If you are using Bridge in CS or CS 2 then you can do quite a bit. This allows you to not only view but when you make selections you can can update the Metadata and even set up templates of your name, address, email, website and most importantly your copyright for large number of images.
You can even rearrange the images for contact sheets, slide shows, and web pages and by going to Tools>Photoshop>and then pick the function you want Photoshop will work in the background to do these and you can keep working in Bridge. Vist Russel Brown's site
www.russellbrown.com and he has scripts and actions which can make your workflow easier and they are free.
Work in RAW, then Bridge is the way to go. You can select a number of images shot under the same lighting and correct them all with the ACR in Bridge. But here is another quick tip. Hold down Shift + Ctrl and click on a RAW file and it will open directly into Photoshop without going to the ACR. If you have already corrected and saved the RAW images this is a great time saver.
In CS 3 Bridge got even better. It is faster and you can re arrange your work space for what ever works best for you. You can select some images and by just clicking on the preview with the little magnify glass you get a 100% Lupe view. Very handy for checking out a large file for sharpness or detail.
In CS 3 you can also download you images from the camera or card reader and at the same time Rename, Place into folders, save the original file name in Metadata, and if you have a template of your metadate done you can it run it at the same time the images are imported. You can even save a copy of images to a second folder or drive while they are being imported.