Sharepoint Week

Welcome to Sharepoint week! I have a new project that will involve using Sharepoint to manage creative assets, milestones and documents. To prepare for this assignment, I am first reviewing Sharepoint as it has been a while since I used it. My first step was a thorough review of the application made possible by a lovely and concise course on the WebJunction site.

I must report that this was my first tangible exploration of a WebJunction course and I was very pleased by the simple step by step instruction. While many of the features were fairly rudimentary since Sharepoint is kind of a glorified wiki that integrates seamlessly with MS Office workflows, I applaud the course organization and delivery.

Later in the week I will look at truly pushing the limits of Sharepoint towards creating a DAM system for image files and the management of a complex creative asset workflow. Right now, I am merely happy to feel confident in navigating the application. As with any software implementation, the first step in the process is developing a comfort level with the benefits and limitations and the WebJunction course fit the bill!

What a Book List!

I ran across this list the other day when using StumbleUpon - the Best English-Language FIction of the Twentieth Century compiled by Brian Kunde at Stanford. This list is interesting for a number of reasons. First, if you'd like to see how many of these books you've read, it is always interesting.

Secondly, the ranking system is thoroughly explained and documented on this site. I think this provides great insight into methods for handling similar projects. The explanation of the complexities of the ranking system is particularly useful.

Also, the site has a section for reviews of all the title which is a nifty little resource. While this section is not overly verbose, each title does have a line or two describing the story and can prove invaluable for those compiling their own reading lists.

Perhaps someone can type this up and start circulating it on Facebook.

That DAM Identifier

Just like many terms associated with technology, the word 'identifier' has multiple meanings dependent on the context and application. I have always thought of an identifier akin to a filename - a unique alpha numeric combination attributed to a single asset. Some metadata standards actually have elements called the identifier. Now, this blog discusses an identifier as a security enhancement, like a watermark.

EIDR, a robust content asset identifier systems embeds deep within the asset. It is different than traditional DRM methods which focus on locking access. Rather the EIDR identifier is capable of living in every piece of the content, even in a few seconds of video. So anyone who wanted to use the content would need to go through painstaking and time consuming permutations to remove the identifier or just pay for the rights.

Interesting concept...

 

Superlibrarian to the Rescue!

Thank goodness there's a contest on Facebook to nominate Librarian Superheroes. Surreptitiously sponsored by Gale/Cenage Learning in anticipation of the ALA conference, this contest seeks nominees that embrace emerging technologies, show leadership, exhibit determination and enthusiasm and push the boundaries.

Instead of wondering if this describes most of us in this profession (which it might), ponder your custom cartoonized image on a collectible lunchbox or trading cards. Now you can be as cool as Scooby Doo. As a former production manager, I must warn you - I believe those prizes will be digitally printed in some way as producing one offs that are debossed, embossed, molded or screenprinted would be really cost prohibitive.

Rules are here. Let the games begin. Prizes awarded at ALA in June.

I'd like a superhero costume with a cape too.

 

 

5 Very Special LIS Things + 1 Bonus Thing

Last week, the column in the New York Times that provided inspiration for this one only listed 8 things instead of their usual 10. But I am not going to shortchange you. In fact, I am adding a bonus thing:

1. Is it curation or editing? Discuss after reading this.

2. Ever need a photo editor when you are away from your trusted Photoshop? Try Pixlr.

3. Are there too many buzzwords in the phrase Hybrid Open Source Enterprise Cloud Solutions?

4. Is this comic living in the Macy's window and posting on FB a social media trend? Should a librarian spend a week living in the stacks and tweet about it?

5. Don't libraries do the coolest social media campaigns? Look at these.

BONUS!

Did you realize there is such a thing as bookshelf porn? For people who love to look at bookshelves...

 

 

Library Cop

Did you ever see the episode of Seinfeld where Jerry forgot to return Henry Miller's racy Tropic of Cancer (or Capricorn) and has to face the library cop, Mr. Bookman? Well, Bookman would have been appreciative of this 2010 ALA conference program by RBMS To Catch a Thief: Cataloging and the Security of Special Collections.

The topics up for discussion included whether less processing or streamlined processing results in greater risk for collection theft. Finding just the right amount of processing to make materials accessible, providing the best data and using staff resources wisely has been up for debate since 2005 when Greene and Meissner published More Product Less Process.

Another interesting idea is the tiered processing system employed by the Library of Congress. More valuable items require more detail in processing and are ranked in a higher echelon. Less valuable or rare equates with less processing.

