Training for East Midlands museums on managing digital assets.

1. Managing your digital collection
assets
Fiona Marshall

2. We’ll talk about…
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SPECTRUM & Digital Asset Management
File formats
Naming and organising assets
Describing assets
– (metadata… but simpler than cataloguing an object)
• Archiving and preserving assets
– (& why that’s different from backing up)
• Digital Asset Management Systems
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4. What are digital assets?
• Digital materials created or owned by your
institution
• Examples of
– Digital collection assets and
– Non-collection assets?
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5. Digital collection assets
• Images of objects
• Word documents about
objects
• Emails about objects
• PDFs featuring objects
• Scans of entry forms
• Videos, audio, resources
about objects
• Powerpoints of lectures
about objects
• Digital artwork
• Websites about collections
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Other digital assets
• Images of visitors / staff
• Structure charts
• Spreadsheets about
budgets / visitor figures
• PDF of operational plans
• Health & Safety policy
• Training videos
• Powerpoints on equal
opportunities training
• Direction maps
• Web pages about opening
hours and facilities
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6. Using assets: what is your priority?
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Link objects to related digital assets?
Answer enquiries more effectively?
Find images for exhibitions more quickly?
Add security images to your catalogue?
Provide free images on your website?
Seek public input to describing images?
Publish images on social media?
Sell images / videos?
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8. SPECTRUM Digital Asset Management
“In the broadest sense, DAM refers to the
processes and practices involved in the
creation, description, storage, discovery, reuse and preservation of digital assets.”
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10. Collections Trust advice on DAM
“The success of your DAM activity will depend
on establishing a culture across your whole
organisation which values the management,
preservation and re-use of digital assets as a
core aspect of your work alongside the
equivalent management of your collections
and the knowledge associated with them.”
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12. How are you doing?
• Do you manage your digital files as well as you
do your object history files?
• How easy is it for you to find all the digital
assets relating to one object / group of
objects?
• Are your digital assets as safe as your physical
objects?
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13. Exercise
• A visitor brings you an interesting old
photograph and invites you to scan it. They
say they own the copyright.
• You scan the print and save the digital file.
• What records do you create relating to the
acquisition of the digital asset?
• How do you store the digital asset?
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14. Digital asset management policy
• Policy on acquisition of…
– Digital surrogates (eg scans of photographs)
– Digital artworks
– User-generated digital media about the collection
• “Due consideration should be given to
whether the digital media should formally be
accessioned into the collection, or should
serve as part of the documentation and
inventory of physical collection items.”
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15. Acquiring a new digital asset
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Ownership
Rights to scan and re-use
Other legal and ethical issues
Status: new object or loan in or ?
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Format: opening & preserving the file
Filename and Folder structure
Description and Metadata
Security, policies, procedures and training
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17. HLF’s terms of grant
22. You agree to:
•
a. hereby grant to us an irrevocable, perpetual and royalty-free licence to use, copy, keep and disseminate
the Digital Outputs as we see fit and to grant sub-licences of the same kind;
•
b. obtain and maintain in force all authorisations of any kind required for you to use, copy, keep and
disseminate the Digital Outputs and to grant such licence to us;
•
c. contract to the effect that any creation by you or on your behalf of material which forms Digital
Outputs is undertaken on terms that either the copyright in the digital material is assigned to you or that
the copyright owner may not commercially exploit it;
•
d. ensure that the Digital Outputs are kept up-to-date, function as intended and do not become
obsolescent before the fifth anniversary of the Grant Expiry Date;
•
e. comply with these terms of grant in relation to the digital files that make up the Digital Outputs for the
period agreed pursuant to paragraph 37. For the avoidance of doubt, this includes ensuring that the digital
files are held securely and are available on request to the public and to us;
•
f. grant licences in respect of the Digital Outputs under the Creative Commons model licence Attribution
Non-Commercial but not on other terms without our prior written consent;
•
g. not otherwise exploit the Digital Outputs commercially without our prior written consent.
