format and wish to recieve them as they are posted, send an email to listser...@lists.mediatrope.com with SET mcn-l MAIL
Re: archival storage of CDs
I second most of what's been said. We are currently involved in a large digitization process delivered entirely on CD. Archival CD is a bit of a marketing term these days but you can do preventative things such as not writing on the discs and handle them very carefully of course. Don't sweat the case decision. We opted not to buy the expensive "archival" CD file boxes. Our files do live on and are deployed from a server, but DVD is a good way to eliminate the volume of CDs if that is a problem. I would recommend basing your decisions on how your users are going to "recall" these images. Will it be electronic, or will someone be actually pulling these discs from a shelf and loading them when needed. Servers (or even network attached storage device) are coming down in price to compete with any CD or DVD jukebox. DVDs are about to make a change to HD-DVD, and Blu-Ray DVD, but these will mostly service the video and HD video industry that will demand speed and space all on one disc. So I am unsure if it will affect flat image storage anytime soon.JEFF Jeffrey EvansDigital Imaging SpecialistPrinceton University Art Museum609.258.8579 On Jan 3, 2006, at 9:06 AM, Mike Rippy wrote:I agree with Deborah as well. But if you cant afford a large hard drive or the systems to run it, I would suggest finding some more "archival" types of cds to store your files on. Such as, http://www.mam-a.com/Default.htm dvds or cds. Until the price of hard drive and systems drop more to your price range (which continue to drop at a good rate). But be sure to maintain some standardization on your naming, file structure (now or future), and what has been mentioned in the other posts. Implemeting a system and migrating data to that new system (and the new system after that) requires properly standardizing your data from file name to file format to metadata, etc. Your job is to stay on top of the changes. So just remaining aware of how technology is changing will keep your files moving. Michael RippyAssistant PhotographerIndianapolis Museum of Art4000 Michigan RoadIndianapolis, IN, USA 46208-3326(317)920-2662 ext.191 www.ima-art.orgmri...@ima-art.org remko.janson...@vizcayamuseum.org 12/30/2005 10:18 AM After a year on the job I have collected loads of digital images ? scanned, shot, donated. It?s time to put the master files in storage.Is there a general consensus on what materials to use? What type of CDs? Is there a specific pro or con to use CD envelops (compacter) or jewel boxes (more rigid)? Does anyone have good experiences with specific CD drawers/boxes/cabinets? Is there anything I am overlooking here? Any and all comments are appreciated! ? and a good new year to all! Remko JansoniusCollections and Archives ManagerVizcaya Museum Gardens3251 South Miami AvenueMiami, FL 33129t: 305-860-8433f: 305-250-9117www.vizcayamuseum.org miamidade.gov"Delivering Excellence Every Day" Miami-Dade County is a public entity, subject to Chapter 119 of the Florida Statutes concerning public records. E-mail messages and their attachments are covered under such laws and thus subject to disclosure. All e-mail sent to and received at this address is captured by Miami-Dade County servers and kept as a public record. --- You are currently subscribed to mcn_mcn-l as: mri...@ima-art.org To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-mcn_mcn-l-327179...@listserver.americaneagle.com--- You are currently subscribed to mcn_mcn-l as: jfev...@princeton.edu To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-mcn_mcn-l-116899...@listserver.americaneagle.com --- You are currently subscribed to mcn_mcn-l as: rlancefi...@mail.wesleyan.edu To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-mcn_mcn-l-12800...@listserver.americaneagle.com
Re: [MCN SIG: Digital Media] Uniiversal Photographic Digital Imaging Guidelines
At Princeton we have two delivery points: TMS and Press (Publications). TMS takes the large Jpegs and rolls away. But for press, most printers will want uncompresses RGB Tiffs. Or CMYK tifs if you're proofing in house. Dont compress a tiff - Burn 'em to DVD if you have to. I would however suggest sizing them for your intended publication - that will shrink them a bit. Raw files are great to keep - if your workflow allows for re- exporting. Can turn into a bit of a management headache though which Tif is it etc. I am keen on photographers or studio production managers handling the RAW file storage problems. Jeffrey Evans Digital Imaging Specialist Princeton University Art Museum 609.258.8579 On Nov 29, 2005, at 1:00 PM, Ray Shah wrote: Can someone explain to me what advantages the TIFF format has over PNG, and why that is not used instead? This would reduce file size without the need for an intermediary compression step, and as far as I'm aware maintain image fidelity as well as TIFFs, and much better than JPEG. - Ray Matt Morgan wrote: Richard Urban wrote: Matt, Generally compression isn't recommended for a few reasons. While Zip and LZW are fairly reliable compression algorithms, they add another layer of complexity to the file. Understood--thanks to you and to Tim Au Yeung. It's possible that the compression could make unpacking them