Finally, in terms of preventing rare book and special collections related crimes, it seems that a combination of transparency, record keeping via cataloging entries and communication about missing items can help in retrieval.

Read the whole blog on OCLC's Hanging Together here or view the recording of the conference here.

Library crime is no laughing matter...

Page Turners Wanted

Take a gander at this device called the Book Saver. With the use of little hanging camera technology, this ingenious tool claims to digitize a 200 page book in about 15 minutes.

While not nearly as effortless as a CD ripper, the advent of this technology is worrisome to publishers. It is worth noting that the Book Saver still requires an actual person (or monkey) to turn the pages and the speed of scanning may be affected by page turning dexterity. Nevertheless, this type of construction versus the old face down book cradle scanner is fairly revolutionary.

 

Mobile Library Free for All

By now, you've all been shocked and awed by the sheer numbers of mobile users and are likely suitably impressed by the opportunity this presents for libraries. What is disproportionate is the number of libraries offering mobile services, especially applications for instruction.

I recently had the good fortune to speak with a number of Washington library web services experts and learned that one of the factors preventing their academic library's foray into mobile was a World Cat Local catalog and awaiting the OCLC mobile solution. However, I wondered if their library system could benefit from something even simpler than a catalog, i.e. an intereactive map or access to subject guides.

In an amazing post by Tiffani Travis recounting information she presented at ALA Mid-Winter, she explores using LibGuides by Springshare as well as Wordpress to provide students with mobile access to library subject or course specific resources. Because both Springshare and Wordpress offer options for mobile devices, the input by the library is minimal and requires no special mobile app dev skills.

This is a great example of thinking about new technologies and pushing the envelope rather than lamenting perceived limitations. No mobile app or mobile budget or dev savvy? What do you know and how can you exploit tools to meet your needs and those of users?

 

 

CLAROS: Classical Art Research

Claiming to be the "virtual integration of digital assets on classical art," the CLAROS site uses Semantic Web data integration technologies and state-of-the art image recognition algorithms to bring classical art to anyone, any time, anywhere. Made possible in part through a grant from the University of Oxford, this site will eventually serve as a one stop resource with assets aggregated from The Beazley Archive, Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae - LIMC Basel and the Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae - LIMC Paris websites.

The search feature does crawl all resources currently, and this is demonstrated quite aptly in this nice screencast.

Naturally, there are some fantastic archeological resources linked as well. Classical art scholars unite!

Twitter Proves Libraries are Important

Mar Dixon never expected such a reaction when she tweeted this message:

"Libraries are important because ... [fill in your answer & RT] #savelibraries."

Even Neil Gaiman weighed in along with more than 5,000 others. This article in the Guardian UK gives the saliant details.

Some of the highlights include tweets like this one by @genrelibrarian: "Google can bring back a hundred thousand answers. A librarian can bring you back the right one."

The tweet was picked up in the United States, Italy and Portugal becoming an international phenomenon and trending on Twitter.

So why are so many places still considering reductions in library services?

Daily Color Scheme

Truly this resource falls more into the design world than the library and information world, but it shouldn't. Think about all those times you tried to think of a pleasing mix of colors for your library website or blog. Consider the importance of fabulous signs and branding. I really like this site for brainstorming colors!

Daily Color Scheme

 

 

It's Thursday: 5 Things for Scintillating LIS Discussions

It's that time again. Here are 5 LIS topics to discuss and explore this week.

1. Ever wonder how to effectively audit assets for a digital asset management project?

2. Curious about anti-alcohol posters from Russia? Feast your liver on these selections from the Museum of Anti-Alcohol Posters.

3. Want to monitor your personal brand?

4. Wish you were a tween game designer? Look at what this 14 year old has done with the Bubble Ball iPhone game.

5. Do you have concerns about e-books in libraries?

Lots of good stuff this week indeed. Happy discussions!

Chicago "L" Poster Collection

This gem of a collection contains advertising posters from the 1920's produced by the Chicago Rapid Transit Company to promote use of the "L" train. Even before sustainability was a catch phrase, the importance of public transportation in high population areas was paramount. In perusing the selections, you'll notice location specific themes and a handful of contributing artists. The collection is kind of buried on the site for the CTA and certainly merits some attention especially as design reference material for current promotional efforts.

This poster promotes the convenience of the "L" to the Art Institute.

