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This paper seeks to examine image retrieval within two different contexts: a monolingual context where the language of the query is the same as the indexing language and a multilingual context where the language of the query is different from the indexing language. The study also aims to compare two different approaches for the indexing of ordinary images representing common objects: traditional image indexing with the use of a controlled vocabulary and free image indexing using uncontrolled vocabulary.

This research uses three data collection methods. An analysis of the indexing terms was employed in order to examine the multiplicity of term types assigned to images. A simulation of the retrieval process involving a set of 30 images was performed with 60 participants. The quantification of the retrieval performance of each indexing approach was based on the usability measures, that is, effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction of the user. Finally, a questionnaire was used to gather information on searcher satisfaction during and after the retrieval process.

The results of this research are twofold. The analysis of indexing terms associated with all the 3,950 images provides a comprehensive description of the characteristics of the four non‐combined indexing forms used for the study. Also, the retrieval simulation results offers information about the relative performance of the six indexing forms (combined and non‐combined) in terms of their effectiveness, efficiency (temporal and human) and the image searcher's satisfaction.

The findings of the study suggest that, in the near future, the information systems could benefit from allowing an increased coexistence of controlled vocabularies and uncontrolled vocabularies, resulting from collaborative image tagging, for example, and giving the users the possibility to dynamically participate in the image‐indexing process, in a more user‐centred way.

This paper seeks to report a project to investigate the degree of inter‐indexer consistency in the assignment of controlled vocabulary topical subject index terms to identical graphical images by different indexers at the National Library of Wales (NLW).

An experimental quantitative methodology was devised to investigate inter‐indexer consistency. Additionally, the project investigated the relationship, if any, between indexing exhaustivity and consistency, and the relationship, if any, between indexing consistency/exhaustivity and broad category of graphic format.

Inter‐indexer consistency in the assignment of topical subject index terms to graphic materials at the NLW was found to be generally low and highly variable. Inter‐indexer consistency fell within the range 10.8 per cent to 48.0 per cent. Indexing exhaustivity varied substantially from indexer to indexer, with a mean assignment of 3.8 terms by each indexer to each image, falling within the range 2.5 to 4.7 terms. The broad category of graphic format, whether photographic or non‐photographic, was found to have little influence on either inter‐indexer consistency or indexing exhaustivity. Indexing exhaustivity and inter‐indexer consistency exhibited a tendency toward a direct, positive relationship. The findings are necessarily limited as this is a small‐scale study within a single institution.

Previous consistency studies have almost exclusively investigated the indexing of print materials, with very little research published for non‐print media. With the literature also rich in discussion of the added complexities of subjectively representing the intellectual content of visual media, this study attempts to enrich existing knowledge on indexing consistency for graphic materials and to address a noticeable gap in information theory.

User‐created metadata, often referred to as folksonomy or social classification, has received a considerable amount of attention in the digital library world. Social tagging is perceived as a tool for enhancing description of digital objects and providing a venue for user input and greater user engagement. This article seeks to examine the pros and cons of user‐generated metadata in the context of digital image collections and compares it to professionally created metadata schema and controlled vocabulary tools.

The article provides an overview of challenges to concept‐based image indexing. It analyzes the characteristics of social classification and compares images described by users to a set of images indexed in a digital collection.

The article finds that user‐generated metadata vary in the level of description, accuracy, and consistency and do not provide a solution to the challenges of image indexing. On the other hand, they reflects user's language and can lead toward user‐centered indexing and greater user engagement.

Social tagging can be implemented as a supplement to professionally created metadata records to provide an opportunity for users to comment on images.

The article introduces the idea of user‐centered image indexing in digital collections.

The purpose of this research is to describe the development of an indexing template to guide the indexing of images using keywords. The template is designed to be used for indexing the image collection held at The Children's Society.

A facet matrix based on analysis of existing studies was used to identify the most popular user query facets from user studies in the literature. A total of 33 archivists were surveyed regarding indexing practice and indexing wish‐lists. The results of these investigative activities were synthesised to produce an indexing template.

The results of this study suggest that indexing general entities and activities could be more comprehensive than is currently the case. A practical indexing template is proposed for organisations wishing to index image collections.

This article reports a project undertaken on behalf of The Children's Society to design an image indexing system for use with their photographic collection. Its method of enquiry is based on an application and interpretation of the Shatford‐Ensor matrix.

This paper surveys theoretical and practical issues associated with a particular type of information retrieval problem, namely that where the information need is pictorial. The paper is contextualised by the notion of a visually stimulated society, in which the ease of record creation and transmission in the visual medium is contrasted with the difficulty of gaining effective subject access to the world's stores of such records. The technological developments which, in casting the visual image in electronic form, have contributed so significantly to its availability are reviewed briefly, as a prelude to the main thrust of the paper. Concentrating on still and moving pictorial forms of the visual image, the paper dwells on issues related to the subject indexing of pictorial material and discusses four models of pictorial information retrieval corresponding with permutations of the verbal and visual modes for the representation of picture content and of information need.

The purpose of this conceptual paper is to consider the possibility of designing a story-based image indexing system based on users’ descriptions of images. It reports a pilot study which uses users’ descriptions of two images.

