DAM & Catalog Software: curating the future (webinar recap)

Digitizing artifacts is not a new concept, it has been around for several decades. Initially, museums focused on creating digital catalogs or databases to document collections, but the extent and emphasis on digitization have significantly increased in recent years due to advancements in technology and changing expectations of the public.

The Dutch Open Air Museum is a good example of an organization that is leveraging and multiplying the possibilities offered by proven technology: they combine their collection software with a digital asset management solution and are now reaping the benefits.

Laborious and slow digital asset management

The Open Air Museum in Arnhem pictures the history of every day live with 100+ historic buildings and more than 150,000 historic artefacts. They are also the proud owner of about 700.000 digital assets. Managing files in a traditional directory was slow and labor intensive, as creating directories, naming files, et cetera, had to be done manually, and large files put a lot of strain on the network. Retrieving the right images was not an easy task, images got lost in the process and storage costs were high.

Together with WoodWing partner Qonqord, the museum embarked on a journey to complement its collection management software (Adlip/Axiell Collections) with WoodWing Assets – a modern DAM solution – to improve the accessibility, boost the visitor experience, and make internal and external collaboration on digital assets significantly easier.

Catalog software-DAM combo: improve use of collections and marketing assets

Qonqord specializes in content orchestration for the cultural sector, amongst others, and worked on getting both the collection imagery and the marketing assets ready for use by the respective audiences.

The goal for the collection images was to:

• ingest images with as little effort as possible
• automatically relate the image to the object
• add relevant metadata
• keep information up to date at all times

For the marketing assets, the aim was to:

• manage a wider range of assets
• facilitate an efficient uploading process
• make assets easily retrievable

The integration of various systems while maintaining appropriate security and authorization levels within all those systems, was the true challenge of this project.

Highly integrated museum ecosystem

With its new, integrated ecosystem of museum collection software and a DAM system, the Dutch Open Air Museum now manages its assets centrally, ensuring higher accessibility of assets and controlled and automated online publishing. The addition of images, and linking images to Adlib/Axiell Collections, is now fully automated and the content delivery network ensures rapid access to assets without putting too much strain on the system. On top of that, changes in or deletion of images and metadata are automatically updated in the entire information chain.

Since the new ecosystem became available, more team members have access to the always up-to-date and more easily retrievable assets. Moreover, image access in WoodWing Assets is controlled, with permissions based on the copyright information from Adlib/Axiell Collections. A more secure, better protected system than before.

Interested to discover more about the Dutch Open Air Museum case? Check out the full webinar recording – click the button in the banner below.

Is your museum future-proof?

A solid technological ecosystem, one that your museum can depend on, allows you to move forward with confidence. Even if your art collection software functions very well and according to expectation, it could proof valuable to check if you can further develop the capabilities of your ecosystem by integrating a DAM solution that will increase its efficiency, accessibility, and ease of use, ultimately allowing you to cut costs.

Interested in integrating a DAM solution into your technological ecosystem?
Get in touch to discuss the various options WoodWing offers. To get an impression of WoodWing Assets, one of WoodWing's DAM solutions, click the button below to watch a demo. Alternatively, contact one of our DAM experts directly.