I recommend providing the user with some kind of searching functionality in the "browse" window. This offers the user an easier way of perusing through multiple images.
The user enters their desired search into the search textfield and clicks the submit button. This functionality is particularly helpful when a user is trying to find a particular image. The user should be able to search the entire gallery or filter the search by collection folder, file type (ie: gif, jpeg, png), file name, image title or by a word that is contained in the initial description entered by the instructor into the description textarea within the resources tool.
Upon clicking the submit button, the search method searches the images in the database to find a match with the users input. Then, the view changes to display only the thumbnails that reflect the search terms entered in the "find" textfield.
This kind of functionality could be implemented by using a search servich such as CARET.