diff --git a/modules/gallery/helpers/item.php b/modules/gallery/helpers/item.php
index 29dd8603..a2d5f74d 100644
--- a/modules/gallery/helpers/item.php
+++ b/modules/gallery/helpers/item.php
@@ -304,4 +304,89 @@ class item_Core {
       ->where("rand_key", "<", random::percent())
       ->order_by("rand_key", "DESC");
   }
+
+  /**
+   * Find the position of the given item in its parent album.  The resulting
+   * value is 1-indexed, so the first child in the album is at position 1.
+   */
+  static function get_position($item, $where=array()) {
+    $album = $item->parent();
+
+    if (!strcasecmp($album->sort_order, "DESC")) {
+      $comp = ">";
+    } else {
+      $comp = "<";
+    }
+    $query_model = ORM::factory("item");
+
+    // If the comparison column has NULLs in it, we can't use comparators on it
+    // and will have to deal with it the hard way.
+    $count = $query_model->viewable()
+      ->where("parent_id", "=", $album->id)
+      ->where($album->sort_column, "IS", null)
+      ->merge_where($where)
+      ->count_all();
+
+    if (empty($count)) {
+      // There are no NULLs in the sort column, so we can just use it directly.
+      $sort_column = $album->sort_column;
+
+      $position = $query_model->viewable()
+        ->where("parent_id", "=", $album->id)
+        ->where($sort_column, $comp, $item->$sort_column)
+        ->merge_where($where)
+        ->count_all();
+
+      // We stopped short of our target value in the sort (notice that we're
+      // using a < comparator above) because it's possible that we have
+      // duplicate values in the sort column.  An equality check would just
+      // arbitrarily pick one of those multiple possible equivalent columns,
+      // which would mean that if you choose a sort order that has duplicates,
+      // it'd pick any one of them as the child's "position".
+      //
+      // Fix this by doing a 2nd query where we iterate over the equivalent
+      // columns and add them to our base value.
+      foreach ($query_model->viewable()
+               ->select("id")
+               ->where("parent_id", "=", $album->id)
+               ->where($sort_column, "=", $item->$sort_column)
+               ->merge_where($where)
+               ->order_by(array("id" => "ASC"))
+               ->find_all() as $row) {
+        $position++;
+        if ($row->id == $item->id) {
+          break;
+        }
+      }
+    } else {
+      // There are NULLs in the sort column, so we can't use MySQL comparators.
+      // Fall back to iterating over every child row to get to the current one.
+      // This can be wildly inefficient for really large albums, but it should
+      // be a rare case that the user is sorting an album with null values in
+      // the sort column.
+      //
+      // Reproduce the children() functionality here using Database directly to
+      // avoid loading the whole ORM for each row.
+      $order_by = array($album->sort_column => $album->sort_order);
+      // Use id as a tie breaker
+      if ($album->sort_column != "id") {
+        $order_by["id"] = "ASC";
+      }
+
+      $position = 0;
+      foreach ($query_model->viewable()
+               ->select("id")
+               ->where("parent_id", "=", $album->id)
+               ->merge_where($where)
+               ->order_by($order_by)
+               ->find_all() as $row) {
+        $position++;
+        if ($row->id == $item->id) {
+          break;
+        }
+      }
+    }
+
+    return $position;
+  }
 }
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/modules/gallery/models/item.php b/modules/gallery/models/item.php
index 88a444b4..47b062b8 100644
--- a/modules/gallery/models/item.php
+++ b/modules/gallery/models/item.php
@@ -546,83 +546,12 @@ class Item_Model_Core extends ORM_MPTT {
   /**
    * Find the position of the given child id in this album.  The resulting value is 1-indexed, so
    * the first child in the album is at position 1.
+   *
+   * This method stands as a backward compatibility for gallery 3.0, and will
+   * be deprecated in version 3.1.
    */
   public function get_position($child, $where=array()) {
-    if (!strcasecmp($this->sort_order, "DESC")) {
-      $comp = ">";
-    } else {
-      $comp = "<";
-    }
-    $db = db::build();
-
-    // If the comparison column has NULLs in it, we can't use comparators on it and will have to
-    // deal with it the hard way.
-    $count = $db->from("items")
-      ->where("parent_id", "=", $this->id)
-      ->where($this->sort_column, "IS", null)
-      ->merge_where($where)
-      ->count_records();
-
-    if (empty($count)) {
-      // There are no NULLs in the sort column, so we can just use it directly.
-      $sort_column = $this->sort_column;
-
-      $position = $db->from("items")
-        ->where("parent_id", "=", $this->id)
-        ->where($sort_column, $comp, $child->$sort_column)
-        ->merge_where($where)
-        ->count_records();
-
-      // We stopped short of our target value in the sort (notice that we're using a < comparator
-      // above) because it's possible that we have duplicate values in the sort column.  An
-      // equality check would just arbitrarily pick one of those multiple possible equivalent
-      // columns, which would mean that if you choose a sort order that has duplicates, it'd pick
-      // any one of them as the child's "position".
-      //
-      // Fix this by doing a 2nd query where we iterate over the equivalent columns and add them to
-      // our base value.
-      foreach ($db
-               ->select("id")
-               ->from("items")
-               ->where("parent_id", "=", $this->id)
-               ->where($sort_column, "=", $child->$sort_column)
-               ->merge_where($where)
-               ->order_by(array("id" => "ASC"))
-               ->execute() as $row) {
-        $position++;
-        if ($row->id == $child->id) {
-          break;
-        }
-      }
-    } else {
-      // There are NULLs in the sort column, so we can't use MySQL comparators.  Fall back to
-      // iterating over every child row to get to the current one.  This can be wildly inefficient
-      // for really large albums, but it should be a rare case that the user is sorting an album
-      // with null values in the sort column.
-      //
-      // Reproduce the children() functionality here using Database directly to avoid loading the
-      // whole ORM for each row.
-      $order_by = array($this->sort_column => $this->sort_order);
-      // Use id as a tie breaker
-      if ($this->sort_column != "id") {
-        $order_by["id"] = "ASC";
-      }
-
-      $position = 0;
-      foreach ($db->select("id")
-               ->from("items")
-               ->where("parent_id", "=", $this->id)
-               ->merge_where($where)
-               ->order_by($order_by)
-               ->execute() as $row) {
-        $position++;
-        if ($row->id == $child->id) {
-          break;
-        }
-      }
-    }
-
-    return $position;
+    return item::get_position($child, $where);
   }
 
   /**