The importance of Digital Asset Management — An update from the DAM and Museums 2024 Online Event
Hello, I’m Alea Cook and I recently started working in the Cambridge University Library’s (CUL’s) Digital Preservation Programme as the Digital Preservation Analyst.
Digital Asset Management (DAM) systems play a critical role in the cultural heritage and private sectors. These systems serve as centralized repositories, ensuring the organization and preservation of digital content for the long term. DAM systems facilitate organized access through efficient categorization and metadata management, improving searchability for researchers or other regular users.
On February 8th, 2024 Henry Stewart Conferences hosted a collaborative online event featuring several case studies from cultural heritage institutions on implementing new DAM systems, a round table discussion on best practices and lessons learned, and speakers from 3 different DAM organisations who sponsored the event. The main event was led by David Lipsey, an international advisor specializing in maximizing the value of organizations’ digital assets.
The DAM and Museums event emphasized the contribution of DAM systems to public outreach and education by enabling online exhibits and educational resources. DAM systems also play a key role in digitization efforts, effectively managing large volumes of digitized content.
DAM systems help cultural heritage institutions keep up with new technologies, incorporating the latest advancements to enhance accessibility and engagement. This contributes to the long-term sustainability and accessibility of cultural heritage assets for future generations.
Below is a summary of the speakers whose presentations are relevant to the work we are doing at Cambridge University Libraries.
A Digital Transformation Journey: Implementing a New Digital Collection Ecosystem Across Oxford University Museums
Speaker: Aruna Bhaugeerutty, Head of Digital Collections at the Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology
Aruna spoke about her work with the Ashmolean Museum’s digital collections transformation. The Ashmolean Museum, as the world’s first public and university museum, houses an extensive collection of 30 million items, forming the largest university collection globally. The museum embarked on a major digital project eight years ago, aiming to digitize and make its entire collection available online. Despite initial challenges with scalability and lost content in the early stages, the implementation was successful, involving an investment of over £3 million and a five-year journey.
Their journey involved capturing staff needs, tendering suppliers, data mapping, and continuous improvement, emphasizing the impact of Agile methodology and stakeholder collaboration. She emphasised the importance of understanding the evolving digital landscape, including AI potential.
Ensuring Digital Legacy and Security: Unveiling the Essentials of Digital Preservation
Speakers: Craig Bollig and Emily Hughes from Orange Logic
Orange Logic specializes in managing digital assets to ensure their preservation and accessibility over time. They understand the importance of not only preserving data but also ensuring its accessibility despite rapid technological changes and the risk of format obsolescence. Their strategies involve implementing effective digital practices such as backup, emulation of different environments, and protection against loss.
They offer tools and services to manage activities such as fixity and checksums, which create a digital fingerprint to detect changes in assets and ensure their integrity. They address issues like bit rot and data corruption, which can result in irreversible damage and loss of valuable data. Their platform, Cortex, automatically generates checksums for assets across various storage environments, identifies discrepancies, and alerts development teams to errors.
Orange Logic also assists in transferring file formats to more modern and sustainable ones to ensure access over time. They emphasize maintaining an audit trail to track changes in metadata and provide the ability to revert to previous versions if needed. Virus checks are conducted regularly to mitigate the risk of data loss due to common errors and security threats.
In terms of disaster preparedness, Orange Logic recommends a hybrid approach utilizing multiple cloud service providers to safeguard against data loss and corruption. They collaborate with clients in various sectors, particularly the GLAM (galleries, libraries, archives, and museums) space, to ensure security compliance and address specific needs, such as handling large file sizes like 4K videos. Overall, Orange Logic offers comprehensive solutions to address the challenges of managing and preserving digital assets effectively, and there is a lot of overlap between their systems and the ones we are building at Cambridge University Libraries.
Exploring What’s Now and Next on the Horizon for DAM and Collections Management
Moderator: Douglas Hegley, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Panellist: Nelly Cancilla, Detroit Institute of Arts — Cait Carouge, Gagosian — Cherie Chen, The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles — Eileen Willis, Qatar Museums — Jason Bergeron, Heritage Werks
In this round table discussion between panellists from the heritage and private sector, a major focus was on serving their respective communities, including the importance of onboarding stakeholders to avoid keeping information isolated, and the detrimental impact of ‘siloed’ information. The importance of governance was discussed, suggesting that it’s never too late to establish ground rules, but it is best to do this early on in a digital transformation project.