On Content, Conciseness and Metadata

Accessories are kind of like web content - too much of a good thing, is just too much. As Coco Chanel once said regarding accessories, "always remove one thing before going out the door." Aaron Schmidt's new post on Library Journal is built on the same premise. In The Benefits of Less: The User Experience, Schmidt encourages care, precision and even minimalism for library website content. Selective services and features should be managed with simplicity. Too much content requires too much maintenance and in turn, complex and unwieldy site architecture all contributing to users experiencing that needle in the haystack phenomenon.

In a quasi related post, Troy Allen highlights The Importance of Metadata in Content Management. Whether the content you are organizing are interoffice emails or images of aardvarks, the application of appropriate metadata aids in search and retrieval. This article provides a list of common metadata standards to use with content ranging from the arts to biology. Allen also provides some nice examples.

Why Can't We All Just Get Along?

 

This recent article seems to be inciting a ton of controversy in librarian circles inspiring a Mad Lib and even an interactive version. While I agree that it is ill advised to focus on superficial features attributed to young, hip librarians like their heavy framed architect glasses and wacky shoes, can't we all just get along? Librarians with substance and experience seem to be all up in arms about newcomers to the field with their fresh ideas, freakishly fast texting skills and ADD.

Admittedly, there are incompetent people, young and old, cool and dorky, in every profession except perhaps advertising where you are neither allowed to be old (over 40) nor uncool. One thing that the young, hip librarians have on their side is that young, hip potential library users can identify with them. Case in point, this excellent post on Library Moth. The main point is that the younger demographic, already enthusiastic about sustainability and activism, can help to reinvigorate libraries.

After all, who are the donors of the future? Who will be using libraries in the future and who should play a role in shaping the services of the future library?

At the risk of starting more controversy or sounding like the Annoyed Librarian (who annoys me), I think that diversity is going to play an enormous part in libraries and this includes the patrons as well as the librarians. Perhaps appreciating the strengths of all participants - young or old, stylish or hopeless - is the way to go. And by all means, stupid, lazy people and those who thrive on inertia need not apply.

 

UCSC Grateful Dead Archive

I've never been a deadhead. But, I really appreciate the care and consideration that has gone into creating the online presence for the University of California Santa Cruz's Grateful Dead archive. In my opinion, this is a superb example of taking a collection with high pop culture value and effectively marketing it in a manner that is appealing and appropriate to the target market or target researcher/spinning hippy.

The collection is still being processed, and in fact, the job posting for an archivist last year was so newsworthy that there was a segment on NPR about it. In the meantime, UCSC has a lovely website as central command and is rolling out pieces of the collection as processing takes place.

And, a collection of items on such a popular topic is likely to draw the attention of many people previously unaware of the UCSC special collections offerings. It really makes you think about other pop culture items that may be sitting around in some guy's attic and how archivists can inspire donations of these rare, valuable, useful and strategically promotional items.

Bauhaus: Not the Band, the Museum

Another incredible find courtesy of my infatuation with StumbleUpon.

The Bauhaus Archive / Museum of Design in Berlin is concerned with the research and presentation of the history and impact of the Bauhaus (1919-1933), the most important school of architecture, design, and art of the 20th century.

It is the most complete existing collection focused on the history of the school and all aspects of its work and is accessible to all. The collection is housed in a building drafted by Walter Gropius, the founder of the school.

Not surprisingly, they have a simply designed and aesthetically awesome website. My favorite part remains the Bauhaus Shop. Am I superficial with an international, design centric eye? Nevertheless, this site is worth more than a glance for the friendly navigation and curation. Libraries and museums can take notes.

Museum and Library App Mania!

Earlier in the week, I wrote a post about the new mobile app for The British Library. Inspired, I embarked on an iPhone download fiesta.

To follow, please find blurbs on the 'Treasures' app as well as comparable projects by a variety of institutions.

The British Library: Treasures

A video is worth a thousand words, so here is a classy little promo demonstrating this cool app. 

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjl9hTmv1xI?wmode=transparent]

 

 MOMA

MOMA has a video demo as well. In addition, it is worth noting that the quality of the images is superlative and the collection search feature pretty marvelous provided you know a little about modern art and design.

Brooklyn Museum

I downloaded an iPhone app from the Brooklyn Museum (BKmuseum). It contains standard information like hours, location, exhibits and this intriguing thing called Gallery Tag! For a lot more technical information and a behind the scenes look at the development process, here is a very informative blog post from the Brooklynites themselves.

