The Continuing Evolution of DAMs in the Nonprofit Sector Nonprofit organizations are driven by their missions and for many decades they have delivered on those missions effectively by using primarily manual processes. However, the world has changed dramatically. The digital transformation of the past two decades has resulted in an entirely new set of opportunities as well as challenges. In today’s world, nonprofits achieve mission-focused success and competitive advantage by implementing and leveraging best practices with digital technologies. Managing information and digital content is vital, leading to the embrace of powerful digital asset management tools and practices. Viewed from the perspective of 2018, there has been a remarkable evolution, as organizations have adapted and thrived (or not) in this new, technological ecosystem. This session will explore how nonprofit organizations have evolved as they continue to fulfill their important missions. Using an interactive case study format to include multiple perspectives, panelists from different types and sizes of nonprofits will share their stories. We will examine the origins of adopting new tools such as DAMs, the challenges faced, and the evolution that has taken place in our sector. We will look at changes to strategy over time, and the different ways that organizational structures have shifted in response. Through open sharing and plenty of audience participation, attendees and presenters will learn from each other, gain practical knowledge, expand professional networks, and set the stage for continued success. Moderator: Douglas Hegley, Chief Digital Officer, Minneapolis Institute of Art Panelists: Jessica Berlin, Director, Digital Asset Management, American Cancer Society Peter Dueker, Head of Web and Imaging Services, National Gallery of Art Susan Luchars, Librarian and Archivist Dr. Stephanie Tuszynski, Director of the Digital Library, The White House Historical Association

1. The Continuing Evolution of DAMs
in the Nonprofit Sector
Friday, May 4, 2018
2:20 pm

2. Introductions
André Kertész, Marc
Chagall and His Family,
Paris, 1933, Gelatin silver
print, Gift of Frederick B.
Scheel, Minneapolis
Institute of Art, 2007.35.150

3. Douglas Hegley, Chief Digital Officer, Minneapolis Institute of Art @dhegley http://www.slideshare.net/dhegley
Image Source: http://www.zdnet.com/article/the-mix-of-poverty-and-piracy-that-turned-romania-into-europes-software-development-powerhouse/

5. Peter Dueker - National Gallery of Art, Washington DC
Back in ‘03 I swore we wouldn’t be a band for more than
10 years, punk is young and I didn’t want to grow up or
grow old on stage, no way. Yet here we are thank gawd...
Karen O, Nick, Brian - Yeah Yeah Yeahs

6. Susan Luchars, MLIS, PT Barnum Digitization project
Image source: https://i.pinimg.com/736x/da/af/1d/daaf1dae3728e7d4718a94978a6c760a.jpg

7. WHHA Digital Library Launched March 2016
https://www.whitehousehistory.org/digital-library
Dr. Stephanie Tuszynski, Amazon Web Services
Director of the Digital Library

8. Image source: https://blog.sli.do/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/5-Reasons-to-Use-Slido-at-Your-Event.jpg
PLEASE
#H371
Also share
challenges, tips,
comments, etc.

9. Purpose

10. Evolution
Current State
?
Origins
The Future
Evolution

11. Evolution of DAMs

12. The Nonprofit Sector
DAMs
● Specific requirements & challenges
● Primacy of mission
● Importance of persistent archives
● Learning from case studies
● Inform and challenge the industry

13. Progression of DAMs
Print/paper copies
File cabinets
Card catalogs
Digital files
Network shares
Indexing tools
File-naming
Centralized repository
Wider access
Rights Management
Deployment automation
Installed system
Metadata
Limited access
Incomplete inventory
Mission critical
Asset production & delivery
Full integration, APIs
Artificial Intelligence
Image recognition
Image source: http://www.ehstoday.com/safety-leadership/slc-2017-using-leading-indicators-improve-safety-performance

14. Origin of DAMs

17. P. T. Barnum Digitization project

18. The Division of Imaging and Visual Services
produces, manages, preserves, and distributes
the primary digital images of objects in the National Gallery of Art’s
permanent collection and non-NGA objects included in special exhibitions