There were several useful suggestions to engage colleagues and other stakeholders into understanding and using a DAM system:
- Having cheerleaders for the system and incorporating digital asset management into job descriptions.
- Sharing updates with all staff and departments through monthly DAM summaries, including metrics such as the number of files or gigabytes ingested or catalogued in the system, as well as highlighting significant achievements such as the preservation of entire valuable collections.-
- Adding gamification elements for learning about the DAM system — quizzes, finding assets through a digital treasure hunt, etc.
The discussion on employing AI and automated visual image tagging for automating metadata addition was intriguing but also highlighted that more thought is needed on implementing AI solutions in the cultural heritage sector.
The conversation wrapped up by reflecting on initial experiences with DAM, highlighting the significance of dedicating time to champions, working closely with stakeholders on UI and structure, and giving priority to user training and documentation. Additionally, the speakers acknowledged a positive shift towards providing open access to platforms and assets compared to previous years.
Preserving Digital Assets: A Gap in the DAM Marketplace
Speaker: Amy Rudersdorf, AVP
Amy Rudersdorf from AVP spoke about digital preservation standards and how they can lead to the misconception that DAM systems can fully replace dedicated digital preservation systems. She introduced a classification system (bronze, silver, and gold levels) for DAM systems, categorizing their engagement in digital preservation activities.
Amy emphasises the important in understanding the basic distinctions between these two system types and what they do. According to IBM, a DAM (Digital Asset Management) system is a comprehensive solution that helps organize, manage, retrieve, and distribute digital assets within an organization. It particularly emphasizes the management and distribution aspects.
On the other hand, a digital preservation system is focused on creating and implementing policies, strategies, and actions to ensure long-term access to both reformatted and born-digital content. It addresses challenges such as media failure and technological changes. The main objective of digital preservation is to accurately maintain and authenticate content over time. This system is often likened to a secure safe, prioritizing content integrity over distribution.
Amy emphasizes that AVP can assist organisations to understand the differences between these two systems, assess risk tolerance, and align with compliance regulations. She concluded with underscoring the significance of internal deliberations to reach a compromise.
Legacy Unlocked: Strategies for Swift Integration of Your Collections Data with DAMS
Speakers: Neal Bilow, Terentia and Rob Tice, Knowledge Integration
Speakers Neal Bilow and Rob Tice started with importance of Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) and their significance in connecting data systems within cultural institutions. They introduced Knowledge Integration, a company with expertise in connecting people and systems with data in the cultural sector.
Rob discussed the challenges of working with APIs, including variations in API designs and the need for real-time data synchronization.
An audience poll was conducted to assess the attendees’ awareness of APIs and their integration efforts. The results revealed that most participants expressed uncertainty regarding the presence of APIs in their collection systems, indicating a widespread lack of understanding about APIs even among the audience.
Rob explained Knowledge Integration’s middleware product, CIIM (Cultural Information Integration Middleware), which helps move and synchronize data between different systems in the cultural sector. He stressed the significance of continuous integration to keep data current across various systems, as well as how CIIM can handle various types of data, including library collections, archival records, and digital assets.
The time and resources required for organizations to build and maintain their APIs internally is very high. The speakers highlighted the long-term costs and challenges associated with in-house API development, including staff turnover and system updates.
The session provided valuable insights into the importance of APIs and data integration in cultural institutions, highlighting the role of solutions like CIIM in facilitating seamless data connectivity and management, and how building these systems in-house can be costly and unsustainable.
Establishing Digital Preservation Standards Through the DAM to Enhance Global Accessibility
Speaker: Tracey Gulden, Media Collections Manager, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Tracey Gulden is the administrator of the digital asset management system at the John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Colony (CW). She discussed the recent completion of implementing a new system and the migration of over 500,000 digital assets.
The journey of digital asset management at CW started in the late 90s when the photography department needed a way to organize their growing digital collection. Initially, they used a system called Shoebox, recommended by the local jail, which was limited to still imagery of mug shots. In 2001, the decision was made to expand the system to accommodate various formats of assets produced across the foundation. This led to the establishment of the Mars (Meteor Archive and Retrieval System) as the first DAM system, which lasted until 2015.
