DAM is more than a software
A Digital Asset Management (DAM) system is not just software. It’s a combination of people, processes and tools. DAM consist of the program for cataloging and retrieving digital assets, archiving files, managing rich media and visual files. It is management of various media files like graphics, videos, sound and text components needed for digital content, distribution and archiving. DAMs are also called image or media banks.
CollectionPro
CollectionPro offers the most feature-rich DAM system used in museums, as well as the gamut of technologies for solving the broader archiving and content publishing puzzle. It can work as a single solution for managing and publishing collections, or as a separate DAM parallel to an existing collection management.
Typically this includes workflow processes, databases and repositories for storing, tagging, protecting, converting and sharing digital assets. Not only do all these files need to be managed in a controlled way, they also have to go to ever more places automatically on time and in the right format. It supports collaboration, revision-control, and access-rights.
Publishing from the database
But just because you can see it, does not mean you should be able to publish it. Permissions-controlled accession DAM is really helpful here. A well-organized DAM process is the foundation for a museum creating a captivating content and customer experience while managing its brand.
CollectionPro is a SaaS-service but can also run On-Premise on your local servers. We host our applications and files on Equinix secured server solutions.
Preservation
Museums have this mandate to collect and preserve things, preferably forever, so you essentially can never get rid of anything in the sense that you don’t really retire information. Therefore archiving in repositories for long-term storing requires a secure hosting environment.
Visual communication is powerful
Museums are moving towards a preference for visually appealing content versus pages of text, which just doesn’t grab the consumer’s attention the way short videos and image-heavy content can. As museums incorporate massive volumes of digital media and rich media, museums turn to modern DAM architectures for cost-effective relationship management.
Integrated workflows between DAMs and Collection Management
Having a DAM system as a single source solution makes processes easier to handle throughout the museum. Much of the object data is digital, a Content Management process can overlap with DAM; but not all data collected in a Collection Management is in the DAM system, and should not be either. Synchronizing DAM with Collection Management results in less manual work and improved searches through automation.
DAMs or CMS should never exist in a silo. If integration with a collection management within the museum is not implemented, searches may require too much effort. Files are then living in multiple different containers. To find a file can become an absolute pain.
People in museums need to be educated for DAM
The maintenance in a museum DAM is not about the software. Firsthand, it’s educating your users to workflows, processes, metadata and business rules. Train your users as much as you possibly can. The more they understand about what DAMs can do and why different metadata content, than used in the Collection Management, matters for searches, the easier and better it’s going to be.
DAMs scale to a variety of users
DAMs at museum need not to be just for museum employees anymore. It is a need and possibility for the entire city and public service, not just the museum. Cross-departmental use of images and other content demand that a wider variety of users and teams like communications, project management and HR are involved. The overall cost-savings are obvious.