37. These terms of grant will last for the period set out in the Grant Notification Letter. = 1O YEARS?
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19. File formats
• ‘Open’ standards vs common proprietary
• Quality / Fit for purpose
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21. Asset
Archive/Master format Delivery format
Images
TIFF
Print from TIFF
Web/license: JPEG
Video
DV (AVI / MOV)?
MPEG-4
Audio
WAV / AIFF?
MP3
Text
PDF/A?
PDF
Packages Separate as above
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Apple apps??/Flash???
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23. Filenames & Folders
• Set up & enforce a rigorous naming system to
cover masters and surrogates
• NOT Fiona pictures, Fiona 1, Fiona 11 etc…
• Some browsers ignore data after a space
• 11 sorts before 2. 002 sorts before 011.
• 1_1990 sorts before 2_1989
• Try to keep to 8 characters before .tif
– Particularly if cutting DVDs
• Either adapt object numbers or keep a strictly
updated list of running image/object numbers
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24. Possibilities?
• Object MUS/2013/001 or MUS/1/2013
– First master image = 20130011.tif
– Surrogate: web full screen = 20130011F.jpg
– Second master image = 20130012.tif
– Surrogate: web full screen = 20130012F.jpg
– Surrogate: thumbnail = 20130012T.jpg
• History>2013
– History>2013>001>Masters
– History>2013>001>FullscreenJPEGs
– History>2013>001>Thumbnails
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25. Metadata
= Structured data about resources
• Describes the creation, content or purpose of
a digital file or a collection of files
• Either created automatically (e.g. when
Windows tells you the size of a file) or…
• Descriptive (e.g. what you can see in a photo)
– using information and language that will make
most sense to the intended users.
(Heritage Lottery Fund, Using digital technology in
heritage projects, Appendix 3)
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27. DC element
Use for
Example
Identifier
Reference number
Filename
MUS/2013/001
20130011.tif
Title
Title
Photograph of four boys at play
Description
Description (of content)
Boys playing outside Smith’s Bakers…
Type
Type of object
Photographic print or Digital image
Format
Dimensions
W15cm, H10cm
Coverage (spatial)
Place
Newark, 12-14 High Street
Coverage (temporal) Date of coverage
1920-1925
Date
Date of creation
1920-1925 or 2012-02-20
Creator
Creator(s)
Smith, Fred (photographer); Jones…
Subject
Subject (keywords)
Recreation, Shop, Baker
Source
Source object
MUS/2011/001
Relation
Related object
MUS/2011/123
Contributor
Contributor
Smith, John (owner) or (lender)
Rights
Copyright owner
Smith, John
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28. Metadata for assets
• Support expected uses
• Integrate with physical collections mgmt
• Usually much simpler than physical objects
• Controlled vocabulary
• Develop skills to create metadata
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29. Quality
• Information
• Metadata
• Image quality
– Is it better to have a poor image for now than no
image at all?
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30. Version control
• NOT filename_draft, draft2, last draft, final
version, final version2 etc…
• Copy and renumber each successive draft, eg
v0.1, v0.2, v1.0, v1.1, v2.0 etc.
• If others comment, name temporarily as eg
v1.0_FMcomments
• Don’t rely on file dates!
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31. Archive vs backup
• Backup: Make copies of all changed files –
including drafts. Store them away from the
live files.
• Archive: Move the finished/master to the
archive and DON’T CHANGE IT.
• Use: Copy from your archive and convert the
copy into the appropriate format.
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32. Create
Save
Master
Use
Publication
Archive
/DAMS
Website
Draft
Backup
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Catalogue
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33. from Archive to DAMS?