Despite its initial success, the Mars system faced limitations, particularly in handling video and audio assets. Subsequent migrations and system changes led to challenges, including downtime and loss of control over asset standards. In 2017, a new DAM system, named the Source, was launched, focusing on improved accessibility and user-friendliness, though still lacking in video capabilities.
However, in 2020, the foundation faced unforeseen challenges due to the pandemic, which prompted a shift to digital outreach efforts. Additionally, the discontinuation of the Source software necessitated re-evaluation and led to the development of a new DAM solution, Digital Collections.
Digital Collections, launched in October, represents a comprehensive enterprise-wide DAM solution that integrates various departments and functionalities. It offers improved accessibility, updated digitization standards, and encouraged the support from senior leadership. Despite challenges such as a steep learning curve and migration difficulties, the system has been well-received and is seen as a crucial component of CW’s digital transformation.
Future plans involve making additional internal collections public, broadening outreach efforts, and launching an internship program to pass on knowledge and expertise in Digital Asset Management (DAM) to aspiring professionals. Tracey underscored the DAM implementation journey at CW was made successful by maintaining flexibility, prioritising teamwork, and remaining receptive to continuous enhancements.
Uncharted Waters — How Mote Marine Laboratory is Navigating Obstacles in Pursuit of New DAM Horizons
Speakers: Alexis Crabtree, Manager of Visual Engagement, and Jaime Fogel, Library & Archivist Director, Mote Marine Laboratory
The Mote Marine Laboratory and Aquarium is a marine science non-profit research institution with 30 research programs across eight locations in Florida. They study various aspects of marine life, from megafauna like sharks and sea turtles to issues like ocean conservation and coral disease. They also have an education department and a public aquarium, with plans for a new state-of-the-art aquarium named Most Science Education Aquarium.
Before the speakers began, they wanted to acknowledge the Seminole Tribe of Florida, the Miccosukee, and other indigenous tribes whose ancestral land now hosts Mote Marine Laboratory. They encouraged everyone to share their own land acknowledgments in the chat.
Their DAM journey began three years ago with research into different DAM systems, interviews across departments to determine needs, and comparison of systems against set criteria. The system named Clark (Cyber Library for Accessible Resources and Knowledge) is an homage to much beloved founding director Dr. Eugenie Clark.
The speakers compared managing their DAM system much like steering a large ship. They learned that operating their system alone isn’t feasible. All Mote staff members who use the system are also considered part of the crew. Every staff member has default access to view and upload certain materials, and some have additional access to restricted areas. In essence, all staff and users are valued members of the crew.
Due to the volume of material, they recruited volunteers to assist with certain administrative tasks, such as editing and improving metadata. Fortunately, Mote has a strong pool of volunteers to draw from.
Mote has photo archives, collections, publications, and educational materials. They required administrators to oversee these various groups of materials. They also have selected members of a governance committee — these individuals help steer the course for the entire system. They meet quarterly to gather input on overarching questions and determine where we should direct their efforts going forward.
The speakers talked about how they made the DAM part of Mote’s daily routines. They did this by replacing or combining old systems. For instance, they switched from using a separate system just for photos to using the current DAM system for all media. Also, they changed how researchers submit their work for publication. Before, they had to email it to three different people at Mote. Now, they upload it directly into the DAM system. This has made things simpler and more efficient. They continue to think about the DAM when designing new workflows.
One aspect of Mote’s operations is in a sanctuary or reserved area, where they assess the possibility of illness vectors and provide care for injured marine life. They currently transitioning all public versions of their hospital patient records to the DAM. They have records from their sea turtle and dolphin rehabilitation hospitals, including names, dates of stranding, duration of care, and outcomes. While not every protocol can integrate with the DAM, they are continuously exploring opportunities to do so.
They have an osteological collection of over 600 specimens, which are bones kept for scientific research. Staff are collaborating with a team to 3D scan all of them and integrate the scans into their systems to make them more accessible for scientific study. Previously, researchers had to physically visit Sarasota to access the collection, but they are making progress to digitize it, which is an exciting development.
