New Keedup keywording manager wants to help libraries find a "third way"

Newmarket, Auckland, NZ, Mar. 05, 2008. Helping photo libraries find a fresh combination of quality and price is the aim of Keedup´s new head of stock keywording, Arwen Lucas. The 28-year-old former librarian was named this week as Stock Keywording Manager, replacing Corinne Hall who is leaving the company to travel overseas.

"Low cost providers in India and Asia, or high-priced providers in Britain and America are seen by many libraries as the only alternatives when it comes to keywording", says Mrs Lucas. "At keedup we’re working on a third way – high-quality at moderate prices".

Mrs Lucas, who has worked at Fairfax Sunday Newspapers and Xerox, says that the message is starting to get through, with New Zealand-based Keedup currently churning through batch after batch of test images for prospective clients. "Many of the people we’re dealing with have gone the low-cost route and the high-cost route and found both wanting".

Mrs Lucas says the secret to good keywording is preparing templates and vocabularies to meet the individual needs of customers, not adopting a one-fits-all approach.

"I´ve been amazed by some of the stories I’ve heard of keywording companies which won’t put in requested words, or miss obvious keywords such as ‘father’ in a family photo. The best way to avoid those sorts of mistakes is to take the time to get things right first time as far as possible and listen to feedback from the customers when they have specific requests".

Having spent the past year building Keedup´s vocabularies she is acutely aware that keywording is no easy task, particularly because different submission guidelines can be fairly arbitrary regarding which keywords they prefer.

"Getty may want it one way, Corbis another and so on. In some areas there is surprisingly little consensus. The job of a keywording company is to fit in to all those requirements".

Mrs Lucas, who is fluent in English and German and lists art and history among her interests, says that a varied general knowledge is essential for good keywording staff.

"In New Zealand we have the luxury of being able to employ almost exclusively people with university education. Even then we have to make sure that people have a broad knowledge of the world, and test them to make sure. Being an ace at Trivial Pursuit isn’t a necessity for the job, but it sure helps".

 

For more information about Keedup Ltd, visit www.keedup.com.