more difficult down the line. I've heard it suggested that this is particularly true if there is some bit level corruption of the file, which could cause the compression to fail. (comments from people who get under the hood with files would be appreciated...sometimes I feel like these are digital urban legends). I'd be interested in seeing any hard data on this. If there is such a problem, it would be in the different implementations, not in the algorithm, which is mathematically perfect. Perhaps nobody has gotten the hard data you're asking for, but if not, it's probably only because other industries do not doubt the reversibility of compression in the way we do. I mean, zillions of files are compressed and uncompressed every day, and for years, almost every PC hard drive was dblspaced or drvspaced. I understand that you're talking about problems not necessarily visible to the eye, or that we just wouldn't worry about in a spreadsheet or memo, but in demonstrated practice, common forms of reversible compression are safe for files. Can I go on that? How much more convinced can we get? The other concern is over the patents held on both compression algorithms. There was a time where the patent holders were attempting to claim control over the patents, suggesting that you'd need a license to unpack your files (or least the people making the software you use would). These mostly seem to have gone away, but the patents are still out there. Generally this is why we've steered away from proprietary formats towards open standards. I'm all for open standards, especially for museums and libraries-- and ZIP is at least as open (now) as most RAW formats. In any case, there are other compression algorithms that are well-tested and more open than ZIP has been in the past. So it just seems like this is a minor issue compared to the complexity problem. Thanks, Matt Richard Urban Graduate School of Library and Information Science University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign rjur...@uiuc.edu -Original Message- From: Matt Morgan [mailto:m...@concretecomputing.com] Sent: Tuesday, November 29, 2005 10:39 AM To: mcn-l@mcn.edu Subject: Re: [MCN SIG: Digital Media] Uniiversal Photographic Digital Imaging Guidelines Newman, Alan wrote: Curious coincidence. I just distributed this link today to my staff and I was preparing a post to MCN-L. We've adopted most of these guidelines in my division at the National Gallery. I'm curious to know which recommendations you haven't adopted ... let us know! I read through the UPDIG recommendations and found it really interesting and helpful. I thought their recommendation for RAW format was relatively unconvincing, though. Almost like they were saying we want to recommend RAW format, but we realize you're going to convert them anyway, at least until the DNG format is widely-supported. Their best arguments for RAW applied to oddball cameras--which to me is an argument not to buy an oddball camera. Is anyone behaving differently, and storing files in RAW (but not also storing in TIFF)? I think, although I'm not sure, that the UPDIG Working Group has more faith in RAW than the museum and library worlds do. The other question I've been asking myself a lot lately, but haven't seen addressed much, is why not store files with some form of reversible compression like zip (or gzip or bzip2)? UPDIG doesn't address this (although it allows that compression is valuable and acceptable for delivery). ZIP (and
Re: Digital Asset Management Systems
I am very familiar with MediaBeacon and MediaBin ( I used to sell Mediabeacon, if you can believe that...) Jeff Evans Digital Imaging Specialist Princeton University Art Museum 609.258.8579 On Jul 12, 2005, at 9:18 AM, John Bedard wrote: x-tad-biggerWe are currently evaluating Digital Asset Management Systems and would appreciate talking to anyone who has recently evaluated and/or installed any of the following systems:/x-tad-bigger x-tad-bigger /x-tad-bigger x-tad-biggerArtesia Teams/x-tad-bigger x-tad-biggerClear Story/x-tad-bigger x-tad-biggerNorth Plains Telescope/x-tad-bigger x-tad-biggerNetXposure Image Portal/x-tad-bigger x-tad-biggerStellent/x-tad-bigger x-tad-biggerMediaBeacon/x-tad-bigger x-tad-biggerInterwoven Media Bin/x-tad-bigger x-tad-bigger /x-tad-bigger x-tad-biggerIf you are willing to share your experience on any of these systems, please contact me. /x-tad-bigger x-tad-bigger /x-tad-bigger x-tad-bigger /x-tad-bigger x-tad-bigger /x-tad-bigger x-tad-bigger /x-tad-bigger x-tad-biggerJohn R. Bedard/x-tad-bigger x-tad-biggerDirector of Information Projects and Services/x-tad-bigger x-tad-biggerThe Minneapolis Institute of Arts/x-tad-bigger x-tad-bigger2400 Third Avenue South/x-tad-bigger x-tad-biggerMinneapolis, MN 55404/x-tad-bigger x-tad-biggerPhone: 612-870-3268/x-tad-bigger x-tad-biggerFax: 612-870-3004/x-tad-bigger x-tad-biggerEmail: /x-tad-biggerx-tad-biggerjbed...@artsmia.org/x-tad-bigger x-tad-biggerwww.artsmia.org/x-tad-bigger x-tad-biggerwww.artsconnected.org/x-tad-bigger x-tad-bigger --- /x-tad-bigger x-tad-bigger You are currently subscribed to mcn_mcn-l as: jfev...@princeton.edu/x-tad-bigger x-tad-bigger To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-mcn_mcn-l-12800...@listserver.americaneagle.com /x-tad-bigger
Re: IT Sig: Where do you go for ...
