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Last week I sent out a request asking about commercial databases that are
being used successfully for image databases, and was asked to summarize the
responses.  Several people mentioned MS Access and FileMaker Pro, although
these require quite a bit of work upfront. Other products mentioned were
MediaSphere, from a company called Cascade; Re:Discovery at
www.rediscov.com; PhotoImpact; Cumulus; and ImageAXS Pro.  Here are some
comments:

Cascade web page on MediaSphere:
http://www.cascadenet.com/products/mediasphere.html
This product is geared to the media, and most of its users seem to be
newspapers and other news media.  It allows "keywords and filter searches as
well as free text searching.  We have 250,000 images on it..."

Review of PhotoImpact:
http://www.winmag.com/library/1998/0401/other082.htm
PhotoImpact home page:
http://www.ulead.com/pi/runme.htm
This is Windows only, no Mac version.  It is an "image editing solution".
The person who uses it says it seems to have "more than enough
search/find/sort options."

Cumulus, by Canto, web page:
http://www.canto-software.com
I have used this minimally and read the manual.  It seems fine for image
houses, but has limitations in size and search capabilities.  Web use
involves programming.

ImageAXS Pro, by Digital Arts & Sciences, web page:
http://www.dascorp.com/products/iaxspro/
I have used this minimally as well.  One user said the the web export
feature on ImageAXS Pro permits searching, but only on keywords, not on
other fields such as artist, title, or location.

EmbARK, also produced by Digital Arts & Sciences, web page:
http://www.dascorp.com/products/embark/
This one is more powerful and costly then ImageAXS, and is used principally
by art museums and slide libraries.  Nice package, but expensive.

Re:discovery home page:
www.rediscov.com
Used by cultural institutions, including the National Park Service.
Comments were that the package is expensive and inflexible.  At least one
person is  happy with it, stating that it "works, and has great support".

I have come across another one, by Gallery Systems, called the "Museum
System".  For use by museums for their collections.  Very expensive.  Their
web page is http://gallerysystems.com

I hope this is useful to some of you, and a special thanks to all who replied.

Eileen Mathias

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Eileen Mathias, Reference Librarian / Image Center Coordinator
Academy of Natural Sciences
Ewell Sale Stewart Library
1900 Benjamin Franklin Parkway
Philadelphia PA 19103
(215) 299-1140
(215) 299-1144  FAX
mathias@say.acnatsci.org