19. ● DAM program started in 2005
○ The DAMS has become an essential application at
the NGA, used on a daily basis to support a variety
of asset management activities
● 740,000+ assets managed (70+ terabytes, growing
quickly)
○ DIVS + 13 active DAM programs across the Gallery
● 545,000 within DIVS alone
○ Four primary imaging studios plus one-rapid
capture station
○ There is a high amount of churn – new images or
derivatives replacing other assets
● Critical workflows:
○ Delivering assets to internal and external staff
○ Feeding websites (including NGA Images)

20. WHHA DAM journey
● WHHA educational mission includes public education and access to history of
the White House. An online archive of about 200 images, mostly
POTUS/FLOTUS portraits, had been up since 2009, but needed to be
replaced with a more robust tool.
● Following the strategic plan, WHHA used a grant from the Henry Luce
Foundation to do the shortest DAM RFP and purchase process in history.
○ WHHA has no physical object collections, only images & some documents.
○ Open-source was not an option; WHHA has no on-site IT staff.
○ Only existing tool was a custom MySQL database created in 1994 that was internal-only.
○ 8TB of old photos/files that needed to be accessible to staff.

21. WHHA Digital Library
launched in March 2016
Public side currently has
just over 10,000 images
and growing
Internal DAM holds over
300,000 files; 12TB of data
Team of four full-time staff,
3 librarians and 1 historian

22. Evolution of DAMs

23. Evolution - PT Barnum Project : Tools, Technology, and Repositories for sharing
Photograph: P.T. Barnum and extended family, 1870’s
Courtesy of the The Barnum Museum
http://hdl.handle.net/11134/60002:1734

24. WHHA Digital Library - Evolution
● Relationship with Amazon Web Services starting in 2017 altered
the development path of the department.
○ AWS has facilitated the scanning of over 20,000 35mm
slides that have been in cold storage
○ DL is now supporting new mobile app for WHHA - virtual tour
of the White House
○ Other educational technology projects with AWS are
evolving utilizing the DL content
“Gemini 4
Astronauts
and
Families
Visit White
House.”
1965.
Photo by
Joseph J.
Scherschel● Post-launch, changing
financial priorities slowed
down expansion of the
Digital Library.

25. courtesy http://www.enjoy-swimming.com
courtesyhttp://vista.howlingpoint.net
MOVING AWAY FROM...
● Stand-alone catalogs (desktop software)
● Limited internal access
○ immediate stakeholders only:
creators, collection managers
● Limited departmental use
○ 13/40 departments on the old
DAMS
MOVING TOWARDS…
● Universal portal (web-based app)
● Increased internal access
○ all are welcome! self-service!
● Increased departmental use
○ improved communications,
socialization, and educational
resources

26. Successes
Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin,
The Attributes of the Arts and
the Rewards Which Are
Accorded Them, 1766,
Minneapolis Institute of Art, 52.15

27. CSuccesses: P.T. Barnum project:1,286 diverse objects preserved eting
Digital Collections

28. Successes - PT Barnum Project : Data integrity through crosswalks
Physical object: Jenny Lind Girandole candlesticks
Courtesy of the The Barnum Museum
CTDA -- http://hdl.handle.net/11134/60002:1055
Screenshot: Collective Access / Barnum /
CT Collections

29. WHHA Digital Library - Successes
● WHHA has over 20,000 35MM slides from
1962-1987 in cold storage. Only a handful
of the images had been digitized for WHHA
publications.
● Agreement between Amazon Web
Services, WHHA and Digital Divide Data
has facilitated scanning the entire
collection.
● Pilot batch March 2017. First delivery of
5,000 images July 2017.
● 11,000 scans delivered, ~4,000 processed
to date.
● Image on right is very first edition of WHHA
signature publication, The White House: An
Historic Guide being sold in the East
Garden Room in 1962, as it looks within the
DAM.

31. Stumbles, Wrong Turns, Blind Spots, Unfinished Business
Félix Bracquemond
Unfinished Landscape
c. 1858
Minneapolis Institute of Art
2002.186
... it is simply unfinished. More
curious is the faint upside-down
figure of the French writer Honoré
de Balzac ... [the artist] must have
begun thinking he could scrape out
the figure. But after etching the
background ... he evidently decided
to stop where he was.