Hi Bill, I wont laugh, but how is that Proliant server? What is your maximum uptime? How much data/files are you holding? What software controls the SAN? Is your SAN Fibrechannel and do you see any speed advantage from it on your TMS deployment? JEFF Jeff Evans Digital Imaging Specialist Princeton University Art Museum 609.258.8579 jfev...@princeton.edu On May 25, 2005, at 9:52 AM, Weinstein, William wrote: Good morning everyone. A good burst of energy. I will try to keep it going. One of the behind the scenes discussions on the IT sig was the status of the last survey. It was decided the data was too old but that it might be valuable to post anyway. Maybe we can use the little push from this thread to get some new data. I would be happy to compile. Our environment is: about 410 Computers (Dell) about 10% Mac and the rest PCs with 10% of those laptops Cisco layer 2 switches Cisco Wireless AP in storage 3 Buildings One connected via multiple T-1s, One connected via T-1 and point to point wireless 2 Remote sites both connected through DSL and VPN 2 ISPs Patec provides 2 T-1s, USLec 1 T-1 Desktop OS Windows 2000 OSX 10.3 Server OS Primary/Secondary Domain Controllers WinNT 4.0 (don't laugh) Member servers Win2000 Server Server Hardware HP/Compaq Proliant HP/Compaq MSA1000 SAN HP/Compaq Application Software: Accounting - Paciolan (selection of new software in process) Ticketing - Paciolan (Same as above) Membership/Development - Raisers Edge 7.6 MSSQL Version Wholesale/Retail - CamData Gupta SQL version Volunteer Management - Volunteer Works Payroll - ADP Gupta SQL Version Email - Exchange 5.5 Collections Management - TMS 9.x MSSql Version Web Apps eMuseum - internal access to collections information for non curatorial staff Netsolutions - email campaigns for Membership and Development online donations for Development Public website is hosted by INetU Desktop Software MSOffice 2000 PCs MSOffice:Mac vX mail client - Outlook Browser - IE virus - Symantec Enterprise Spyware- XoftSpy This is of the top of my head, informal. Anyone who wants to add to the list can and I will enhance my answers to cover new topics. This list can help people target who to contact for info and help us begin to see where to look for resources we might want to share. Respond direct to me or to the list. Bill -Original Message- From: Goral, Becky [mailto:becky.go...@mam.org] Sent: Wednesday, May 25, 2005 8:29 AM To: mcn_mc...@listserver.americaneagle.com Subject: RE: IT Sig: Where do you go for ... I am new to MCN and to non-profits so networking is key for me. Something like this is ideal. Any resources that I can share, I would be more than willing to do so. I would love to see more information about different software programs organizations are using. For example, our organization has ticketing software, a Cafe point-of-sale, as well as a museum store point-of-sale. None of these programs communicate with each other. Wouldn't it be nice if our customers could buy a gift card and have the ability to use in each area, ticketing, cafe and store? Somebody out there has to be using software like this, but who and where? Thanks and I am looking forward to this communication! Becky Milwaukee Art Museum -Original Message- From: Janice [mailto:janice.cradd...@cartermuseum.org] Sent: Tuesday, May 24, 2005 2:48 PM To: mcn_mc...@listserver.americaneagle.com Subject: RE: IT Sig: Where do you go for ... I have struggled with this issue also. MCN has been a good educational experience for relating technical issues to other aspects of the Museum. Digitization, Library, Collection Management are all areas that I support and knowing more about these areas has been very beneficial. But, as Bill mentions, the technology management issues are not addressed. I think we would all benefit from others who have gone through these processes or who are struggling along side of us. MCN has been the place for making contacts in these areas. I think we need to carry that one step further and use this list for more of these burning issues that IT faces every day in the Museum world. I know I have a habit of emailing someone I know instead of posting to the list. So, why don't we make a pact to use the list when we have questions about Technology Management Issues and see if we can help each other? This could also a reference when we start thinking about sessions for next year's conference. We can also utilize the SIG web page for listing these resources. I have just received access to that page, so I can begin modifying it. One thing I was thinking to include is either sample of RFPs, Forms, etc. or contact information of people who have these things to share. Would you be willing to share your resources? What else would you like to see on the web page? Janice Craddock Information Technology Manager Amon Carter Museum jan...@cartermuseum.org 817-738
Re: IT Sig: Where do you go for ...