Eight interviews were undertaken to investigate storytelling in user interpretations of the images. Following this, storytelling was explored as an indexing input method. In all, 26 research subjects were asked to create stories about the images, which were then considered in relation to conventional story elements and in relation to Hidderley and Rafferty's (2005) image modality model.

The results of the semi-structured interviews revealed that the majority of interpretations incorporated story elements related to setting, character, plot, literary devices, and themes. The 52 image stories included story elements identified in the first part of the project, and suggested that the image modality model is robust enough to deal with the “writerly” images used in this study. In addition, using storytelling as an input method encourages the use of verbs and connotative level responses.

User indexing is generally based on paradigmatic approaches to concept analysis and interpretation in the form of tagging; the novelty of the current study is its exploration of syntagmatic approaches to user indexing in the form of storytelling. It is a pilot, proof of concept study, but it is hoped that it might stimulate further interest in syntagmatic approaches to user indexing.

The purpose of this paper is two‐fold: to examine three models of subject indexing (i.e. expert‐led indexing, author‐generated indexing, and user‐orientated indexing); and to compare and contrast two user‐orientated indexing approaches (i.e. the theoretically‐based Democratic Indexing project, and Flickr, a working system for describing photographs).

The approach to examining Flickr and Democratic Indexing is evaluative. The limitations of Flickr are described and examples are provided. The Democratic Indexing approach, which the authors believe offers a method of marshalling a “free” user‐indexed archive to provide useful retrieval functions, is described.

The examination of both Flickr and the Democratic Indexing approach suggests that, despite Shirky's claim of philosophical paradigm shifting for social tagging, there is a residing doubt amongst information professionals that self‐organising systems can work without there being some element of control and some form of “representative authority”.

This paper contributes to the literature of user‐based indexing and social tagging.

The difficulty of attributing subject to editorial cartoons for indexing purposes exists both for traditional paper-based cartoon formats and for digitized or born-digital cartoons. This paper presents a selective review of literature on indexing editorial cartoons and the associated challenges.

A gap exists in published research on indexing collections of editorial cartoons for online search and retrieval. This paper presents a review of selected works that specifically address the topic of editorial cartoon indexing within a wider context of research that addresses image indexing, subject analysis and indexing challenges more generally. Works that address the interpretation of cartoons by readers and how readers respond to information communicated by editorial cartoons are also considered.

Cartoon controversies in transnational and multicultural contexts, experienced through the international news media since 2000, have dramatically increased research attention and publications in this area. Profound changes in media publication since the advent of the Internet have had an impact on editorial cartoonists and cartoon publishing. Subject indexing of editorial cartoons remains a challenge.

The potential for large indexed cartoon collections to be data-mined for topic modeling for research in the social sciences points to the need for indexers of cartoon collections to improve metadata standards and structures to allow improved access to cartoon metadata for computational analysis.

This paper places discussion of the technical challenges facing indexers of editorial cartoons within a broader context of discussions about the nature and future of editorial cartooning in rapidly changing media and publishing environments.

This paper aims to present the results of the first phase of a research project aiming to develop a bilingual taxonomy for the description of digital images. The objectives of this extensive exploration were to acquire knowledge from the existing standards for image description and to assess how they can be integrated in the development of the new taxonomy.

An evaluation of 150 resources for organizing and describing images was carried out. In the first phase, the authors examined the use of controlled vocabularies and prescribed metadata in 70 image collections held by four types of organizations (libraries, museums, image search engines and commercial web sites). The second phase focused on user‐generated tagging in 80 image‐sharing resources, including both free and fee‐based services.

The first part of the evaluation showed that each resource presented comparable information for the images or items being described. Best practices and implementation proved to be largely consistent within each of the four categories of organizations. The second part revealed two trends: in image‐upload systems, there was a virtual absence of mandated structure beyond user name and tags; and in stock photography resources, the authors encountered a hybrid of taxonomies working in combination with user tags.

The analysis of best practices for the organization of digital images used by indexing specialists and non‐specialists alike has been a crucial step, since it provides the basic guidelines and standards for the categories and formats of terms, and relationships to be included in the new bilingual taxonomy, which will be developed in the next phase of the research project.

This study aims to consider the value of user‐assigned image tags by comparing the facets that are represented in image tags with those that are present in image queries to see if there is a similarity in the way that users describe and search for images.

A sample dataset was created by downloading a selection of images and associated tags from Flickr, the online photo‐sharing web site. The tags were categorised using image facets from Shatford's matrix, which has been widely used in previous research into image indexing and retrieval. The facets present in the image tags were then compared with the results of previous research into image queries.

The results reveal that there are broad similarities between the facets present in image tags and queries, with people and objects being the most common facet, followed by location. However, the results also show that there are differences in the level of specificity between tags and queries, with image tags containing more generic terms and image queries consisting of more specific terms. The study concludes that users do describe and search for images using similar image facets, but that measures to close the gap between specific queries and generic tags would improve the value of user tags in indexing image collections.

Research into tagging has tended to focus on textual resources with less research into non‐textual documents. In particular, little research has been undertaken into how user tags compare to the terms used in search queries, particularly in the context of digital images.