Many great resources are available to help you learn more about Digital Asset Management. Below are some favorites.
DAM Guru Program members recently started offering their expertise in these free digital asset management educational webinars. All member webinars are entirely free of commercial sales pitches, so you can learn without having to reach for your wallet.
“How the Semantic Web Will Affect Digital Asset Management”
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“DAM Workflows: From Content Creation to Long-Term Storage”
Corey Chimko of Cornell University
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“Smart Metadata”
Carsten Hesse of Six Offene Systeme GmbH
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“DAM and Digital Preservation”
Emily Kolvitz of JCPenney
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“Essential DAM Planning for Museums”
Susan Barrett of Arizona State University
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“DAM ROI Methodologies”
Kimberlee Bush of Evergreene Graphics
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“Color Management Strategies for DAM”
Oliver Häuser of FHCon
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“DAM in Commercial Photography Environments”
Bob Hendriks of In Transit Images
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“Brand Management and DAM in Higher Education”
Peter Graham of Cambridge University
Each week, a new DAM Guru Program member is featured in the website’s blog. These quick interviews are a wonderful way to see how DAM professionals see DAM, how they got involved and what advice that have for others.
Fred Robertson
Metadata for Content Management helps digital content managers design better content organization strategies, and envision and deploy creative ways in which metadata, taxonomy, policy and workflow can be used to make digital content systems more usable, functional and valuable to users.
Author (and DAM Guru Program creator) David Diamond (DAM Survival Guide) avoids theoretical and academic discussions, instead providing real-world guidance to those designing or redesigning content management systems or digital asset management systems.
Buy Metadata for Content Management: Designing taxonomy, metadata, policy and workflow to make digital content systems better for users now on Amazon.
There’s no more complete overview of Digital Asset Management available for those new to DAM, or just looking to refresh their knowledge. Written by DAM veteran and DAM Guru Program creator, David Diamond, DAM Survival Guide is an easy read that focuses on the most important things you need to know when planning a digital asset management initiative. If you have no idea where to start with DAM, this is where to start.
Buy DAM Survival Guide now on Amazon, or download a free 100+ page excerpt from Picturepark. For more info and ongoing DAM tips, visit the author’s blog and Twitter feeds.
When it comes to managing a digital asset management system, we all become librarians to a certain extent. And though its title speaks to one class of information professionals, what’s inside should be required reading for anyone looking to configure a DAM that’s easier to manage and makes more sense to users.
This book explains both the purpose of digital asset management systems and why an organization might need one. The text then walks readers step-by-step through the concerns involved in selecting, staffing, and maintaining a DAM. This book is dedicated to providing you with a solid base in the common concerns, both legal and technical, in launching a complex DAM capable of providing visual search results and workflow options.
The second edition of the preferred text for learning about Digital Asset Management contains 30% new and updated material, including a full new chapter on risk and change management. Incorporating quotes and material from leaders in the field, as well as sample charts, graphs, and even job descriptions that readers are encouraged to reuse and adapt for their own purposes, this book is a must have for anyone learning about Digital Asset Management.
Buy this title on Amazon.
The Accidental Taxonomist, by Heather Hedden
The Accidental Taxonomist is a guide to the art and science of building information taxonomies. Author Heather Hedden walks readers through the process, presenting highly technical information in a straightforward, comprehensible style.
Buy The Accidental Taxonomist on Amazon. For more information, follow the author’s Twitter feed or visit her website.
The DAM Book, by Peter Krogh
In The DAM Book: Digital Asset Management for Photographers, Peter Krogh guides readers through the entire digital photography ecosystem, explaining how hardware, software, file formats and workflow practices work together to keep images safe, and to help photographers get the most from their pictures.
Buy The DAM Book now on Amazon. For more information, visit the author’s Twitter and blog feeds.
Digital and Marketing Asset Management
Theresa Regli's book about DAM was published in August 2016 and covers many of the key topics enterprise DAM solution buyers are likely to be interested in. The title starts off with some key concepts and history about the origins of the DAM market, such as the different sectors where it developed in parallel (stock media, publishing and video).
Buy Digital and Marketing Asset Management now on Amazon. For more information, visit the author’s Twitter and website.
Recently celebrating the site’s 100th podcast, Another DAM Blog and companion site, Another DAM Podcast, are long-time DAM industry favorites. Host Henrik de Gyor writes thoughtful, intelligent blog posts that are based on his years of experience working with DAM organizations. His popular podcasts are short, concise interviews with DAM users from many high-profile organizations. While it’s interesting to hear the DAM stories of others, de Gyor’s podcasts enable listeners to actually learn from the successes and challenges of other DAM users.