Museum of London: Street Museum

Awesome little map with virtual red push pins invites you to click and explore this amazing collection of images from new and old London. Here is the best explanation ever, with design as lovely as the app itself. Nicely done, London!

 

 

5 LIS Things to Discuss Amongst Yourselves

Here are five fabulous LIS related topics to talk about over coffee.

 

1. Should Jerry Brown really restart his California gubernatorial term by cutting public library funding by a fatal amount?
2. Would you like to sing happy birthday to Wikipedia or curse the day it was born ten years ago?
3. Have some time on your hands? Add a book or description to the marvelously lofty Open Library project.
4. Ever wonder how to become an awesome blog commenter? Read this and then give it a whirl.
5. Will Facebook last? Or will it suffer the fate of hot nightclubs (or MySpace) when all the cool kids and my mom stop checking it obsessively?

A National Digital Library: Wouldn't It Be Nice?

The article Playing Catch-Up in a Digital Library Race appeared in the New York Times on January 8, 2011. The topic is how the United States is lagging woefully behind other countries like uber efficient Norway and the Netherlands in efforts to create some kind of unified national digital knowledge repository. Despite Ben Franklin being at the leading edge of the democratization of libraries, since the 1700's and especially in the last couple of decades, lack of library resources has potentially caused a rift between the goal of providing digital access to all collections and integrating those disparate resources in a collaborative manner and the reality of accomplishing these large scale endeavors.

While it is true that the Library of Congress started the American Memory project way back in the 1990's and Google has been steadily progressing on their privatized plot to digitize the world, academic and research libraries as well as public libraries still manage digital projects in fits and starts as time and money and staffing allow, often with steep learning curves and in some cases, inadequate technology. In order to create resources that are interoperable, attention needs to be paid to scan quality, metadata, and the systems used to push content. Luckily, I think MLIS students today are better prepared to deal with the challenges presented by electronic resources. However, old positions in cataloging and public services need time to evolve into the Digital Services Librarians, Metadata Librarians and Electronic Resources Librarians that will help cement the future. This will not happen overnight.

It seems like the initiatives in Norway and the Netherlands started with a collective overarching commitment to going digital. My inability to read Norwegian or Dutch makes it difficult to discern how these libraries successfully made the switch. My gut says that it was more of a philosophical change and not a total house cleaning - rather, I am sure once the decision was made to digitize, existing staff perhaps supplemented with technical expertise retrained and reapportioned time to focus on the new responsibilities associated with digitization.

 

 

Nifty Smartphone App for British Library

Now you can explore the world's knowledge via some nifty smartphone applications for The British Library. In parnership with Toura, a platform for mobile guides, the first offering called 'Treasures' includes over 100 images curated as highlights of the collections ranging from illuminate manuscripts to sacred texts. Images are high resolution allowing users to really zoom in and examine details.

The collection selections are enhanced with videos and sound recordings featuring interviews with British Library curators, a renowned linguist and an explorer. The application will be updated frequently and is available for a small fee, but imagine how much you can learn from an app like this one versus that zombie attack game you spent $2.99 on last fall.

It is worth mentioning that the website for The British Library is fairly awesome as well. With access to journal articles and online collections, the site does a fabulous job of taking a dense amount of content and presenting it in a simple, clean and easy to search manner. In addition, users can add notes if they know more about the item they are viewing than the metadata in the record. The people working on emerging tech at The British Library are very savvy indeed.

 

New Blog Platform for Mod Librarian!

Because I would like to more easily allow comments and distribute content, I am testing a migration to an entirely new blog platform for the Mod Librarian blog - Posterous.

New URL is http://modlibrarian.posterous.com.

Daily posts will be automatically pushed to Twitter, Facebook, Linked In and Tumblr. You can set up a new RSS subscription about midway down in right sidebar.

Comments are welcome. I am working on tagging all 109 imported posts for ease of findability right now.

Thank you readers!

 

Digital Mortality: Posthumous Social Media

What if I post this, walk outside, and get crushed by a giant anvil falling from the sky? My Tumblr account will have automatically pushed content to Twitter and Facebook and there is a possibility that retweeting and comments may continue unmoderated.

My face might keep popping up in the sidebars of Facebook and Linked In as a suggested connection for acquaintances long after I am flat as a pancake. Not many people have planned for their digital demise accordingly and  social media passwords usually live only in the head of the content creator.

