Megan,
On batch uploading, the
CSVImport
plugin might be closer to what you are looking for. You just
need to put the metadata and files into a CSV file, with the files
pointing to a URL for the files on the web.
On the collections/items question, that's a little tricky and
somewhat subjective to the particular needs of your project,
especially its metadata. If you are talking about locations (both
intersections and, I presume, different locations along a road?),
then each different photograph sounds like a different Item in
order to assign the location as precisely as possible. An
alternative conception would be to say that each location --
whether particular spot on a road or intersection -- could be the
Item. Then, photographs, oral histories, or whatever files would
be associated with a specific location.
It kinda depends on how precisely the locations will work. It's an
interpretative step that could go either way. Key thing is that
for that mapping, locations have to be assigned to Items --
Collections can't have map locations assigned to them. So, the
core question is first what needs location data (those'll be
Items), then figure out how to organize and display them, and the
related files.
Hope that helps. Happy to expand on the thoughts here as will be
more helpful.
I'm also curious about more of why it seems like Omeka wouldn't be
a good fit, and what other tools you are thinking of that might be
better. (Drupal, with a lot of configuration, seems a possible
alternative from what you describe so far.)
Patrick