1. A method of managing media items in a media retrieval system, comprising: when a user opens a new session with the retrieval system, authenticating the user as a member of a pre-registered group, importing media items from the user, determining whether the media items have been tagged with valid selections of persons associated with the group, event types associated with the group or dates, for each media item that has been tagged, storing the respective media item in an archive associated with the group, the archiving protecting the media item against subsequent deletion, for each media item that has not been tagged, storing the respective media item in a temporary workspace associated with the group, the temporary workspace storing the respective media item for a predetermined period of time.