This excellent article in the New York Times considers the issue of posthumous posts in great detail. Many people treat blogs and status updates like a journal or diary and email correspondence like a bunch of letters tied with a ribbon. Without the physical artifacts of the past to commemorate a person’s presence, their digital legacy is largely inaccessible and cannot be preserved and archived in memorial.

Some companies are springing up designed to ameliorate this issue. In the meantime, I would suggest documenting your passwords and account names in some manner or at least discussing your preference for password creation with your next of kin. If they are aware of your penchant for using the name of your first pet and your birthday or simply the word ‘Bosco,’, they may have a chance to log in to close your account or to migrate the content to a new repository for posterity.

Do You Miss Mad Men?

Then take a look at the Vintage Ad Browser. With almost 125,000 ads from the 1800’s to the present, this resource was created by Philipp Lensen. Categories range from Animals (lots of pet food ads) to Tobacco to Alcohol, with a few very specific ones thrown in like Coke or Joe Camel.

The ads vary in scan quality as the collection was aggregated from a wide variety of sources. Links go all over the place as well and as a result, the metadata and information available with each selection is of varying quality.

However, it is an amazing feat to have amassed such a well organized display of vintage advertising on one site. As inspiration or a research starting point, I recommend the Vintage Ad Browser.

Want to be in Pictures?

Ever wonder what a moving image archivist does? Well, Lance Watsky can tell you all about being an audio visual archivist. In this interview, Lance describes his educational and career path leading up to his current jobs - one as the program coordinator for the Moving Image Archive Studies program at the UCLA iSchool and the other as an Audio-Visual Archivist at Point 360, a Burbank production company.

It is also interesting that Lance mentions being on the lookout for collections that may require preservation as a way to unearth job opportunities. Some museums or historical societies may not have the resources to handle some materials in their film or audio collections. It strikes me as a bit of an entrepreneurial enterprise.

Also helpful is background in the organization of information, good old LIS skills. The program at UCLA includes courses such as Archeology of Media, Cataloging, and Preservation and Restoration that provide a solid technical and theoretical background for someone interested in becoming a multimedia archivist.

The Regal Freegal

My library, The Seattle Public Library, just introduced the Freegal Music database. As a patron with a valid library card, you can log in to Freegal, search the extensive collection of songs, and then download three songs per week for FREE as the name implies.

This is awesome, however, it seems a little like borrowing a book from the library and then never returning it. And, the service costs approximately $1 per download, more or less, depending on volume, so I am left to wonder what is in it for the library other than an expanded offering appealing to a wide audience of disillusioned people wondering why they need a library.

Library Journal covered this topic in more depth back in July here, but until I had the opportunity to experience the wonders of Freegal first hand, I felt ill equipped to weigh in on the topic. A company called Library Ideas is behind Freegal Music, as well as some other lending services like moviestick! for USB movies, Rocket Languages for web based language learning, and Big Fish Games for Libraries for video games.

All of these services will go a long way towards saving libraries money on physical collections of DVD’s, CD’s and games - saving product wear and tear and space. In addition, digital delivery gives patrons what they crave - the library anywhere.

It is an interesting and thought provoking complement to e-books. Two things concern me, however. One is that all of these services feature disparate entry points from the main library website. Can this be streamlined? The other is that sometimes I simply go to the library because I need somewhere to go that is free and not my house. If people need not leave their couches, will they?

5 LIS Things to Discuss This Weekend

Without further ado, here are 5 things to ruminate whether you’re at ALA Midwinter or relishing the post-holiday post-blizzard winter days.

1. Interested in integrating digital media into teaching? Check out Ethnographic Research and Digital Media.

2. Would you like to obsessively track your everyday data? Well, keep a list of those Starbucks beverages and the number of people in your carpool using Daytum.

3. Do you like vintage advertising? There are over 100K ads from the 1800’s through the present on the Vintage Ad Browser.

4. Want to convince your company that you really need a Digital Asset Management system? Look at this post from Craig Bollig.

5. Intrigue about the announcement of a “3D Tablet” at CES. Talk about making e-books come to life…

Better Best Practices for Digitization

Did you know that the Library of Congress hosts a site featuring best practices, guidelines, tutorials and glossaries for still image digitization? The Federal Agencies Digitization Guidelines Initiative and the Still Images Working Group has compiled Technical Guidelines for Digitizing Cultural Heritage Materials available as a PDF for download.