That all sounds good - Can I come see it all in the flesh sometime? I 'll buy the cheesesteaks. (I also want a peek at your photo studio) JEFF Jeff Evans Digital Imaging Specialist Princeton University Art Museum 609.258.8579 On May 25, 2005, at 12:54 PM, Weinstein, William wrote: Thanks for not laughing. The Proliant Servers (we have 8 of various vintage) are running fine. We had some issues with uptime over the last few years that were directly related to the server room being in a closet next to the auditorium. When the auditorium was in use we had HVAC when it was not, we did not. Remarkably it took a few years to convince management to build us a real room, the final disaster was the complete failure of the exchange server both primary drive and mirror. Took a few days to rebuild and during that time my boss came in a sat in the closet with us (as motivation no doubt). She found it pretty warm and Compaq has server management software that monitors internal server temp. We were able to show that we were running new the top of spec and that the temperature variations were not good for the hardware. She was convinced that we should move. Since then we have had no equipment failures that have downed the servers. We use raid 5 on the servers or the SAN and have had our share of drives go bad (especially the older 18GB models) but with 24x7 4 hour response CarePaqs on all the servers (another benefit of the heat related failures of before) we get the part the next day and the drive rebuilds. Access is a little slow during the process but nothing that is really a problem for the end users. The SAN is fibrechannel. We see no speed disadvantage with TMS. The data and images are served as if they were locally attached. We have a single eight port switch (it can accommodate redundant switches, controllers and power supplies) With four servers connected. The software is the HP/Compaq software that comes with the switch. The SAN can mix and match drives and we have 76GB, 146GB and 300GB drives in the cages. We have them divided up into dedicated partitions for each connected server. We could share the partitions but NT 4.0 does not play well in that configuration. Overall we have about 1.5 TB of capacity (and the 28 SAN bays are not full) and we backup about 600GB on a full backup(images, files, databases, etc). Some of our older servers still have locally attached storage, which is included in the 600GB of backup. As we upgrade we are moving them to the SAN. Bill -Original Message- From: Jeff Evans [mailto:jfev...@princeton.edu] Sent: Wednesday, May 25, 2005 10:10 AM To: mcn_mc...@listserver.americaneagle.com Subject: Re: IT Sig: Where do you go for ... Hi Bill, I wont laugh, but how is that Proliant server? What is your maximum uptime? How much data/files are you holding? What software controls the SAN? Is your SAN Fibrechannel and do you see any speed advantage from it on your TMS deployment? JEFF Jeff Evans Digital Imaging Specialist Princeton University Art Museum 609.258.8579 jfev...@princeton.edu On May 25, 2005, at 9:52 AM, Weinstein, William wrote: Good morning everyone. A good burst of energy. I will try to keep it going. One of the behind the scenes discussions on the IT sig was the status of the last survey. It was decided the data was too old but that it might be valuable to post anyway. Maybe we can use the little push from this thread to get some new data. I would be happy to compile. Our environment is: about 410 Computers (Dell) about 10% Mac and the rest PCs with 10% of those laptops Cisco layer 2 switches Cisco Wireless AP in storage 3 Buildings One connected via multiple T-1s, One connected via T-1 and point to point wireless 2 Remote sites both connected through DSL and VPN 2 ISPs Patec provides 2 T-1s, USLec 1 T-1 Desktop OS Windows 2000 OSX 10.3 Server OS Primary/Secondary Domain Controllers WinNT 4.0 (don't laugh) Member servers Win2000 Server Server Hardware HP/Compaq Proliant HP/Compaq MSA1000 SAN HP/Compaq Application Software: Accounting - Paciolan (selection of new software in process) Ticketing - Paciolan (Same as above) Membership/Development - Raisers Edge 7.6 MSSQL Version Wholesale/Retail - CamData Gupta SQL version Volunteer Management - Volunteer Works Payroll - ADP Gupta SQL Version Email - Exchange 5.5 Collections Management - TMS 9.x MSSql Version Web Apps eMuseum - internal access to collections information for non curatorial staff Netsolutions - email campaigns for Membership and Development online donations for Development Public website is hosted by INetU Desktop Software MSOffice 2000 PCs MSOffice:Mac vX mail client - Outlook Browser - IE virus - Symantec Enterprise Spyware- XoftSpy This is of the top of my head, informal. Anyone who wants to add to the list can and I will enhance my answers to cover new topics. This list can help people target who
