The management of digital resources in memory institutions - The world wide web has become increasingly (audio)visual. Information is no longer only transmitted by text, but more and more also by photographs, graphics and videos. They also play an important role in the management of cultural heritage collections. Unfortunately, the management of digital resources also creates some challenges. They are often multiplicated, decentrally stored and difficult to find for both internal and external users. Furthermore, their copyright status is often poorly documented. This complicates the online access and (re)use. This presentation does not only discuss these challenges, but also presents a strategy to deal with the obstacles through using standardised specifications and protocols. Speaker: Rony Vissers (PACKED vzw)

2. THE MANAGEMENT OF
DIGITAL RESOURCES IN
MEMORY INSTITUTIONS
Rony Vissers | PACKED vzw
8 september 2017 | Waalse Krook, Gent

3. CURRENT SITUATION
▪ information is no longer only transmitted on World Wide Web by
text, but increasingly also by photographs, graphics and videos
▪ digital images also play an important role in management of cultural
heritage collections
▪ unfortunately, management of digital images also creates some
challenges…

4. CURRENT SITUATION
⚫ digital images are spread across different computer systems
⚫ many digital images are not linked to collection management
systems
⚫ making images available to online applications is still manual and
time-consuming task
⚫ uncontrolled increase of digital images due to manual duplication
⚫ rights status of digital images is not or poorly documented
⚫ only limited amount of digital images is online available
⚫ online images often don’t have proper rights label
⚫ (use of different DAM systems among those memory institutions
who use one)

5. TWO PROJECTS
⚫ two projects to improve situation:
⚪ 2016: a layered license model (VKC – Flemish Art Collection, in collaboration
with PACKED vzw)
⚪ 2017: a blueprint for distributed management of digital resources / images
(PACKED vzw)

6. LAYERED LICENSE MODEL
⚫ defines how to make images (and data) available for reuse through
unambiguous licenses
⚫ matrix of content types, user rights and licenses that answers
⚪ which content will be made available online?
⚪ under which conditions?
⚪ for which kind of reuse?
⚫ based on a consensus among museums of fine art that are part of
VKC – Flemish Art Collection
⚫ harmonizes the way images are made available for reuse

7. LAYERED LICENSE MODEL

8. LAYERED LICENSE MODEL

9. BLUEPRINT FOR DISTRIBUTED
MANAGEMENT OF DIGITAL
RESOURCES
⚫ blueprint for way in which existing infrastructure, services and work
processes for image management are set up in museums
⚫ focusses on those aspects of typical image bank that are relevant for
sustainable access = “image hub”
⚫ sustainability
⚪ digital images are managed efficiently, in accordance with human and financial
resources available to heritage organization
⚪ management of digital images takes place for purpose of realizing mission of
heritage organization
⚪ systems, work processes and policy choices with regard to image management
do not have negative impact on preservation and use of images in future

10. BLUEPRINT FOR DISTRIBUTED
MANAGEMENT OF DIGITAL
RESOURCES
⚫ “image hub” implies requirements regarding:
⚪ digital strategy
⚪ image curator
⚪ image managment system (DAM)
⚪ API’s
⚪ embedded metadata
⚪ technical image specifications
⚪ rights status and licenses

11. DIGITAL STRATEGY
⚫ digital strategy should describe
⚪ why heritage organization creates and stores digital images
⚪ for who digital images are created and stored
⚪ how digital images are made accessible to users
⚪ how digital images and metadata can be (re)used
⚪ how and when digital strategy is evaluated and updated

12. IMAGE CURATOR
⚫ heritage organization has an image curator responsible for managing
the images
⚫ heritage organization has defined workflows and tools for image
management
⚫ heritage organization has an action plan / project plan for rolling out
image management system in organization

13. IMAGE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM (DAM)
⚫ system requirements have been determined based on heritage
organization’s needs
⚫ image management system is solely meant for access copies: archive
files are stored in a separate storage system
⚫ metadata about content of images are managed in separate
collection management system
⚫ system logs and analyzes user data
⚫ three options:
⚪ in-house
⚪ SaaS (software as a service)
⚪ web service

14. IMAGE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
(DAM)
⚫ in-house:
⚪ heritage organization provides sufficient structural resources for ICT employee
who manages system
⚪ heritage organization provides sufficient structural resources for application
manager who communicates organization's needs to ICT employee
⚪ heritage organization provides sufficient structural resources for hardware and
software required for rolling out system and storing images
⚫ SaaS (software as a service):
⚪ heritage organization provides structural resources for application manager who
communicates organization's needs to supplier
⚪ heritage organization provides necessary financial resources for procurement,
rollout and support of system
⚪ heritage organization concludes Service Level Agreement (SLA) with developer,
hosting and support provider

15. IMAGE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM (DAM)
⚫ web service:
⚪ heritage organization uses Wikimedia Commons, Internet Archive or Flickr: The
Commons for managing images and making them accessible
⚪ heritage organization provides sufficient structural resources for application
administrator who configures and manages web service

16. API’S
⚫ Application Programming Interface: set of clearly defined methods of
communication between various software components
⚫ image management system in-house or SaaS:
⚪ heritage organization uses IIIF Image API to exchange images
⚪ heritage organization uses the IIIF Presentation API to exchange data about
images
⚫ web service as image management system :
⚪ heritage organization uses native API of web service to IIIF Presentation API to
exchange links and data about images
⚫ International Image Interoperability Framework: defines several API’s
that provide standardised method of describing and delivering
images over Web, as well as "presentation based metadata”
(structural metadata) about structured sequences of images

17. EMBEDDED METADATA
⚫ tags for TIFF
⚫ tags for JPG and PNG

18. TECHNICAL IMAGE SPECIFICATIONS
⚫ access files for simple screen display have width of minimum 1920
pixels, 24bit sRGB colour and JPEG or PNG file format
⚫ access files for zoomable images for screen display have resolution of
minimum 300ppi, 24bit sRGB colour and Tiled Pyramid TIFF file
format (TIFF container with JPEG tiles)
⚫ high-quality access files for digital publications or presentations have
resolution of minimum 300ppi, 24bit sRGB colour and JPG or PNG
file format
⚫ access files for (re)use in image processing software have resolution
of minimum 300ppi, minimum 24bit AdobeRGB or eciRGB colors
and uncompressed TIFF baseline v6.0 file format

19. RIGHTS STATUS AND LICENSES
▪ heritage organization makes rights-free images available under
Creative Commons Public Domain Mark
▪ heritage organization makes own images for which it is sole
rightsholder available under a CC0 statement or one of six
Creative Commons licenses (> being sole rightsholder implies
that pictured object is in public domain or that the original
rightsholder has transferred his rights to heritage organisation)
▪ heritage organization documents third-party rights on images and
follows a formal procedure for identifying and clearing those rights
▪ heritage organization documents rights status of image in each
access file
▪ heritage organization documents in each access file conditions for
(re)using images

20. THANK YOU!
rony@packed.be