Digital asset management for government, universities and museums

A Digital Asset Management (DAM) system has become a necessity in public and community organisations and across the education sector in Australia. In this article we outline what is best practice digital asset management for government, universities and museums.

What should you look for when it comes to Digital Asset Management for government, universities, and museums?

Digital Asset Management (DAM) has become an essential process for overseeing digital assets, which should include various media files, such as images, videos, audio, documents and other multimedia content. The activities associated with DAM include the organisation, storage, retrieval and use of digital resources.

In today’s highly technological environments, where the volume and complexity of digital assets are expanding rapidly, we have all become more aware of the significance of DAM. Governments, the public sector, educational providers and museums are facing the challenge of managing these assets in a systematic and effective manner. The overarching objective of deploying a DAM solution is to help you ensure you effectively managing their digital assets and are storing and using these assets in efficient and compliant way.

Essential DAM features

Digital Asset Management systems need to provide users with a way of organising assets in a way that provides users with easy access to the resources they need. An organisation’s DAM tool should be created with a structured and predicable way of filing and tagging assets, so that they can be easily retrieved. Fields, tags and metadata settings can be used to enable effective search, filter and browse options.

A DAM system also needs to provide a high quality system for the preservation and protection of assets. The most popular and widely used DAM tools also typically enable collaborative actions like editing, modifying and version tracking.

Why government agencies need DAM

The implementation of a DAM system within government agencies enhances operational efficiency, supports compliance, and fosters transparency, making it a vital tool for effective governance and public service.

Digital Asset Management necessitates the secure and scalable storage of digital assets, taking into account considerations like storage capacity, backup and recovery strategies and access control mechanisms. These considerations are essential to ensure the integrity, confidentiality and availability of data, which in turn enables a government agency to preserve and protect their digital assets for the long term. Other reasons that governments should use a DAM include:

Organisation and Accessibility: Government agencies generate and collect vast amounts of digital content, including documents, images, videos, and public records. A DAM system helps organise these assets systematically, ensuring easy access and retrieval for authorised personnel and the public.
Enhanced Collaboration: Various departments within a government agency often collaborate on projects and initiatives. A DAM system facilitates this collaboration by providing a centralised platform where staff can share and work on digital assets in real-time, improving efficiency and communication.
Compliance and Regulatory Requirements: Government agencies must adhere to numerous regulations concerning data management, privacy, and public access. A DAM system supports compliance by providing secure storage solutions, tracking access and usage and maintaining records in accordance with legal responsibilities.
Public Engagement and Transparency: A well-organised DAM system enables agencies to share information effectively with the public, thus promoting transparency and civic engagement. This is essential for building trust between government entities and the communities they serve.
Emergency Preparedness and Response: In times of crisis, government agencies must be able to quickly access and disseminate information. A DAM system allows for rapid retrieval of critical assets and ensures that accurate information is distributed to the public and other stakeholders.

Benefits of DAM tools in government

There are many benefits that government agencies can find through the use of a contemporary DAM system.

Cost Efficiency: By centralising digital assets, government agencies can reduce redundancy and minimise time wasted searching for materials. This efficiency leads to cost savings and allows resources to be allocated more strategically.
Version Control: Managing multiple versions of documents and digital materials can lead to confusion and errors. A DAM system provides version control, allowing agencies to track changes and ensure that staff are accessing the most current and accurate information.
Brand Consistency: Many government agencies have established identities that must be maintained across campaigns and communications. A DAM system helps preserve approved graphics, logos, and templates, aiding in consistent messaging and branding across various platforms.
Preservation of Historical Records: Government agencies are tasked with maintaining historical records and documents for future generations. A DAM system aids in the archiving and preservation of these vital assets, ensuring their longevity and integrity.

Why universities need DAM

The implementation of a DAM system within universities enhances operational efficiency, fosters collaboration and upholds brand integrity, serving as an necessary tool in the contemporary academic world.

Data storage and handling: Universities are in the business of handling, storing and sharing information. Most universities have an existing extensive array of resources within their collections and repositories. Files can include purchased resources, educational resources, research output, multimedia materials and historic assets. A DAM tool can help staff and students at a university to easily access resources, and retrieve information or records that are required for research, presentation or publication purposes.
Effective permission handling and version control: The documents and assets that universities produce are likely to be frequently edited and updated, through different iterations during the research lifecycle. DAM systems can enable all file users to monitor and track changes, view information about asset usage and view or restore various versions of edited files.
Administrative efficiency: A DAM tool can help both staff and students at universities to quickly and easily assets that they need for study, research or publication purposes. By enabling quick access to digital assets, a DAM can reduce time spent on search for assets. This can improve operational efficiencies and enable more strategic and academic work to occur.
Interagency asset sharing: The collaborative nature of academic work necessitates effective sharing mechanisms among faculty, students and administrative staff. A DAM system provides an efficient platform through which to deliver collaborative projects, reducing or eliminating the confusion often associated with the distribution of digital files via email or disparate storage solutions.
Brand Integrity and Management: Universities often have established brand identities that must be consistently represented across various channels. A DAM system centralises approved logos, templates, and promotional content, which helps ensure adherence to branding guidelines. This in turn leads to increased coherence and recognition.
Security and Compliance: Universities must navigate a complex landscape of regulatory requirements regarding data management and privacy. A comprehensive DAM system enhances the security of sensitive materials and aids in ensuring compliance with institutional policies and legal mandates.

