Digital Asset Management.com

Knowledge sharing from the experts in digital asset management

DAM Champ: Heidi Quicksilver

FEBRUARY 8, 2016 | NADINE KREFETZ

Meet Heidi Quicksilver, the Digital Archive Systems Manager at Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum. She’sa digital asset management (DAM) system administrator with lots of experience setting up systems for non-profits. Check out her advice on organizing your DAM, metadata and taxonomy development, and rightsmanagement.

DAM champ: Someone who supports f inding, setting up, or maintainingDAM champ: Someone who supports f inding, setting up, or maintaining

a digital asset management system (DAM). There is a wide variety ina digital asset management system (DAM). There is a wide variety in

DAM champions, who come from positions in production, creative,DAM champions, who come from positions in production, creative,

management, IT, and marketing.management, IT, and marketing.

What kind of background do you have?

My background is actually in photography. I started working at theMinneapolis Institute of Arts in 2001 in the photography department. Webegan a transition from film to digital and as soon as we switched, thequestion was ‘How do we organize this, because it’s obviously not goingto be in a filing cabinet.”

I started organizing all the digital assets on our servers, coming up withfile naming conventions, and putting things on CDs. Around 2007 or 2008was when we first started working on an implementation of an assetmanagement system. It gave us the opportunity to really flush out theprocesses and the workflows needed for digital asset management as awhole. I went to a number of other Cultural Institutions including LACMA(Los Angeles County Museum of Art) where we were the first museum torelease free, unrestricted, high-res images of the collection online for

download using the inaugural DAM. Now I’m at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame to help them re-think their accessto and use of digital assets.

You’ve worked with several organizations to get them a DAM. Do you have strategies to put a DAM inplace?

It depends on the institution and it depends on the institution’s needs. The first step is usually a needsassessment – figuring out where the pain points are. If you don’t understand what’s happening now, youcan’t get a big picture of how it can be improved or what the next steps are in order to make assets moreaccessible.

Join the community

Subscribe to our newsletter

Email *

Subscribe

Tags

administration(http://digitalassetmanagement.com/blog/tag/administration/)Advanced DAM(http://digitalassetmanagement.com/blog/tag/advanced-

dam/) archivist(http://digitalassetmanagement.com/blog/tag/archivist/)Before you DAM(http://digitalassetmanagement.com/blog/tag/before-you-dam/) best practices(http://digitalassetmanagement.com/blog/tag/best-

practices-2/) Creative(http://digitalassetmanagement.com/blog/tag/creative/)dam(http://digitalassetmanagement.com/blog/tag/dam/)

DAM Basics(http://digitalassetmanagement.com/blog/tag/dam-basics/) DAM Benefits(http://digitalassetmanagement.com/blog/tag/dam-benefits/) damchamp(http://digitalassetmanagement.com/blog/tag/damchamp/)development

(http://digitalassetmanagement.com/blog/tag/development/)

digital (http://digitalassetmanagement.com/blog/tag/digital/)

digital asset management(http://digitalassetmanagement.com/blog/tag/digital-asset-management/) digital assets

(http://digitalassetmanagement.com/blog/tag/digital-assets/)

Search

Any pain points you hear coming up again and again?

The number one thing is that people don’t have access to the material or tools that they need in order to dotheir jobs more effectively. Whether it’s being able to just find something, not knowing whether they are allowedto use assets they do find, or just not knowing who has what.

During the assessment period, who do you talk to when you want to get an idea of current and futureworkflows?

Coming from a museum perspective, something like digital asset management touches pretty much everydepartment. You have to work with curatorial, marketing, education, graphic designers, and IT. The workflowsaround digital access affect pretty much every part of an institution.

Before and after a DAM system – what’s different?

Before it’s organized chaos. Usually, the biggest difference is the creation of a centralized repository – whichcentralizes access. The metadata around digital assets get built if it doesn’t exist previously, so it’s a lot of dataentry up front but makes a big difference in helping people find things. Still, getting all of their disparate digitalassets into one centralized place is a huge step and affects institutions the most.

