Home  News RightsAssist and PhotoAssist support FEMA Photo Desk
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RightsAssist and PhotoAssist support FEMA Photo Desk |
Washington, D.C. -- In the wake of a disaster, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) works tirelessly to plan, coordinate and deploy the Federal and State government resources. The FEMA Office of Public Affairs (OPA) communicates with the media and the general public to provide information about a disaster and the progress of rescue and recovery operations. As part of the OPA the Photo News Desk posts images of these efforts on the FEMA web site daily. Images are submitted via file transfer protocols, email, film and digital flashcards.
FEMA's OPA selected PhotoAssist, Inc. to staff the Photo News Desk and to design and implement a searchable database capable of storing and delivering digital copies of the FEMA photographs. Working with the RightsAssist software development team, PhotoAssist designed a content management system that could be hosted on the FEMA servers, could be searched by users within the FEMA network and over the web.
The FEMA database is based in part on the ContentPro module and offers many of the same features. These include the automated entry of IPTC and EXIF information into the system and writing to files as well as creating lightboxes for organization and easy access directly from the system.
Digital images are captioned by the FEMA photographers and then submitted to the Photo Desk where they are indexed and catalogued in batches to the image database. The database shows users a thumbnail of each image which is directly linked to a high resolution copy, allowing for self-service image requests.
Currently, Photo Desk staff members are converting high and low res images from a earlier defunct system called C-Quest. Historical analog images are scanned and added to the database on an as-needed basis. The database is currently being tested on the FEMA intranet. Plans to release the database to the public have been delayed by recent events.
Holly Harrington, Public Affairs Officer for FEMA, says about the system: "I am very pleased. It is easy to use; they understood exactly what we needed and created something that supports our needs."
FEMA's searchable photo library is available at http://www.photolibrary.fema.gov
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