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Archive
Digital archive
Digital repository
Digital Asset Management System
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34. HLF’s terms of grant
22. You agree to:
•
a. hereby grant to us an irrevocable, perpetual and royalty-free licence to use, copy, keep and disseminate
the Digital Outputs as we see fit and to grant sub-licences of the same kind;
•
b. obtain and maintain in force all authorisations of any kind required for you to use, copy, keep and
disseminate the Digital Outputs and to grant such licence to us;
•
c. contract to the effect that any creation by you or on your behalf of material which forms Digital Outputs
is undertaken on terms that either the copyright in the digital material is assigned to you or that the
copyright owner may not commercially exploit it;
•
d. ensure that the Digital Outputs are kept up-to-date, function as intended and do not become
obsolescent before the fifth anniversary of the Grant Expiry Date;
•
e. comply with these terms of grant in relation to the digital files that make up the Digital Outputs for
the period agreed pursuant to paragraph 37. For the avoidance of doubt, this includes ensuring that the
digital files are held securely and are available on request to the public and to us;
•
f. grant licences in respect of the Digital Outputs under the Creative Commons model licence Attribution
Non-Commercial but not on other terms without our prior written consent;
•
g. not otherwise exploit the Digital Outputs commercially without our prior written consent.
37. These terms of grant will last for the period set out in the Grant Notification Letter. = 1O YEARS?
16/12/2013
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36. Preserving digital assets
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Security
Storage media
Migrating old formats to new
Permanent links (‘Persistent identification’)
Metadata
Selection and disposal
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40. Getting organised
• Is everyone in your museum
– Naming their digital files,
– organising their digital files and
– recording information about digital assets
in the same way?
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41. Planning & implementation
• “DAM strategy much more about people, psychology,
motivation than technology.” (Collections Trust)
• What do internal & external users need?
• Integrate into daily work. Listen to concerns.
• Sharing needs leadership
• Make sure users understand not an IT project.
• Try out with small parts of your collection. Quick wins.
• “Whatever your motivation in implementing a DAM
strategy…be clear about the benefits you are hoping to
achieve.”
16/12/2013
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42. Using assets: what is your priority?
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Link objects to related digital assets?
Answer enquiries more effectively?
Find images for exhibitions more quickly?
Add security images to your catalogue?
Provide free images on your website?
Seek public input to describing images?
Publish images on social media?
Sell images / videos?
16/12/2013
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43. Digital Asset Management System?
• Use/extend your
– Filing / folder system and your
– Collections Management System?
– Content Management System?
• Or integrate a new ‘DAMS’?
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44. Digital Asset Management Systems
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Automatically ‘ingest’ groups of images
Version control / automatic backup
Create virtual groups or categories
Generate thumbnails & other delivery versions
Read and write metadata
Control user access
Publish to web
Export assets and metadata to other systems
Audit and reporting tools
Term lists? E-commerce? Image editing?
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45. Other systems are available…
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‘Free’: Google Picasa, Irfanview
Cheap: ACDSee (80US$), Adobe Lightroom (c.£60)
Cloud: Adobe Bridge (£48 per month)
Hosted: Third Light (£169 per month)
Image management: Capture (BL), Extensis Portfolio
(Courtauld), iBase (Leicestershire CC, RIBA)
• Objects & images: System Simulation (Waterways et al)
• Sales: Internova (MACE, London’s Transport Museum),
Media Storehouse (English Heritage)
– Prints: Picture Cabinet, Magnolia Box
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46. Procuring a system
• See Collections Trust’s ‘Choosing a DAMS’ &
• JISC Digital Media
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47. Collections Trust advice
• “…the success of your DAM activity will
depend on establishing a culture across your
whole organisation which values the
management, preservation and re-use of
digital assets as a core aspect of your work
alongside the equivalent management of your
collections and the knowledge associated with
them.”
16/12/2013
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48. That’s it!
• http://www.collectionslink.org.uk/spectrum-dam-resources
• http://www.jiscdigitalmedia.ac.uk/
• http://www.hlf.org.uk/HowToApply/furtherresources/Pages/T
hinkingaboutgooddigitalpractice.aspx
• http://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/dataman/resources/PrePARe_selec
tion_retention_checklist.pdf
• http://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/dataman/resources/PrePARe_IPR_c
hecklist.pdf
• fiona@fionamarshall.co.uk
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