Delivered as part of DAM panel at Museum Computer Network annual conference, Atlanta Georgia, November 17, 2011.

1. Implementing Open Source DAM at
Historic New England
David Dwiggins
Systems Librarian/Archivist
Historic New England
ddwiggins@historicnewengland.org
Twitter: @dwig

2. Historic New England’s mission
We serve the public by preserving and presenting
New England heritage.
Historic New England is a museum of cultural history that collects and
preserves buildings, landscapes, and objects dating from the seventeenth
century to the present and uses them to keep history alive and to help
people develop a deeper understanding and enjoyment of New England
life and appreciation for its preservation.

3. 5 program areas
• Historic Properties
• Collections
• Preservation Services
• Education
• Library and Archives

4. Collections Access Project
• Multi-year, grant funded effort
to enhance public availability
of collections
– New collections management
system
– Large-scale digitization
– New website
• Project plan did not initially
include DAM

5. Existing Imagery
• 20,000+ existing digital images of collections
identified before digitization even started

6. New Digitization

7. Need for something!
• Found ResourceSpace
– Open Source Digital Asset Management
– Free! (as in puppies, not beer)
• Set up as low-commitment experimental tool
• Use by collections staff drove acceptance as
permanent part of project

8. ResourceSpace open source DAMs
• Originally developed for Oxfam GB
• Historic New England is using – and helping develop
• Implemented for CAP, but now used across organization

9. ResourceSpace features
• 100% web based
• PHP/MySQL technology
• Support for a wide variety of file formats via
helper applications
– Imagemagick
– FFmpeg
– Exiftool
– Etc.

10. ResourceSpace features
• Automatic creation of derivative images
• Good support for embedded metadata
• Configurable metadata by resource type

11. ResourceSpace features
• Extensive permission options
• Ingest files or sync from existing folder structure

12. Public collections
• Public collections
– Available to all users
– Linked from resource record
– Show up in search results
• Themes
– Curated collections of
resources

13. Collection contact sheets (PDF)

14. Alternate files

15. Collections
• Allow users to
create arbitrary
groupings of
Resources
• Sharing
– Internal users
– External users via
time-limited URLs

16. Transform Plugin
• Allows users to create
custom derivatives
– Crop
– Set specific size
– Rotate/Flip
• Multiple output options
– Download
– Save as alternate
– Replace original
(with permission)

17. Filestore
• Filestore based on hierarchical folders within
filesystem (users would never see this)

18. DAM/collections management integration
•ResourceSpace
Minisis

19. Import of embedded metadata

20. Import process
• Lightroom export presets to generate related
names for different files
• Files go into hotfolder, picked up by customized
version of ResourceSpace StaticSync script
– StaticSync can operate in sync mode or ingest mode;
we use ingest

21. Import of embedded metadata

22. Rollout to entire organization
• Property Care Team
– Imported 45,000 existing
images
– Heavy creators and
consumers
• Web project
• Training for various user
groups

23. DAM Survey
• Conducted survey of
users, summer, 2010
– Approximately one year
after launch
– 37 users completed survey
(55% response rate)

24. Need for system

25. Overall satisfaction with system

26. Overall Satisfaction

27. Areas for improvement

28. Supporting open source
• Active community of users/developers
• PHP/MySQL programmers abound
• Plugin Architecture
– customizations without changing core system

29. The tool is only the first step
• Workflow planning
• Policies & user training
• Metadata standards and
practices
• Monitoring of incoming
resources
• Storage
• Backup
• Integration with other
systems

30. ResourceSpace resources
• Main Site
– http://www.resourcespace.org
• Wiki
– http://wiki.resourcespace.org
• Google Group
– http://groups.google.com/group/resourcespace