Their future goals are to launch the new website with the DAM system, get more people within the organization using it, use it to reach out to the public, and make it able to handle more types of assets and more of them. Keeping track of metrics like how many assets are being managed and how many people are using the system has been a valuable source of information.
Overall, the DAM journey at the Marine Laboratory and Aquarium has been a collaborative effort involving careful planning, effective governance, integration into workflows, and ongoing support and training for users.
Past, Present, and Future: Strategies for Audiovisual Preservation at the Smithsonian
Speaker: Alison Reppert Gerber, Smithsonian Libraries and Archives (SLA), Head of Preservation Programs
The Smithsonian Institution, founded in 1846 as part of the United States Federal Government, is the world’s largest museum and library centre. While many may associate it with a few prominent museums like the National History or American History museums, it actually comprises 21 museums, a zoo, and numerous research facilities and partnerships worldwide. Although it is not officially the national repository of federal government records, its collections are exceptionally unique, spanning a wide range of American and international artistic, historical, cultural, and scientific achievements and as of 2022, the Smithsonian collection boasts an impressive 157.2 million objects and specimens, 148.2 thousand cubic feet of archival collections, and 2.3 million volumes of library materials.
The Smithsonian is embarking on a large-scale project for the preservation of its audiovisual collections, known as the Audiovisual Media Preservation Initiative (AVMPI). This initiative, officially launched in 2021, aims to address challenges identified since 2014 regarding the preservation of audiovisual materials across the institution.
To support both in-house and vendor digitization efforts, the Smithsonian has assembled a dedicated team with various roles, including project coordination, content curation, preservation specialists, and media collections specialists. The team’s structure is designed to fill staffing gaps identified through surveys and assessments conducted across Smithsonian units.
AVMPI’s approach involves prioritizing formats based on quantity and risk, with a focus on digitizing high-quantity formats in-house while using vendors for smaller quantities and rare materials. The initiative operates on multiple funding sources, building partnerships with funders to ensure sustainable support.
While they can analyse the survey data in various ways for different purposes, understanding the quantities of different formats is crucial for determining their laboratory needs and identifying where they can have the most significant impact initially. For example, the majority of their audio and video collections, around 98%, consist of the most common formats such as Digital Betacam, Betacam, and VHS. Despite having over 50 formats in total, this is why ADMPI has adopted a two-pronged in-house and vendor-based capture approach.
They have two preservation specialists, one dedicated to audio and the other to video. Their main focus is transferring analog collections into digital files, where they develop standards, document processes, and conduct quality control on the resulting files. Additionally, they employ two media collections specialists who handle processing, cataloguing, stabilization treatment, and packing and transportation of collection items.
AVMPI relies on various funding sources, which may seem less than ideal, but it allows them to forge strong partnerships with funders. This can lead to consistent support year after year. Additionally, being adaptable to real-time data and information improves decision-making, efficiency, and results, which are essential for sustainability.
One unique aspect of AVMPI is its role as both an internal Smithsonian resource generator and repository, as well as a digitization initiative. They also document Smithsonian-wide goals internally and externally. This helps improve existing standards and establish new ones. They continuously refine their workflows in response to diverse needs. Their aim is to unify preservation methods, develop metadata standards, and fill knowledge gaps within AVMPI. This has become central to their work and hope their workflows and standards can serve as a model for other Smithsonian units dealing with AV materials.
Alison was excited about the launch of the SIS Digital platform. This platform is user-friendly and accessible, offering media streaming with CAD 2.0 level double A captions for the hearing impaired and audio description for the visually impaired.
Highlighted was a recently digitized film from the AVM PA scan club, which promotes collaboration across units and resources within the Smithsonian. The slide was an ad for Dumont televisions featuring painter Norman Rockwell. This film is part of the collection at the National Museum of American History’s Archives Center and was scanned at the National Museum of African American History and Culture’s lab.
Throughout the initiative, collaboration with stakeholders at all levels of the institution is emphasized, with a focus on identifying common needs, setting shared goals, and adapting to real-time data and information for better decision-making. Their ultimate goal is to preserve and make accessible the Smithsonian’s vast audiovisual collections, contributing to the institution’s mission of increasing and diffusing knowledge.
