Belmont Webmaster's Journal: Images - We need your pictures, NOW!

Last week, Adrian sent out an email to our CONNIE owners and users requesting images by email for use on the new web design. Thusfar, very few have responded. Let me insert a sense of urgency into Adrian's request and offer an explanation of how images will be managed in our new system. This is a new system (to all of us) and it means doing business in a different way.

First of all, we want our content providers, publishers, and site managers to have a much higher ability to add images to their sites than they have ever had before. At the same time, we want a system that allows oversight and review of images that are available for web use. The new liibrary or (image asset management system) in Hannon Hill will help us to insure image quality, to insure appropriate image file size, to eliminate disc storage of duplicate images, and the ability to track the age of images on our site.

To accomplish the objectives outlined, all images used on our web site will come from a centralized, image asset area. Content creators/developers will see this from their dashboard (control panel) and will be able to browse to a specific image and insert it into a page, much like you might insert an image into a Word document.

So, here is the (proposed) process for managing images on the www.belmont.edu site:

Make sure that someone is actually capturing images that you might need (don't laugh, this step gets overlooked more than you can imagine)
Get images to UMAC (Adrian or Morton) either on a CD or by email (CD if there are several; email if it involves just a few).
Let Adrain and company know how you might want to use the images (large, pagewidth banners or smaller inserts into stories, profiles, and other content
Once received by UMAC, your images will be reviewed, cropped, re-sized, optimized, color balanced, and stored in an image directory where you have access rights
You can design your content (unpublished) using image placeholders until the new images are available
Your image will (probably) be assigned an expiration date...when that date arrives, a decision to replace or delete that image will help us maintain a level of freshness to the site that has been difficult to accomplish in the past

Some images may be assigned for exclusive use by your department. Some images that you submit may be assigned to a directory that several users can access...great shots need broader exposure but not overuse, we can track where and how often an image is used in this new system.

The plan and process will work best if you get your images to UMAC as soon as you can. There may be several hundred images processed in the next 6-8 weeks, so please do not wait until August to submit your images. The more images submitted by July 1, the better...please, please help us out by getting images submitted early.