How do you start creating order from chaos?

That all comes from the needs assessment when you end up spending a few days to a week talking to the keyplayers in any institution. You definitely get a sense of priorities from those kinds of interviews. It’s going to bedifferent for every institution depending on what their pain points is. This tells you where to begin, and whoneeds help the most.

How do you keep a group of people organized?

Workflows, well-documented business rules, and more workflows. You have to very specifically define what goeswhere and identify required sets of metadata. Nothing gets ingested without basic information that adds valueto that digital asset in order to make it searchable in the future.

If you load something with no information you’re not doing anything

better than you did before by sticking it in a folder on a server.

The beauty of digital asset management software is the ability to add metadata that adds value to that digitalasset and increases its retrievability.

Metadata and taxonomy can be daunting. How do you come up with it?

Working in cultural institutions, there are many previously existing and well-documented taxonomies. Thetaxonomy that will work best depends on what their focus is or what their main types of digital assetsare because a science museum isn’t necessarily going to use the same thing as an art museum. You figure outcontrolled vocabulary and taxonomy. However, any currently existing taxonomy will not be 100% effective.There’s always going to be institutional metadata fields that you will need to build in addition to what exists.

if you working in an art museum, you will have collection data that is going to be information related to objects,but then you’re also going to have assets that have nothing to do with the collection. It might be marketing ordesign related or might be event-related. You cannot ever have one taxonomy that’s going to work for everydifferent type of digital asset within the system.

Who uses digital asset management systems?

There are going to be power users. These users need to be trained and educated to manage the assets and thedata from each department. There also needs to be an overall coordinator and that’s usually a digital assetmanager, possibly an archivist or a librarian that oversees the data that other power users might be adding tothe digital assets in the system.

How do you go about rights management?

You hire a very smart person to handle your rights management. It’s such a complicated thing you need to findsomeone who is interested and obsessed with copyright law. They can be a lawyer, but they don’t necessarilyhave to be. It’s such a complicated and convoluted thing for anybody who doesn’t necessarily understandcopyright law.

If you’re working with a photographer who photographed a painting and you need to have permission from thephotographer and from the artist, the estate, etc. Now I’m seeing just to use a video there are so many levels ofcomplication with rights management because you can’t just get an OK for the artist. There’s the musicians, the

Do we need a DAM?(http://digitalassetmanagement.com/blog/tag/do-we-need-a-dam/) Do we need DAM?

(http://digitalassetmanagement.com/blog/tag/do-we-

need-dam/) Economics of DAM(http://digitalassetmanagement.com/blog/tag/economics-

of-dam/) Executive(http://digitalassetmanagement.com/blog/tag/executive/)info pro(http://digitalassetmanagement.com/blog/tag/info-

pro/) IT(http://digitalassetmanagement.com/blog/tag/it/)

Links(http://digitalassetmanagement.com/blog/tag/links/)

Marketing(http://digitalassetmanagement.com/blog/tag/marketing/)metadata(http://digitalassetmanagement.com/blog/tag/metadata/)

Project Manager(http://digitalassetmanagement.com/blog/tag/project-manager/) socialmedia

(http://digitalassetmanagement.com/blog/tag/socialmedia/)

taxonomy(http://digitalassetmanagement.com/blog/tag/taxonomy/)video (http://digitalassetmanagement.com/blog/tag/video/)

New #DAM interview: “DAM Champ: Lisa Grimm (@lisagrimm)” digitalassetmanagement.com/blog/dam-champ by Nadine Krefetz at @digitalassetmgt

Retweeted by DigitalAssetMgt.com

Planet DAM @PlanetDAM

Expand

Fantastic new #damchamp interview up with @lisagrimm bit.ly/damchamp-grimm pic.twitter.com/NSq8Rtk5Cs

DigitalAssetMgt.com @digitalassetmgt

Meet #damchamp @lisagrimm in a new interview by Nadine Krefetz bit.ly/damchamp-grimm

DigitalAssetMgt.com @digitalassetmgt

Expand

23h

2h

19 Feb

Tweets FollowFollow

Tweet to @digitalassetmgt

View All Posts (/blog/)

person who wrote the song, the person who shot the video, there’s the venue and if it was on televisions theremight be the broadcast rights. There are so many levels of rights management that you really need to invest insomebody who knows.