32. Complacency & “DAM fatigue”
At the NGA we’ve gotten comfortable and
excused shortcomings.
Make evolution of your DAM a core principle.
Be accountable.
● Is everything really fine?
● Be aware of warning signs
● Accept that requirements evolve
Guy Pène du Bois
Pierrot Tired
Corcoran Collection (Museum Purchase through the gifts of
William Wilson Corcoran and Ivan C. Aivasovsky)
National Gallery of Art, Washington

33. Challenges - PT Barnum Project :
Photograph: P.T. Barnum and young Charles Stratton
Courtesy of The Bridgeport History Center / Bridgeport
Public Library
http://hdl.handle.net/11134/1100002:481
● Silos
● Rights
● Vulnerability
● Continuity

34. Evolution of Reporting
Descriptive Reports
Hindsight
Who? How many? How much?
Numbers, accounting
Awareness
Alerts
Analysis
Insight
Why? How?
Evaluation
Exploration
Predictive / Forecasting
Foresight
Competitive advantage
Optimization
Data-driven decisions
We are here

35. Current State

36. WHHA - Current State & Biggest Challenges
● Digital Library public face is slowly
expanding. Team is severely limited in
time and resources - detailed research
and thick description are a high standard
to maintain.
● Backlog of 300K files needs to be
processed... someday.
● Discussing image recognition software as
a possible tool for prioritizing files.
● New projects with AWS keep getting
added to team’s responsibilities, which is
both awesome and annoying.
● Biggest users are still internal staff.
“The Kennedys Make Entrance at Ivory Coast
State Dinner.” 1962. Photo by George F. Mobley.
“Fala on the Train.” 1942. U.S. Navy photo.

37. ● New DAMS selected
○ Enterprise-minded
○ Focus on user-friendliness, updated technologies,
improved permissions and security
● Installation (cloud) complete, implementation underway
● Kicking-off data migration
● Will roll-out in three phases:
○ Summer 2018 - DIVS
■ NGA collection object images, Non-NGA object
images for exhibitions, special project photography,
event photography
○ Fall 2018
■ Departments with current DAM catalogs including
Archives and Conservation
○ 2019 and Beyond
■ Opening our doors to new departments, new users,
new collections museum-wide
Detail
Bingham, George Caleb. The Jolly Flatboatmen. 1846.
Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington

39. Current State - PT Barnum Project :
● Oversight of DAM processes by
Curatorial and Archival staff, not a
“DAM” staff
● Statewide training and all day
conferences promote sharing and
development
● Step-by-step training manuals for
interns and volunteers

40. The Future

41. Value of DAM - PT Barnum Project :
● Less staff time on research and
image requests
● Use of images in marketing
and promotion
● More collections on road map
for repository

43. WHHA Digital Library - Outlook
Short-term
● Continue describing and adding slides
● Leverage AWS projects to promote the
Digital Library
● Marketing plan to boost awareness and
revenue from image licensing
Long-term
● Expand user base
● Partnerships with other presidential
libraries and sites to create a single hub
for White House history online
“Cassius M. Clay Battalion of the Union Army on the South Lawn.” 1861.
“White House South Portico Looking Toward the
Washington Monument.” 1996. Photo by Erik Kvalsvik.

44. National Gallery of Art - Everybody In
● more users, more collections
● fully realizing the new DAMS’ potential
○ API, portals, automated workflows,
leveraging reports and statistics to
more fully meet collection and
user needs
● integrations beyond current CMS and
web
● continued evolution of DAM practices
made possible by
● solid teams
○ You cannot succeed without good
people
● Positive and productive vendor
relationships
● strong network and community
courtesy http://www.tripadvisor.co.nz

45. What’s on your minds?
#H371

46. Q & A
Image source: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/57485d1860b5e9b8142165d8/5825ad2ed2b857e533a34ed9/5825afd6d1758e3da278cb69/1478864870765/questions-from-the-floor.jpg?format=1500w

47. Thank You