How Museums Can Benefit From Digital Asset Management
Photo: Simon Infanger on Unsplash
The past 18 months have taken a toll on museums in so many areas. For many organizations, in addition to those more immediate challenges also included an unexpected, yet critical pivot to make so many programs, events, assets, and collections digitally accessible to be able to keep engaging with the public.
The digital transformation of museums isn’t a new challenge, but one that becomes increasingly important with each year and that can mean utilizing the latest technologies to help them to manage assets in a more effective way.
Organizations across all industries can benefit hugely from digital asset management or DAM, but museums and the entire GLAM industry (galleries, libraries, archives, and museums) have an immense supply of collections, stories, assets--all items that can and should be used in and for visitor and digital consumption. Think of DAM as an opportunity.
Let’s dig into why museums benefit from this system.
There are many reasons why museums and cultural organizations utilize DAM. Consider the efficiency of having a single source--at the click of a button--to house all of the information, assets, and stories an institution has. This makes sharing and using digital assets much quicker.
But here are some top reasons why museums invest in DAM:
The single source of truth: It’s a centralized place to store assets and media, which users in any location can upload to, share and access, including external users (depending on user permissions, of course). This also means reduction in duplicative assets.
Ease of access: The pandemic has showcased the need and ability to work remotely. A (cloud-native; we’ll get to that a little later below) DAM enables users from marketing to curators to have access to all assets they have permission to access.
Utilize resources more efficiently: Having assets in different locations or even systems can make it frustrating to find what you need when you need it. Using a DAM helps to cut down on those frustrations and asks for content, a specific artifact, etc. which also frees up more of your, your team’s, and other departments’ resources.
Reach new audiences for your museum: Be able to share your collections and other assets with new audiences--even people you wouldn’t have been able to interact with because they would never make it inside the physical doors of your institution.
Secure your content: Time-based media has and will continue to play an important role for museums and cultural institutions especially as video consumption continues to rise. Using a dedicated DAM platform helps to ensure you can protect your content and protect unwanted access (e.g., allowing you to add watermarks, use expiring links). It puts you in control over your assets.
Now that you have a few reasons for how you can benefit from a DAM, here are just a few items to be on the lookout for when making a selection:
Compatibility: Ensure that the DAM system is compatible with all asset types including rich and time-based media formats--for storing and sharing photographs and audio and video footage. This may vary depending on your needs, but you want something that can grow with your organization.
User permissions: Sharing can be easy with a DAM, but look for a system that allows you to tailor access (which includes uploading and editing files) by user and teams, making sure you always have the control you need.
Cloud-native: With technologies continually changing, you want a system that can be flexible and easy to update and you can look no further than a cloud-native solution. (Learn more about some key terms related to cloud).
Museums can benefit from a DAM for so many reasons and finding the right DAM is important to enable your team(s) to do their own jobs more efficiently--allowing everyone to focus on the mission of the institution. To learn how the Terentia DAM could work for your organization, sign up for a demo.