Digital Asset Management: Lessons Learned

1. 10/18/2012
Digital Asset Management:
Lessons Learned

2. Maureen McCadden
Digital Resource Specialist
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3. DAM
What?
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4. What is DAM?
Digital Asset Management consists of management tasks
and decisions surrounding the ingestion, annotation,
cataloguing, storage, retrieval and distribution of digital
assets.
Digital asset management systems (DAMS) include
computer software and hardware systems that aid in the
process of digital asset management.
The term "digital asset management" also refers to the
protocol for downloading, renaming, backing up, rating,
grouping, archiving, optimizing, maintaining, thinning, and
exporting files.
- Wikipedia
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5. DAM
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Is simply the effective management and distribution of digital assets

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DAM is not: a temporary fix

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DAM is: a product – financed and managed like any other
Service in the organization. Images are information!

8. What kind of files?
Photos
Audio files
Video files
Course materials
Publications
Spreadsheets
Etc!
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9. Assets
Are anything your
organization says they are
– whatever your
organization wants to
preserve and make
accessible
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10. DAM
Why?
DAM is a positive step in the right
direction to gaining operational and
intellectual control of digital assets.
But…….. Why?
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11. Spike, Herb, & Nate
1958
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Focus: Solving problems – NOT software features
Question should be: “HOW does your DAM do….”
NOT “Can your DAM do…”

14. DAMs
Improve efficiency
Increase brand/voice
consistency
Provide customer service
Save $$, Save time, Make life easier!
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15. DAM
How?
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16. Uphill Climb?
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17. Plan, Plan, Plan
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18. Process
12 Person Cross-Departmental Team
 Needs Analysis
 Define Functional Requirements
Resulted in 5 questions for each team member:
 What images do you currently have?
 How do you use these images?
 How do you manage these images?
 What can you currently do with these images?
 What would you like to be able to do with these
images?
Answers became project goals, then functional
requirements of our RFP (request for proposals)
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19. Repurposed our functional requirements, using them to
develop a yes/no criteria for evaluating systems.
The real evaluation question becomes:
How well does this system serve its intended purpose?
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20. DAM
Now
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21. DAM
Future
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22. Lessons Learned
#1 Stakeholder needs to define the
project goals. Project goals define the
technology
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23. Lessons Learned
#2 Ease of use promotes a blend of
centralized and de-centralized system
management
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24. Garden Party 1915
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Real Goal: Enthusiastic Users

25. Resources
Asset Bank: http://www.assetbank.co.uk/
Journal of Digital Asset Management:
http://www.palgrave-
journals.com/dam/journal/v6/n6/index.html
OS (open source) DAM solutions (2012):
Review of Available Open Source DAM Software
by Naresh Sarwan
http://www.opensourcedigitalassetmanagement.org/review
s/available-open-source-dam/
DamNews 10 Common myths about OS software:
http://digitalassetmanagementnews.org/features/10-
common-myths-about-open-source-software/
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26. Resources
Horodyski, J. (2009): Digital Asset Management: What To
Know Before You Go!
http://digitalassetmanagement.com/dam-white-papers-
thank-you/
Digital Library Federation:
http://www.diglib.org/
A useful vendors list here:
http://digitalassetmanagementnews.org/dam-vendors/
Nielsen, (2005) Ten Usability Heuristics
http://www.useit.com/papers/heuristic/heuristic_list.html
NEDC (2000) Handbook for Digital Projects: A
Management Tool for Preservation and Access.
Http://www.nedcc.org/resources/digitalhandbook/dman.pdf
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27. Resources
VRA – Visual Resources Association:
http://www.vraweb.org/
DAM Educational Resource Site:
http://digitalassetmanagement.com/
DRM – Digital Rights Management, from ALA:
http://www.ala.org/advocacy/copyright/digitalrights
ALA Definitions of Digital Preservation:
http://www.ala.org/alcts/resources/preserv/defdigpres0408
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28. Questions?
Contact:
Maureen McCadden
Digital Resource Specialist
Longwood Gardens
610.388.5266
mmccadden@longwoodgardens.org
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30. Copyright © 2012 Longwood Gardens All rights Reserved
No part of this presentation may be used without the expressed written permission of Longwood Gardens