Presentation by David Dwiggins; Delivered at Museum Computer Network Northeast Regional SIG meeting on July 15, 2011, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Mass.

1. Something that works
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. Increase in digitization capabilities

7. Contract digitization
• ~1,400 slides of collection objects
• ~8,000 microfilmed glass plate negatives from
Boston Transit collection
• ~ 2,800 transparencies
• ~5,000 black and white museum object prints
• Etc…

8. Need for something!
• 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 solution

9. 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

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

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

12. Permissions
• Permissions can be set by user group, and can
also be overridden at the resource level

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

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

15. Collection contact sheets (PDF)

16. Alternate files

17. 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)

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

19. Storage
• Suse Enterprise server with two iSCSI NAS
devices
– ~5.4TB logical volume
• Planning for future expansion
– Scalable storage system
– Multiple servers talking to a single database?
• Solution for bulk image creation at two sites

20. Backup/Web: S3Sync
• Homebrew plugin
mirrors filestore data to
Amazon S3
– Offsite backup
– Online collections
database images
• Bandwidth challenge
– AWS Import/Export
partial solution

21. DAM/collections management integration
• ResourceSpace • Minisis
– SOAP server – Customization to allow
implemented as plugin SOAP lookup rather than
(PHP) linking directly to file on
– Takes a resource ID and disk
returns a filesystem path – Allows user to enter
Resource ID and have
image appear on
cataloging record

22. DAM/collections management integration
• ResourceSpace
Minisis

23. Publication Export
• Allows users to gather groups of images, then
export in “publication ready” format
– Full resolution image
– FPO
– Manifest
• Long term: FUSE driver
to expose collections
directly on fileshare?

24. Import process
• Lightroom (or Phocus?) 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

25. Import of embedded metadata

26. Import of embedded metadata

27. Geolocation

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

29. DAM Survey
• Conducted survey of
users, summer, 2010
– Approximately one year
after launch
– 37 users completed survey
(55% response rate)
• Complete report available
online
– http://goo.gl/PNZxy

30. Need for system

31. Overall satisfaction with system

32. Overall Satisfaction

33. Areas for improvement

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

35. 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

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