Expert: LizaL - 10/18/2004

Question
I've been given an assignment at work to organize our graphics library.  I wanted to know if there was some sort of industry standard or some systematic method used to go about doing this.  
My inclination was to first break the graphics down by separate folder:
BMP Folder
JPG Folder
TIFF Folder
GIF Folder
and then separate by major subcategories (I'm cheating here - I'm looking at a PhotoDisc Resource Book) such as:
BUSINESS & INDUSTRY
PEOPLE & LIFESTYLES
BACKGROUND & TEXTURES
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
WORLD COMMERCE & TRAVEL
NATURE, WILDLIFE, ENVIRONMENT
BUSINESS & OCCUPATIONS
BACKGROUNDS & OBJECTS
HOLIDAYS & CELEBRATIONS
SPORTS & RECREATION
RETRO AMERICANA
FOOD & DINING
FINE ART PRINTS & PHOTOGRAPHS
BUSINESS & TRANSPORTATION
FAMILY & LIFESTYLES

Some of those topics obviously seem to overlap.  Anyway, I wanted to know if there is anything to be aware of or if there is a 'better' way to organize all of our different types of files.

Thank you,
Landon


Answer
Hi Landon,

Boy, you sound like you're on the ball with this project! You didn't cheat, either; looking at the Resource Book was a good idea.

I've got several CDs with royalty-free art, and your categories look real similar to those on my discs.

The only other one I might suggest would be Web Graphics. And you might make break down Nature, Wildlife and Environment and have a separate Animals category.

When labelling, you might also do something like "Family & Lifestyles" and underneath, list specifically what's in that part of the library, like "Babies, Mothers, Fathers, Teens..." etc.

You might also consider separating "Fine Art Prints" and "Photographs," and doing the same thing. "Fine Art Prints: Van Gogh, Gaugin, Matisse, etc." -- "Photographs: Ansel Adams, Man Ray, etc."

I don't know if they need for you to go into that much detail -- just a thought.  And I really don't know if there's a way to keep things from overlapping. Better they overlap, though, than have not enough information!

Sounds like you've got it under control! If you need any ideas, please don't hesitate to post back.

Lisa