Managing Digital Collections: A Systems Perspective (CMS, DAMS, DPS and TDR) | NDF Online Sessions
Watch on YouTubeVideo summary
Managing digital collections requires understanding the distinct roles of three core systems: Collections Management Systems (CMS), Digital Asset Management Systems (DAMS), and Digital Preservation Systems (DPS). A CMS acts as the backbone for institutions, primarily handling cataloging, registration, and curatorial information often compliant with standards like CDWA. While many such systems were originally designed for physical collections, modern museums increasingly need separate DAMS to manage vast amounts of digital surrogates created during exhibitions or field trips. However, integrating these is challenging; the speaker notes that their current setup involves a cloud-based media library for non-collection assets and an older CMS (EMU) used as a de facto repository for collection-related files due to budget constraints preventing separate DAMS integration. This legacy approach has led to complex data structures, high error rates from manual cross-referencing, and significant pressure on storage capacity as digital asset volumes have grown exponentially following digitization projects.
The presentation highlights the critical need for robust Digital Preservation Systems (DPS) that ensure long-term access regardless of file format changes, a function often overlooked in standard CMS or DAMS offerings. The speaker emphasizes adherence to international standards like OAIS and the importance of achieving Trusted Digital Repository status, which involves not just software but organizational viability, financial stability, security, and business continuity plans. Currently, many institutions rely solely on migration as a preservation strategy because emulation is complex; however, there is a growing interest in exploring alternative strategies for obsolete formats, such as time-based media artworks containing gaming elements. The speaker advocates for using tools like the Digital Preservation Coalition's Rapid Assessment Model (DPC RAM) and Competency Audit Toolkit to benchmark maturity levels, identify skill gaps within teams, and inform policy decisions regarding system upgrades or acquisitions.
Beyond technical infrastructure, successful digital preservation relies heavily on community engagement, clear workflows, and cultural shifts within organizations. The speaker describes practical steps taken at their institution, such as implementing hardware write-blockers for file transfers, recording checksums to verify data integrity after discovering millions of null values in the past, and creating consolidated roles like a Digital Asset Systems Manager to oversee all media types rather than siloing them by format. Overcoming resistance from staff accustomed to legacy practices requires realistic expectation setting, developing comprehensive digital asset registers, and fostering an environment where physical and digital well-being are equally prioritized. Ultimately, while the ideal scenario involves fully integrated systems with data sovereignty within New Zealand, many institutions must navigate limited budgets and fragmented tools, making collaboration through local communities like Wellington's Digital Preservation Implementers Guild essential for sharing knowledge and supporting one another in this evolving landscape.
Read the full video transcript
No my hide my welcome everyone to our
NDF online session managing digital
collections systems perspective with our
wonderful presenter Kirsty Cox who is
manager digital and collections
information systems atapa
Naomi
or Liverpool
or
NDF. My name is Naomi Matroid. I am an
NDF board member and I'm also the public
programs lead for FIA Experience
Wellington um just down the road from
Kirsty. Before we hand over um a couple
of housekeeping notes to keep the
session running smoothly, we ask that
you keep yourself muted um and keep your
cameras off so the focus is on the
speaker. Um, also feel free to enjoy
your lunch while you're while you're
listening. Um, the session will be
recorded, so you'll have a chance to
review it. Um, we'll share a link to the
recording and links to any resources
mentioned um, in an email sometime in
the next few days. Um, please utilize
the chat function. Your questions and
comments are super welcome. Um, ask
questions anytime throughout and then
we'll have some time at the end to
address those questions. Kirsty's also
said um she is happy to hand out her
email if we get heaps of questions so
she can um answer them directly. Um a
huge thank you to Kirsty for joining us
as our presenter. We're so excited to
have you. Um Kirsty is currently the
manager of digital and collections
information systems at TEAPA. So she
manages the team that looks after their
collections management system emu and
digital asset management system net x.
