Michele Jacques
Information Resources Manager, Instructional Communications Systems
University of Wisconsin-Extension
Member - Digital Asset Management Team, University of Wisconsin-Extension

Does This Situation Sound Familiar?
The deadline for one of your current projects is quickly approaching. You need to illustrate some
statistical data and so you want to include a pie chart you created in times past. You know you
last used this pie chart in a slide presentation you developed for a workshop you gave last spring.
The chart will be a perfect match for your current project and you want to re-use it now. You search
on your hard drive. You look through your Web site to see if perchance you posted the chart there.
You even rummage around for an old copy of the paper handout you used for your past workshop.
You can't find your perfect pie chart. You have now devoted more time to looking for it than you care
to admit. What do you do? You re-create the chart from scratch and insert it into your current project.
You finish your project. The deadline is met. Days pass. You suddenly stumble upon your original
pie chart while looking for something else.

What is DAM and What's all the Fuss About?
We are spending a lot of time looking for content when we could be spending our time more
productively. Digital Asset Management, more fondly referred to as DAM, is not something you can
just run out and buy at the local computer store. Investments in staff and equipment can quickly add
up to the hundreds of thousands of dollars. In addition to the dollars, institutional commitment and
personal tenacity are part of the deal. How much do you already know about DAM? Here's a quick
set of True/False statements...see how you do:

1. Digital assets include jpg's, video clip, and text files.
True/False

2. Metadata is data about data.
True/False

3. DAM systems can promote sharing of skills and resources.
True/False

4. Among other things, Digital Rights Management (DRM) determines the conditions for asset use.
True/False

5. A DAM system uses a central repository to store assets.
True/False

6. DAM is more than an IT solution, it includes content, process and workflow issues as well.
True/False

How did you do? As you may have figured out, all statements are true.

How is DAM Defined?
Acronyms abound and terminology as well as current perspectives rapidly change. Terms used
in conjunction with, or sometimes instead of, DAM include: Content Management Systems (CMS),
Media Asset Management (MAM), Enterprise Management Systems (EMS), Enterprise Content
Management (ECM) and even Knowledge Management (KM). You can try to keep up with these
concepts by reading product information and brief articles in online publications such as Econtent
Magazine (and many others).
http://www.econtentmag.com/

Webopedia's Definition of DAM is:
Short for digital asset management, a system that creates a centralized repository for digital files
that allows the content to be archived, searched and retrieved. The digital content is stored in
databases called asset repositories while metadata such as photo captions, article key words,
advertiser names, contact names, file names or low-resolution thumbnail images are stored in
separate databases called media catalogs and point to the original items.
http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/D/DAM.html

Why Do This?
One reason is to access our existing content more effectively and efficiently. But we can also
share our skills and resources with each other, create re-usable content, and even establish a
basis for new services. If we can efficiently find and use our resources ourselves, then it stands
to reason that we can help our students, clients, and partners to find and use them as well. An
implemented DAM system can benefit those engaged in teaching and learning, public services,
government agencies, businesses, administration, and ultimately those who use our resources.

More Than Just Video?
One 'traditional' view of DAM is that it addresses only video assets. The complexities of dealing
with video is a key concept that a robust DAM system must address, but it should be made
clear that video is not the only type of asset for DAM. Examples of assets include images,
graphics, text, sound bites, video clips and so on. Assets can also be course materials or
television programs. Issues of granularity come into play when you need to define how small the
piece is (i.e., is the photo in a brochure the asset, or is the brochure itself an asset?) Although
it seems obvious, the bottom line is all assets must be in a digital format.