Benefits of DAM tools in universities

According to Alan McCord, from the University of Michigan, DAM tools can help improve operations, administration and the delivery of educational services. According to McCord, DAM tools in universities can:

improve online the delivery of online courses to students, by integrating rich media content into lessons and lectures
improve the quality and relevance of learning resources
act as a tool to support real-time capture of intellectual property
extend library collections by making rich media available to students and staff
improve communications and administrative processes, including in areas like marketing and development
enhance the reputation of the university and public perceptions about the university by providing assets to the public

To deploy a DAM, universities may need to consider their existing infrastructure and storage capabilities, the acceptance rate of the solution; the scalability of fundamental IT infrastructure components; the quality and accessibility of both technical and end-user support; the overall availability of off-campus broadband technologies for remote access to rich media content; and the concurrent development of integrated library systems alongside the DAM infrastructure.

Why museums need DAM

Museums, art galleries and other organisations that collect and hold artworks or artefacts can use a DAM to catalogue these assets. A DAM tool will help staff and volunteers to be able to manage the location, maintenance and care of physical assets by being able to access images and related records electronically. Other reasons that museums need a DAM include:

Preservation and longevity of digital assets: The preservation of valuable research and educational materials is paramount within cultural and arts museums and centres. DAM systems contribute to the long-term storage and archiving of digital assets, ensuring their availability for future cultural and historical endeavours.
Asset provision to the public: During COVID, many of the Australia’s galleries and museums were forced to close to the public. DAM tools can be used to provide electronic access to records and assets held in a museum’s collections.

Benefits of DAM tools in museums

According to Alan McCord, DAM tools can help improve operations, administration and the delivery of educational services. McCord says that DAM tools in universities can:

hold vital information that is useful to the preservation of artworks and artefacts
handle associated records related to location and display of items
boost public engagement and interactions

Best practice DAM

Standards and practices that governments, universities and museums should consider when using DAM include:

Ensuring data completeness: incorrectly tagged, filed, labelled or stored assets in a DAM will render some assets unusable or undiscoverable. This can cause user frustration or error. The overall reliability and efficiency of a DAM system is impacted by overall data quality. Poorly created asset records can lead to poor performance across the whole DAM system, which leads to reduced productivity and increased costs.
Effective integration of asset management systems and DAM systems: many government agencies, such as health services or local councils have an extensive collection of physical assets, which need to be mapped within an effective asset management tool. Some of these organisations may use an asset mapping and management tool to provide information about the location, age and condition of their assets, including records related to cost, value and depreciation. Ensuring an effective integration between an asset management system and the digital asset system will streamline operations and ensure accuracy through both with the establishment of a golden record.
Effective use of reporting: modern DAM systems not only manage assets but interrogate data records to create reports that identify weaknesses, inconsistencies and inaccuracies within digital asset collections. DAM tools contribute to the improvement of collections through the production of reports that flag records that need to be improved. This capability can improve cohesion and reliability of entire asset collections.

Case study – DAM in government

The Local Government Association of Queensland uses a DAM tool to disseminate assets through to the 80 councils within their network. These resources can be access and downloaded by member organisations to be used in their own promotional, communication, marketing and engagement activities. These external stakeholders can browse and self-serve assets they need. An integration with Adobe means that assets can be accessed while design work is occurring.

Case study – DAM in universities

Stanford University has created SALLIE (Stanford ALL-Image Exchange) as a campus-wide system of the sharing of digital assets. The tool acts as a single source of truth for all of the university’s valuable digital assets. Various groups and departments at Stanford utilise SALLIE to store and manage collections of digital media assets, primarily photographs, allowing them to organise and tag files with relevant metadata. Departments can choose to make some, all, or none of their assets accessible to the broader Stanford community through the SALLIE web interface.

Case study- DAM in museums

Also in America, the Metropolitan Museum of Art (MET) has utilised a DAM tool to improve public access to their extensive collection. Prior to establishing a DAM, the MET had amassed more than one million images of artworks and objects in the collection, as well as many thousands more audio, video and document files. While enabling online visitors to browse the artworks, the museum’s DAM tool also enables digital preservation initiatives through comprehensive metadata management and version control.

Pimcore for DAM

The future for DAM in the public and education sectors may involve greater integration between existing systems. For example, universities may need to consider integration with existing library resource tools. Pimcore is a multi-faceted one-stop shop service that boasts a highly efficient DAM component. Contact us to learn more about how Pimcore can handle your digital assets with ease.