In addition, there are tips for planning and managing digitization projects, a section on content categories, and even papers and presentations. This site is a comprehensive starting point for beginning any type of digitization project or research on digital imaging.

My favorite glossary term? Ken Burns effect: Technique of embedding still photographs in motion pictures or animated slide shows, displayed with slow zooming and panning effects. The effect can be used as a transition: Burns might open with a close-up of one person in a photo, then zoom out so that another person in the photo becomes visible. Apple’s image editing software packages include options labeled “Ken Burns Effect.” Successful use of the Ken Burns effect requires a high level of resolution in the source still image, so that clarity is maintained when zooming on a detail like a face.

Museum Metadata Games

Mia Ridge, the lead developer at the Science Museum in London has teamed up with my favorite Powerhouse Museum for a creative research project - using online games encouraging users to tag museum objects.

There is no barrier to playing Dora’s Lost Data or Donald’s Detective Puzzle. Users can register to track their accumulated tagging points, but anyone can simply stop by unregistered to tag a few items or add pertinent facts. The focus of this project is the items that have remained uncatalogued due to being deemed the “least interesting” in the collection.

I am particularly intrigued by the idea of crowd sourcing cataloging for unprocessed materials. I would like to see tagging like this combined with vocabulary control of some sort to result in a semi-automated processing technique. Material could be made readily available more quickly for online researchers. The increased exposure for underutilized collections is staggering to consider.

Anyway, there is a fantastic interview with Mia here. Check out the other projects she mentions too.

Can You Play Stairway to Heaven?

I’m sure you have probably already heard about the East Palo Alto Library’s plan to start lending electric guitars complete with amps and music lessons. To me, this seems a very interesting interpretation of creating a library that fosters community and learning and that is about much more than those seemingly obsolete printed books.

Guitar lending, as well as events like the Denver Public Library’s Frock Out fashion design contest, the University of Minnesota library student video contest and countless libraries hosting video game tournaments for teens help to reinvigorate library offerings and most importantly, reinvent the very idea of a library.

Why not start lending items like handbags for aspiring fashionistas? After all, for profit companies like Bag Borrow or Steal have been successfully renting designer bags for years now. If the guitar experiment is a success, it may open the door for libraries lending items beyond e-readers as well as encouraging participation and support from an expanded user base.

I wonder if this all came about because Keith Richards wants to be a librarian?

Does Your Social Media Lack Strategy?

Social media without strategy is like peanut butter without jelly - still tasty, but incomplete. Whether your interest and participation in the social media universe is personal or for your library, museum or organization, these words of wisdom from Umair Haque on the Harvard Business Review blog ring true.

In From Social Media to Social Strategy, Haque identifies the antisocial practices of many corporations. In order for any social media effort to garner user interest and effectively build a brand, some other core issues should be addressed.

This is cleverly summarized in the following attributes:

* Character: Does your organization or message embody character and integrity?

* Control: Is your organization run by a despot? Are you the despot?

* Culture: Is your culture in the Stone Age or do you care about more than killing a mastodon and serving it for dinner?

* Clarity: Simple is better.

* Cohesion: Set the tone and inspire conversation.

* Choreography: Once the tone is set, gently maneuver the user outcomes.

Analog vs. Digital

Leala Abbott wrote a mighty fine blog post recently on analog versus digital assets called The Analog-ists Revenge. She astutely points out that many of the unwieldy processes being applied to managing digital assets stem directly from analog thinking. Here is a great analogy:

“To describe how managing digital information differs from the analog world. I often use my Greek Vase analogy. Let’s say you have a Greek Vase, an actual physical 3-D object, this vase is not going to replicate itself right before your eyes hundreds of times, that digital file on the other hand, will do it in a heartbeat. Therefore working with digital resources requires a completely different shift in thinking and practices that worked great for managing analog materials, just won’t scale when moved to the digital realm.”

I am pleased to see a comparison to the archival processing article by Greene and Meissner from 2005 called “More Product, Less Process.” I rely on this type of thinking when approaching DAM and metadata planning as well. One must be judicious both when selecting digital assets as well as when deciding how and what metadata to apply to each asset.

Finally, Abbott points out that there actually are subtle differences between managing a collection using collection management software and managing digital assets using a digital asset management system. The best way I can describe it is that collection management is more akin to managing the analog objects - the surrogate has the same attributes applied as the actual physical object. But in the digital realm, one must think iteratively and holistically. The digital assets are in and of themselves the objects or items you are managing.

Happy New Year!