Story House guidance
- Florence Edwards
Story House is our asset library, with photos of our storytellers/case studies, social housing, temporary accommodation and more. It also includes case study write-ups.
Looking for brand graphics (logos, brushstrokes etc)? No need to request these on Story House – you can download them directly from the Brand Hub.
If you have any questions about Story House, please contact the Content team at editorialallusers@shelter.org.uk.
Logging in
You can access Story House from the ‘Resource Hub’ on the InHouse home page, or this URL: https://imagehouse.shelter.org.uk/login.php
All Shelter staff can log in to Story House through single sign-on. Click the red button on the sign-in screen. Please don’t try to log in with a username and password (the blue button) as you may be locked out of your account.
If you need to set up access to Story House for external users, such as an agency:
Email the Content team at editorialallusers@shelter.org.uk with:
the names and email addresses of the people who require access
why they need access and what project they’re working on
how long they require access – we usually limit this for external users to between 6 and 12 months
Send them the link to Story House and ask them to complete a user request form by clicking ‘Apply for an account’ at the bottom of the login screen. We can then approve their accounts.
Searching for assets
You can search for images on Story House through the themed folders on the home page, or by keywords using the search box on the right.
In the search box, select the type of asset you need, such as photos or story summaries. You can type your keyword directly into the free text box or use the drop-down menus for suggested keywords. We recommend using the drop-down menus to make sure you’re using the right terminology, which gives better search results.
Click ‘Advanced search’ at the bottom of the search box to see more specific filters. This is useful to refine your search by narrower categories or themes, e.g. ‘Teenager’ or ‘Eviction’.
Before requesting an asset, check the ‘Resource details’ below the image, especially:
expiry date – if the expiry date is close, consider using an alternative image, particularly if it will be publicly visible for a long time (e.g., on the website)
usage restrictions – any limitations on where the image can be used
Requesting assets
To request a single image/asset, you can click on the thumbnail of the image you’ve selected and then click ‘Request’ below the image. Don’t worry about choosing the right file size, as, once approved, you’ll have access to all available sizes for that image.
To request multiple images/assets, you’ll need to create a collection. In the collection bar at the bottom of the page, click the dropdown menu under ‘Current collection’ and select ‘Create new collection’. Name your collection then press enter.
Navigate to the images that you would like to include. Click on the plus icon in the corner of the thumbnail to add it to your collection – it will appear in the collection bar at the bottom of the screen.
Once you’ve selected all the images, you can click ‘Actions’ in the collection bar and then ‘View all’ to review. Then, click ‘Actions’ again and ‘Request all’ – this is much easier than individually requesting all the images.
You can also click ‘Share’ to generate a URL. This allows you to share collections with internal and external people, so you don’t have to email large image files. To create a URL for external users, you’ll need to provide an expiry date and password.
Please include the following information in your request:
whether the images are for internal or external use
where the images will be used e.g. social media post, website page, presentation
if you have approval from the Stories team to use a case study image (if not, this isn’t a problem as we can liaise with them for sign-off)
any deadlines
We’ll try to approve your request as soon as possible. For images of our case studies/storytellers that will be used externally, please allow three working days as we’ll need to contact the Stories team. Any other images or those for internal use only should be approved within one working day.