Cornell University Uses NetXposure to Simplify the Management and Distribution of Photography for Public and Private Use
New ecommerce site serves as image library and distribution channel to create new opportunity for Ivy League university
Cornell University is the most educationally diverse member of the Ivy League, renowned for unwavering dedication to its land-grant mission to provide outreach and public services. University Photography is Cornell’s commercial photography studio offering a full range of photographic services in support of the university’s communication efforts and mission to apply Cornell’s rich educational resources to transformative contributions to the world.
The department produces original photography for the marketing needs of Cornell and for the Cornell Chronicle, the university’s newspaper. It maintains an extensive library of over 25,000 Cornell images, both historical and current. Beyond the Cornell newspaper and Cornell-generated promotional material, its photography appears in national and international publications and journals as well as third-party marketing materials, exhibits, and web sites.
Challenges: Simplify Management & Distribution of Photos Cornell’s photography department shoots about 45,000 high-resolution photos of academics and research, campus life, special exhibits and events each year. With the library growing at an astounding rate, Cornell realized the need for a cost effective, easy-to-use and low maintenance solution to create and manage a centralized web-based photo library. Additionally, the photography department needed a way to simplify photo requests from internal and external clients and reduce the costs and resources associated with fulfillment of those requests.
To meet these criteria, Cornell chose NetXposure’s Image Portal, a web-based digital asset management solution (DAM) and ECKit, an ecommerce module that enables users to sell files managed from their NetXposure DAM system.
NetXposure Solution
Combining NetXposure’s DAM and ecommerce offerings, Cornell has created the University Photography Image Library at http://imagelibrary.photo.cornell.edu/, a website that makes storing, organizing and distributing digital photos easier and more efficient. It enables the department to better communicate with its internal customer and create new opportunities to further promote Cornell and the use of its valued photo assets.
More than 2,500 visitors access the Image Library website each month to browse and order images for public and private use. Benefits include:
* Fast, easy access to images: A web-based centralized repository of photos enables internal and external clients to browse and order photos in an intuitive user interface that shares the look and feel of the other Cornell websites, helping to preserve and extend the Cornell brand.
* Efficient asset management and increased productivity: Robust DAM functionality including sophisticated metadata assignment capabilities enable Cornell’s photo department to categorize and tag the photos with custom specification, streamlining team collaboration and management.
* Cost and time savings: Cornell’s photography department saves times and money by automating the distribution of photos through the ecommerce site. Traditionally, photos were distributed via email or burned to CDs and shipped. This manual process was time-consuming and costly for the photography department and was frustrating for those requesting photos and reprints.
* Secure and flexible commerce transactions: NetXposure delivers a customizable shopping cart template that enables the department to display photo specifications and price information. It allows the addition or exemption of sales tax to be applied to the total purchase amount based on user specifications. Credit card transactions can be authenticated and processed against several payment gateways like Verisign and CyberCash.
* Expanded business opportunities and improved service to clients: Creating a commerce platform for the distribution of photos helps extend the value of Cornell’s existing and new digital assets. For example, photographs of the 2007 Commencement Ceremony are available for purchase via the ecommerce website and the photo department is currently expanding accessibility for external clients to create new asset based offerings.
“NetXposure and our new website have opened up our photo archives and day-to-day business in a way that wasn’t possible before,” said Corey Chimko, digital resources coordinator for University Photography at Cornell. “It allows us to take our digital assets and better promote and distribute them to the public, which in some cases before just languished in file cabinets.”
The Cornell University Photography department is currently expanding the capabilities of its ecommerce site, adding permissions-based accessibility and other security features that will control access to certain photos and collections. The University believes this will enable them to better serve external clients and partners, including national and international media partners and research organizations, and create new revenue opportunities for Cornell.
Cornell University Uses NetXposure to Simplify the Management and Distribution of Photography for Public and Private Use
New ecommerce site serves as image library and distribution channel to create new opportunity for Ivy League university.
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Cornell University is the most educationally diverse member of the Ivy League, renowned for unwavering dedication to its land-grant mission to provide outreach and public services. University Photography is Cornell’s commercial photography studio offering a full range of photographic services in support of the university’s communication efforts and mission to apply Cornell’s rich educational resources to transformative contributions to the world.
The department produces original photography for the marketing needs of Cornell and for the Cornell Chronicle, the university’s newspaper. It maintains an extensive library of over 25,000 Cornell images, both historical and current. Beyond the Cornell newspaper and Cornell-generated promotional material, its photography appears in national and international publications and journals as well as third-party marketing materials, exhibits, and web sites.
Challenges: Simplify Management & Distribution of Photos Cornell’s photography department shoots about 45,000 high-resolution photos of academics and research, campus life, special exhibits and events each year. With the library growing at an astounding rate, Cornell realized the need for a cost effective, easy-to-use and low maintenance solution to create and manage a centralized web-based photo library. Additionally, the photography department needed a way to simplify photo requests from internal and external clients and reduce the costs and resources associated with fulfillment of those requests.
To meet these criteria, Cornell chose NetXposure’s Image Portal, a web-based digital asset management solution (DAM) and ECKit, an ecommerce module that enables users to sell files managed from their NetXposure DAM system.
NetXposure Solution
Combining NetXposure’s DAM and ecommerce offerings, Cornell has created the University Photography Image Library at http://imagelibrary.photo.cornell.edu/, a website that makes storing, organizing and distributing digital photos easier and more efficient. It enables the department to better communicate with its internal customer and create new opportunities to further promote Cornell and the use of its valued photo assets.
More than 2,500 visitors access the Image Library website each month to browse and order images for public and private use. Benefits include:
- Fast, easy access to images: A web-based centralized repository of photos enables internal and external clients to browse and order photos in an intuitive user interface that shares the look and feel of the other Cornell websites, helping to preserve and extend the Cornell brand.
- Efficient asset management and increased productivity: Robust DAM functionality including sophisticated metadata assignment capabilities enable Cornell’s photo department to categorize and tag the photos with custom specification, streamlining team collaboration and management.
- Cost and time savings: Cornell’s photography department saves times and money by automating the distribution of photos through the ecommerce site. Traditionally, photos were distributed via email or burned to CDs and shipped. This manual process was time-consuming and costly for the photography department and was frustrating for those requesting photos and reprints.
- Secure and flexible commerce transactions: NetXposure delivers a customizable shopping cart template that enables the department to display photo specifications and price information. It allows the addition or exemption of sales tax to be applied to the total purchase amount based on user specifications. Credit card transactions can be authenticated and processed against several payment gateways like Verisign and CyberCash.
- Expanded business opportunities and improved service to clients: Creating a commerce platform for the distribution of photos helps extend the value of Cornell’s existing and new digital assets. For example, photographs of the 2007 Commencement Ceremony are available for purchase via the ecommerce website and the photo department is currently expanding accessibility for external clients to create new asset based offerings.
“NetXposure and our new website have opened up our photo archives and day-to-day business in a way that wasn’t possible before,” said Corey Chimko, digital resources coordinator for University Photography at Cornell. “It allows us to take our digital assets and better promote and distribute them to the public, which in some cases before just languished in file cabinets.”
The Cornell University Photography department is currently expanding the capabilities of its ecommerce site, adding permissions-based accessibility and other security features that will control access to certain photos and collections. The University believes this will enable them to better serve external clients and partners, including national and international media partners and research organizations, and create new revenue opportunities for Cornell.
