This document outlines best practices for implementing a digital asset management (DAM) system. It discusses identifying stakeholders, taking inventory of existing assets and systems, making a business case, documenting workflows, evaluating DAM solutions, implementing a system, configuring metadata schemas and folders, ingesting and managing assets, searching, downloading, processing assets, and maintaining the DAM system over time through software updates, backups, and support. The overall goal is to provide guidance on setting up an effective DAM system to better locate, access, reuse and manage digital assets.
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Digital Asset Management Forum Chicago 2011
1. Digital Asset Management Best Practicesdamlearningcenter.com/chicago2011 Edward Smith Product Marketing Manager, Extensis @DAMGeek
2. The Need for DAM Locating assets Understanding what assets are available Providing access to the “correct” assets Providing access to the “correct” format/size Reusing assets Recreating assets Inconsistent use Usage and rights 1
16. Making a Business Case for DAM How does DAM support organizational goals/mission? Quantify the current pain points Does the cost justify the outcome? (ROI) 5
19. What formats do they need?What is the folder hierarchy convention (if any)? What is the file naming convention (if any)? 7
20. Document Current Workflow Prior to evaluating DAM systems, document use casescenarios that describe how people currently work today, and how they would work in an ideal DAM system in the future. 8
21. Document Current Workflow Present Day Scenario Images are frequently requested by staff for use within PowerPoint presentations or for print and web use. The person maintaining the image collection fulfills image requests by browsing through folders on several different file servers. Once an appropriate image is located, a spreadsheet is cross referenced for usage rights. If the image does not meet the desired usage, the search continues. Once an appropriate set of images are selected, each image is opened in Photoshop and resaved in the correct format and resolution. The images are then uploaded to an FTP server and download instructions are emailed to the requesting staff member. 9
22. Document Current Workflow Ideal Scenario Images added to file server folders are automatically ingested by the DAM system. The collection maintainer adds search keywords and usage rights information to images in the DAM system using drop-down menus. A secure web portal allows staff to search items from the image collection using keywords and other automatically applied information such as “Date Created”. The web portal only displays search results for items that have an “approved” metadata value. Important information such as usage rights appear next to search results. Staff can download and convert images on the fly into low, medium, and high resolution formats. 10
59. Define Schema Controlled vocabulary A taxonomy or thesaurus that uses predefined lists of values. Unrestricted vocabulary An non-hierarchical collaborative method to categorize metadata where freely chosen keywords are used instead of a controlled vocabulary. Many organizations prefer not to use folksonomy, as it creates inconsistencies in the classification of information (kitty versus cat; product SKU versus product part number).Hybrid Vocabulary Offers users the choice of choosing values from controlled vocabulary listor entering in a desired value not available in the list. 20
129. More Information DAM Learning Center: www.damlearningcenter.com/chicago2011 @DAMGeek 54
Hinweis der Redaktion
[Exercise: think of the most important field: controlled, uncontrolled, hybrid]
example folder hierarchy different levels represent different categories It’s likely that this was folder structure was setup in advance Otherwise we would probably see some level of disorganization like: Spaces/underscores in filenames Duplicate folder names And “out of place folders”
Here’s an example of part of a cheat sheet we made for the Registrars .
Another example of basic documentation – cheat sheet for file standards
Workflow (story)Here are some example use cases implemented into real-world workflows Prof. Foster has taught with projector slides and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. However, students wanted to be able to review class images. A workflow was set up using the features in Portfolio which allow for automating cataloging on the server. Slides shown taken to photography services Slides are digitized/placed in weekly folders on server The DAM system watches the folders and adds items to the catalog putting the folder name in the keyword field Students search for images by week in web-based portal. The non-technical faculty member never touches the interface nor is any cataloging field provided
Images are scannedMetadata is embedded to files using Adobe BridgeThe scans are added to the DAM with extracts metadata from the fileMetadata is refined in the DAM as needed for search purposes
Example metadata fieldsDescription (text block)Keywords (multiple values)Date
Master keyword list – a list of predefined keywords
Predefined lists for department, event, image category, physical location
We see an example of a taxonomy for “Physical location matches ocean life” where a user must choose from a predfined list. We also see an example of a folksonomy where a user can enter text into a freeform field.
Predefined lists provide insight into collection contents
You can see that the search interface is customized for search by weekThe entire collection is not exposed to students, only relevant materials
Here’s an example of a collection of headshots from the National Gallery of London