Applying taxonomies to media library images?

Hi all,
Forgive me if this is a silly question - I'm only a beginner with this and I may have missed something obvious.
I love the plug-in and I'm sure it can achieve what I need. In a nutshell, I have a portfolio of images which need additional information attached to them: artist, sitter biography, media used, etc. I can create custom taxonomies and apply them to Media post-types. The taxonomy fields appear as expected when I edit an image in the Media Library. However, I'm struggling to make this useful because:
1) I have to type the taxonomy terms into the fields - I cannot select them from a list as I hoped.
2) I can't see how to make information carefully entered into the new metaboxes display along with the relevant image in the gallery lightbox, or anywhere else for that matter - not in a tag cloud, a sidebar or a custom menu.
Hoping somebody can point me to the relevant part(s) of the documentation please, or send some tips as to where I might start delving into the php.
Many thanks in advance,
Matt