What About Metadata?
You can't get very far in a DAM discussion without bringing up metadata. We know that metadata
is data about data, but what does that mean? Think of your traditional library. For centuries,
librarians have been cataloging books and placing them in very specific locations on the library
shelves. The librarians didn't just acquire a new book and toss it somewhere into the stacks,
hoping someone would find it someday. Before the book ever appeared on the library shelf, the
content of the book was described by fields such as author, title, subject headings, etc. In effect,
metadata. Metadata describes a digital collection much like subject headings for the books
escribe a physical collection. Metadata becomes essential when indexing, searching and
retrieving desired content. One of the many overviews on metadata is the metadata chapter of
the white paper: "Managing Enterprise Content: A United Content Strategy" by Ann Rockley of
the Rockley Group.
http://www.rockley.com/articles/The%20Rockley%20Group%20-%20ECM%20UCS%20Whitepaper.pdf (Requires Adobe Reader)

Download Adobe Reader at http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readermain.html

Where Does Rights Management Fit In?
There is much more to Digital Rights Management than can possibly be discussed here. Suffice it
to say that DRM means different things to different groups of people. The motion picture industry
may have a different view than a campus library, which in turn, may have a different opinion than a
software corporation. DRM involves much more than just the watermarking of a file and discussions
of copyright. The Center for Intellectual Property at University of Maryland University College
maintains and excellent Web site on DRM where you will find articles, organizations, library
concerns, technology measures, and much more.
http://www.umuc.edu/distance/odell/cip/links_drm.html

What Groups Use DAM?
DAM systems have been implemented by a wide range of institutions, including universities, public
broadcasting stations, government agencies and industry. For example, clips selected from
thousands of hours of video created by news organizations can be quickly made available to
producers for preview and re-use when new developments of a continuing news story emerge over
time. Can educational institutions learn from what is being done in corporate environments? Yes.
For interesting reading on the University of Michigan's visit to CNN, see James Hilton's New
Horizons article in March/April 2003's EDUCAUSE Review: "Digital Asset Management Systems".
http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/erm0327.pdf

By the way, the University of Michigan has documented much of their process on their own DAM
Web site: Digital Asset Management Initiative.
http://sitemaker.umich.edu/dams

Examples of other groups using DAM are:
Boston's public broadcasting station, WGBH. This station has been involved in a DAM initiative
for many years.
http://daminfo.wgbh.org/

The U.S. Army uses DAM for both video and text management.
http://www.governmentvideo.com/2002/06/presentation_0602.shtml

Even Martha Stewart uses DAM.
http://www.cioinsight.com/print_article/0,3668,a=42224,00.asp

So Where Does This Leave Us?
Alan McCord has authored a paper "Overview of Digital Asset Management Systems" for the
EDUCAUSE Evolving Technologies Committee. Quoting from that paper: "Higher education
spends considerable resources to acquire, manage, and disseminate information - much of it
now digital in nature: text files, still images, audio and video files, research datasets, and
real-time experimental data. We distribute these assets through our Web sites and portals,
public broadcasting stations, streaming services, and collaborative environments. Digital assets
are re-purposed to support traditional on-campus classroom instruction, Web-based course
management systems, and delivery by external partners. We also 'lose' a tremendous quantity
of valuable intellectual property by not effectively capturing and preserving campus activities such
as lectures, symposia, and performances. A Digital Asset Management System (DAMS) can
help higher education address these issues. A DAMS infrastructure can ingest digital assets,
store and index assets for easy searching, retrieve assets for use in many environments, and
manage the rights associated with those assets."
http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/DEC0203.pdf

A New Start?
At the beginning of this article, we talked about finding the resources you need. A DAM system
can help you do this. But this very important point must be emphasized: DAM is not simply
an IT/hardware/software solution. It is a commitment to the process and a new way of working.
So the next time you look for that pie chart, you will find it because it has been tagged with
metadata, assigned its rights, indexed, and stored in a central repository. It will be retrievable
via a browser-based search, and retrieved ready to be re-used or modified. Deadlines will still
approach with astonishing speed, but the next time, you will be spending more of your valuable
time creating your content, not hunting for it.

Michele Jacques
jacques@ics.uwex.edu