David Riecks founded ControlledVocabulary.com to help others learn how to build controlled vocabularies, thesauri and keyword hierarchies for describing images in databases. Riecks has been involved in many digital image standards initiatives, as well as being a featured speaker at PhotoPlus Expo, the Microsoft Pro Photo Summit, and the first and second International PhotoMetadata Conferences. ControlledVocabulary.com contains a wealth of valuable information, and it’s home to the Controlled Vocabulary User Forum, which includes more than 1,000 members.
David Riecks is featured in the Picturepark webinars, “The Tao of Taxonomy” and “The Copyright Killings.”
Curated by several DAM Guru Program members, the DAM Directory is a nice resource for a wide variety of links to resources that will be of interest to those involved with digital asset management.
DAM, BAM thank you MAM! If the terms related to Digital Asset Management have you confused, spend some time in the DAM Glossary. It’s a free resource offered by the editorial team at DigitalAssetManagementNews.com. It’s a great place to brush up on your vocabulary before that job interview!
DAM Vendors Directory
The Digital Asset Management News organization has developed a directory of DAM vendors that’s sure to become a community favorite. All content is subject to the “no nonsense” filters for which DAM News is known, so this is one directory people can trust.
Digital Asset Management News
Digital Asset Management News provides the DAM community with a wonderful resource of original content that’s sometimes based on industry news and sometimes intended for educational purposes. Posts are always interesting and unique, and site managers are known for their no-nonsense “take-down” style of humbling DAM vendors (and others) who boast too loudly. Having no alignment with any DAM vendors, publishers or other commercial interests, Digital Asset Management News provides a neutral perspective on the industry’s goings on that should not be missed. New and noteworthy on the site is a Resources page that offers links to many wonderful DAM-related locations on the Web, and offers a fairly complete DAM Glossary.
dpbestflow.org
dpBestflow.org includes a series of online educational seminars, software and hardware solutions, workflow guides and book references that are designed to match a wide variety of working styles. Funded by a grant from the United States Library of Congress and developed and overseen by the American Society of Media Photographers, this website offers guidelines for refined production workflows, archiving methods, and best practices for digital photography that are applicable across virtually all aspects of digital asset management.
If you enjoy listening to recorded podcasts that feature influential people in DAM and related professionals, you’ll enjoy Elegant Workflow. Though the majority of interviewees are with people in the Entertainment sector, there are several recordings with DAM professionals, and each interview has something interesting to offer everyone.
PhotoMetadata.org
Useful for those needing to learn how to use photo centric programs, like Photoshop, Bridge, Photo Mechanic, Expression Media/Media Pro and other applications for adding embedded metadata to their images before importing into a DAM.
DAM News hosts a digital asset management events calendar.
Insight Exchange Network
IEN’s mission is to research, design, and produce conferences that empower you with actionable insights and intelligence. Boosting your business results is our main priority.
Henry Stewart Digital Asset Management Expos
Henry Stewart DAM Expos are held in New York, San Diego, Chicago and London. They feature speakers on various DAM-related topics, and they include a DAM vendor expo area.
Moderator: Frank DeCarlo, CEO of RPR Graphics
“DAM Shootout: Cloud (SaaS) vs. Onsite” takes an unbiased look at the pros and cons of both deployment methods, as they relate to digital asset management software. Lincoln Howell (Belden) defends the Cloud, while Heath Norton (Northern Arizona University) tells why onsite was the best decision for him.
“Metadata Myths and Madness!” features John Horodyski speaking about metadata best practices, the value of metadata standards and more.
“DAM and the Tao of Taxonomy” features David Riecks speaking about the advantages of the proper use of taxonomy and controlled vocabularies in digital asset management software.
Even the best-planned digital asset management systems can become difficult to use over time. Policies lapse, users get lazy, and DAM managers come and go. No matter what the cause, a DAM that’s become cumbersome does no one any good and it must be tamed. This webinar feautures DAM managers from Harley-Davidson, who explain the troubles they’ve seen, and offer solutions that worked for them.
As more people share more content across social networks, the issue of who owns that content becomes increasingly important. Find out how the business practices of social networks mixed with pending (and current) global legislation could create the “perfect storm” of copyright-free chaos.
Are you single-handedly responsible for making the digital asset management initiative at your organization fly? Some DAM managers are lucky to have large DAM teams, while others have to do it all on their own. Do you have what it takes to become one of these DAM Superheroes?
What were you doing in 1990? Chances are, you weren’t involved with Digital Asset Management, because it hadn’t yet been invented. Jennifer Neumann is most often credited for changing that, and now she’s going to tell you all about it.