Re: image management software
Oh Yes, iView MediaPro, I forgot about that one - and I second Roger's recommendation on that. Also, I am very interested in hearing updates on the Artesia deployment. May I send you an email in three months or so? To see how it went? Jeff Evans Digital Imaging Specialist Princeton University Art Museum 609.258.8579 On Nov 29, 2004, at 7:44 PM, Roger Howard wrote: We're in process of rolling out Artesia TEAMS, which is a high-end digital asset management system. It's probably beyond the resources for most small institutions. I wonder, what functionality are you looking for? There is a huge variety in terms of products that tend to get lumped together under the image/gallery/asset management umbrella. Some focus on workflow - managing a creative environment. Some are archive/preservation oriented, while others focus on the living repository. Do you expect to publish direct from the system to a Website, or to provide a portal into the system, for casual visitors and researchers? Or will it be strictly internal? Do you want it to provide workflow, repurposing (file format conversion, etc), and other advanced functionality, or are you mainly looking for a system to store images and associate metadata with them? For individuals and small workgroups I often recommend iView Media Pro; in the same class I still recommend Extensis Portfolio, which is capable of scaling up a bit higher (there's a server option, for instance). I don't particularly like Canto Cumulus anymore. I agree that Photoshop CS File Browser - and actually the VersionCue server software also from Adobe - can be quite powerful, and it's at least a natural environment for many folks involved in imaging - you can create custom metadata models and custom UIs within Photoshop for capturing the fields you want... data is stored in XML so it's easy to integrate... but I don't typically recommend this as it takes a bit of sophistication to implement it well (but it can be a GREAT frontend for another system). If you want strictly a Web gallery management tool there are literally hundreds of free PHP/MySQL based systems. Google for PHP image gallery.. MediaBeacon is nice and fairly easy to use and to plop on top of an existing set of files. Far more advanced are tools from Artesia, MediaBin/Interwoven. NetXPosure has some interesting products, both at the high end and quite a bit cheaper - their low-end product looks very nice. Some more details on what you'd expect from this system would help me give you a specific recommendation. Best, Roger Howard Digital Media Specialist The J. Paul Getty Trust --- You are currently subscribed to mcn_mcn-l as: jfev...@princeton.edu To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-mcn_mcn-l-12800...@listserver.americaneagle.com --- You are currently subscribed to mcn_mcn-l as: rlancefi...@mail.wesleyan.edu To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-mcn_mcn-l-12800...@listserver.americaneagle.com
Re: image management software
Hi Janice, For images alone, I am using Canto Cumulus. I run that locally on my machine only. This gives me the ability to organize groups of images into collections and catalogs and view/print these groups as needed. And I like Photoshop's File Browser too (locally, that will do almost everything that DAMs do) More Info: If you're just talking about images you have several big choices. First I recmd that you initially decide on two things: 1- price, they can get very expensive very fast. 2- will this be running on a server or locally. Low End: Canto Cumulus Portfolio Artesia High End: MediaBeacon Flexstor Full Workflow: Xinet WebNative Helios WebShare (Those are more than you need) Most of the robust solutions will run best on on a Unix server or Apple's OSX server (unix). If you have more specific questions, please feel free to give me a call. Previous to my current position, I have used and deployed many of these systems for different creative and graphics