What are the lessons you’ve learned over the years?

It’s not about the software — it’s workflows, processes, metadata, business rules, and educating your users.Asking the right questions and then answering them so you get the most efficient and easy to use solution for allyour employees to do their jobs better.

All software for digital asset management basically does the same thing, just in different ways. Use the one thatmakes the most sense to you and your team. But make sure you know that it is not about the software. Thesoftware will do nothing for you without everything I just mentioned.

What are the repeatable best practices you learned over the years?

Train your users as much as you possibly can. The more they understand about why metadata matters, theeasier and better it’s going to be. Whether a DAM is for archiving purposes, being able to find things or rightsmanagement (to know who can use what) you need to develop effective workflows. You need to work with andtrain your users on an ongoing basis. Documenting things and sharing with them is one thing but actuallyengaging and talking to people who use the system is crucial.

Are you a DAM Champ or do you know one? We want to talk to you! Submit your contact information here(http://digitalassetmanagement.com/blog/iso-dam-champions/) or connect with Nadine Krefetz on LinkedIn(https://www.linkedin.com/in/nadinekrefetz).

The many benefits of attending a DAMconference1 comment • a year ago

Doug Pederson SpectateSwamp — I keepeverything Video Audio Pictures and TextThis FREE Search allows me to see …

DAM Diaries: Equine archives1 comment • 7 months ago

Lexy Spry — Reference Archivists/Librariansare amazing, aren't they? It would be greatfodder for a TV show...

ALSO ON DIGITALASSETMANAGEMENT.COM/BLOG/

0 Comments DigitalAssetManagement.com/blog/ Login!1

Share⤤ Sort by Best

Start the discussion…

Be the first to comment.

WHAT'S THIS?

Subscribe✉ Add Disqus to your site Add Disqus Addd Privacy%

Recommend ♥ 1

Where next?

Read the previous post: « Digital Asset Management Links — February 5, 2016(http://digitalassetmanagement.com/blog/digital-asset-management-links-february-5-2016/)

Read the next post: Digital Asset Management Links — February 12, 2016(http://digitalassetmanagement.com/blog/digital-asset-management-links-february-12-2016/) »

Most Recent Articles

DAM Champ: Lisa Grimm(http://digitalassetmanagement.com/blog/dam-champ-lisa-grimm/)

Digital Asset Management Links —February 19, 2016(http://digitalassetmanagement.com/blog/digital-asset-management-links-february-19-2016/)

Digital Asset Management Links —February 12, 2016(http://digitalassetmanagement.com/blog/digital-asset-management-links-february-12-2016/)

DAM Champ: Heidi Quicksilver(http://digitalassetmanagement.com/blog/dam-champ-heidi-quicksilver/)

Digital Asset Management Links —February 5, 2016(http://digitalassetmanagement.com/blog/digital-asset-management-links-february-5-2016/)

Related Posts

DAM Champ: John George(http://digitalassetmanagement.com/blog/dam-champ-john-george/)

(http://digitalassetmanagement.com/blog/dam-champ-john-george/)John George is aDAM consultant who works with multiplecompanies, helping with everything fromDAM implementation to taxonomydevelopment. He discovered DAM whilewriting a grant proposal for a digitalarchive project, leading him to pursue aMasters of Library and InformationScience at the University of Washington.Connect…Tags: dam, digital, assets, metadata, management, ta…

Who wants some DAM training?(http://digitalassetmanagement.com/blog/who-wants-some-dam-training/)