Image Workflow Processes Elspeth Haston, Robert Cubey, Martin Pullan & David J Harris

Large scale digitisation programmes are becoming more common, resulting in: Large numbers of files – potentially nearly 3,000,000 for Edinburgh herbarium (E) High quality images Large file size – c. 150MB each Images captured with minimal data records These images need to be managed and made available and the scale is too large for completely manual processes

Image polling & metadata capture Capture Image Edit Image Save Image Create jpg & zoomify Serve Online OCR Archive Save tiff & raw Dropbox QC User System Image workflow being developed at RBGE incorporating: image capture automated image processing metadata recording optical character recognition quality control image streaming online archiving

Save Image Edit Image Capture Image Image polling & metadata capture Create jpg & zoomify Serve Online OCR Archive Save tiff & raw Dropbox QC Capture Image Edit Image Save Image Image captured using digital camera or scanner Image edited in Leaf Capture software and/or Adobe Photoshop Images saved into folders batches consisting of ¼ day’s work are checked for quality prior to being transferred

Edit Image Capture Image Image polling & metadata capture Save Image Create jpg & zoomify Serve Online OCR Archive Save tiff & raw Dropbox QC A series of dropbox folders are used to facilitate the use of parallel processing an internal folder structure contains the equipment and operator names which form part of the metadata The image management system polls the dropbox folders any new image files are registered in a MySQL data base and the metadata (equipment, operator, date, etc) are recorded Image polling & metadata capture Dropbox

Image polling & metadata capture Capture Image Edit Image Save Image Create jpg & zoomify Serve Online OCR Archive Save tiff & raw Dropbox QC A copy of the image is processed using ABBYY Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software the text is recorded in the MySQL database to facilitate searching a pdf is available to help users carry out additional data entry from the image OCR QC We are developing a quality control checking process provides an interface for a user to open images and record a quality assessment enable correction and appending or overwriting as appropriate Additional modular components

Image polling & metadata capture Capture Image Edit Image Save Image Create jpg & zoomify Serve Online OCR Archive Save tiff & raw Dropbox QC The image management system creates a jpg and a zoomify version of the image files The tiff and the raw files are saved into a zip folder Create jpg & zoomify Serve Online Archive Save tiff & raw The zoomify files are served online, enabling users to zoom in and examine the specimen in detail The zip folders comprising the tiff and the raw file are then archived onto tape and external hard drives

Image polling & metadata capture Capture Image Edit Image Save Image Create jpg & zoomify Serve Online OCR Archive Save tiff & raw Dropbox QC The location of each file is also recorded in the MySQL database Create jpg & zoomify Serve Online Archive Save tiff & raw Image polling & metadata capture

The image workflow system at RBGE has now processed over 130,000 images. modular system has flexibility, but each new module may require access to the archived tiff files and some level of reprocessing may be necessary it has proved unfeasible to maintain the tiff and raw files on a server during the development of the workflow backlogs built up which can have a large impact on image management and on the curation of the collections

The workflow is enabling us to manage the images effectively: the system helps with the integration of digitisation and curation in the herbarium requests for images and data are easily managed and users will shortly be able to download images and data directly the modular element will allow us to incorporate a georeferencing tool the workflow is allowing us to manage several large digitisation projects in an integrated system

Thank you