customers. Also be advised: For the larger systems, most are bundled with upgrade and service packages that will be 15-20% of the purchase price per year (or sometimes per license). Jeff Evans Digital Imaging Specialist Princeton University Art Museum 609.258.8579 On Nov 19, 2004, at 5:21 PM, Janice wrote: x-tad-biggerWe are in the process of reviewing image management systems and would like to hear what is working for others. Please share the name of the software and how it is working for you./x-tad-bigger x-tad-bigger /x-tad-bigger x-tad-bigger /x-tad-bigger x-tad-biggerJanice Craddock/x-tad-bigger x-tad-biggerInformation Technology Manager/x-tad-bigger x-tad-biggerAmon Carter Museum/x-tad-bigger x-tad-biggerwww.cartermuseum.org/x-tad-bigger x-tad-bigger817.738.1933 /x-tad-bigger x-tad-bigger /x-tad-bigger --- You are currently subscribed to mcn_mcn-l as: jfev...@princeton.edu To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-mcn_mcn-l-12800...@listserver.americaneagle.com
Re: Standards for Digital Masters
I second this. Don't get in the habit of keeping layered Tiffs around beyond the image processing / pre press stage. Jeff Evans Digital Imaging Specialist Princeton University Art Museum 609.258.8579 On Oct 13, 2004, at 11:56 AM, Roger Howard wrote: The bigger the file size (70MB - 250MB is not uncommon) the better. In other words, the bigger the file the more information on the object is captured. Also, focus on one master format, i.e. TIFF is a very common format in this regard (do not compress the files) and if you apply color corrections on surrogates of the original scan, place the adjustments on layers (yes, TIFF now supports layers), rather than flattening the image to save file space. Tom, I would recommend against this; I assume you're referring to the layered TIFF that Photoshop (since v7) will output? These are virtually (if not completely) unsupported outside of Photoshop in some forms - they do keep a flattened version of the entire document for apps that don't support layers, but then you lose the main benefit (the layers)... but in my experience, the main benefit of layered TIFF from PSD is for using ZIP compression, which can really reduce the size of a complex layered document, and ZIP compression is also not well supported. In general, I wouldn't recommend keeping these as your masters, but they can be handy. PSD may be significantly larger for an equivalent layered file, but it's also much better supported, and understood - many folks still don't get that TIFF allows much more than a simple flat image. - R --- You are currently subscribed to mcn_mcn-l as: jfev...@princeton.edu To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-mcn_mcn-l-12800...@listserver.americaneagle.com --- You are currently subscribed to mcn_mcn-l as: rlancefi...@mail.wesleyan.edu To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-mcn_mcn-l-12800...@listserver.americaneagle.com
Re: Standards for Digital Masters
Amy - I am neck deep in a massive digitization project - so excuse the quick response. From 4x5 Transp.: Master File 6000 pixels on the long side Tiff file 75MB RGB Master Crop 4000 Px Tiff file 40 MB RGB Derivatives: 2000 pixels Jpeg 768 Pixels Jpeg 150 Pixels jpeg for thumbs This was designed for deployment into TMS. Call for more detailsgotta go Jeff Evans Digital Imaging Specialist Princeton University Art Museum 609.258.8579 On Oct 12, 2004, at 3:31 PM, Amy Stidwill wrote: I am in the process of reviewing and updating our standards for master digital files as we switch to a new collections management system. We have not entered the realm of direct digital capture and are scanning primarily from 4 x 5 transparencies. If this sounds like your museum, please let me know what resolution and/or pixel length you are scanning at and why you chose those numbers. All replies are greatly appreciated. Many thanks, Amy Stidwill Visual Resources Manager Hillwood Museum Gardens 4155 Linnean Avenue, NW Washington, D.C. 20008 (202) 243-3910 phone (202) 966-7846 fax astidw...@hillwoodmuseum.org --- You are currently subscribed to mcn_mcn-l as: jfev...@princeton.edu To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-mcn_mcn-l-12800...@listserver.americaneagle.com --- You are currently subscribed to mcn_mcn-l as: rlancefi...@mail.wesleyan.edu To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-mcn_mcn-l-12800...@listserver.americaneagle.com
