This paper describes research undertaken to understand end user needs within the scope of a large, online, historically centred photojournalism image database. The framework used included an examination of browsing vs. searching habits, of Dublin Core metadata elements used when conducting advanced searches, and of trends in types of search terms. Results suggest few visitors to the site use the site's search functionality and very few use advanced search. An analysis of search term characteristics, built on the work of Jörgensen (1998), suggests a new way to approach social tagging in a future implementation of the photojournalism image database.