Previously she worked at the Alexander
Turbo Library working primarily with
unpublished digital materials and with
their digital preservation system
Rosetta. Uh that is more than enough
from me. So I will happily hand over to
Kirsty now.
manager digital and collections
information systems.
Thank you Naomi and NDF um for inviting
me to talk to you today. This is um as
mentioned in the um advertisements for
this particular session. This is a b
back to basics um presentation looking
at the systems we use to manage our
collection digital collections. What is
a CMS? What's a dams? What's a DPS? And
how do we acquire TDR? What are these?
What do these terms even mean? I'll
explore this through the lens of the
papers um digital preservation maturity
journey.
So
first and foremost
a collections management system or CMS
essentially is designed um to look after
the collections that we all hold within
our institutions. It's a backbone of any
collecting institution and their origins
are in cataloging and registration.
Consequently, most of the systems these
systems manage information of from a
curatorial or a collections management
perspective and is usually compliant
with appropriate cataloging standards.
Vernon of course is the most popular
collection management system used by
museums and galleries in New Zealand and
it's a New Zealandbased system. specify
um is a natural history specific
collection management system and it's
used by many of the New Zealand crown
institution research institutions such
as NEA to manage their extensive
specimen collections and ENU
which of course is a system we use here
at Papa. These are just some of the very
many collection management systems that
are out there on the market. Um, EMU is
a global collection management system
that's actually used by many of the very
large museums and galleries in
Australia, Europe and North America. In
New Zealand, it's a very small user base
of ourselves. Um, Alexander Timber
Library where I firmly worked and was an
administrator for ENU
Hokata Museum recently and the worst
kept secret wing nut films.
Oh, sorry. I should emphasize too, of
course, um that these systems were
primarily and traditionally developed to
manage our physical collections.
Um so, in many cases, we've needed to
acquire over the years a digital asset
management system or dams. These um
systems were developed in the 1990s um
primarily in the creative industry such
as media, publishing and print companies
and almost every sector and or you know
almost every large organization should I
say sorry will have a DAM solution as
part of their IT infrastructure. Glams
have been creating and we have been
creating for a number of years a large
amount of digital assets in association
with our exhibitions, our field trips,
expeditions, marketing and functions. We
also create a large amount of digital
surrogates and acquire digital assets as
part of our collections.
And then again just demonstrate these
are just one these are just several of
the many many digital asset management
systems that are out on the market.
Um the one that we use is net x.
So what does dams look like or what does
the digital asset management system
really look like for us here at tapa?
It's actually spread across two systems.
Um our nonpolction related material um
is stored within net x or what we call
media library. We acquired that in 2016.
Yet within EMU, our collection
management system, we've had this since
2005, 20 years earlier this year. And
that has been storing all of our digital
assets, even our non-collection media
assets before we acquired media library.
So
our non-collections related media assets
when it was initially acquired it was
configured as a minimal viable product.
This is not to be confused with most
valuable player. Our net or media
library was acquired basically to
have the real basic
just enough features to make it usable.
Previously, like I was mentioning
before, all our digital assets were
either stored in emu or in random staff
hard drives or personal servers. There
was no centralized space in which to
find our media assets.
It was never configured to handle
collection related media assets. So
therefore, there is no integration with
ENU.
There's only manual cross referencing
and currently we have no budget
allocation to change this.
The fact that this dams is also a
cloud-based software as a service means
that there is no digital uh data
sovereignty and there is no data center
based in New Zealand. NetX support is
based in United States on the east
coast. So our window for support is very
limited from a New Zealand time
perspective.
Also by the very nature of the digital
assets that are stored in our media
library.
All the digital assets stored within
this fall under the P the public records
act. Recently
recently our disposal authority was
signed off by the chief archavist.
So essentially everything stored in here
is not of longterm
archival use or purpose.
On the other hand,
our collections related dams
also known as our collection management
system or ENU has been highly configured
to handle our digital assets. This
configuration was developed back when we
first acquired ENU in 2005.
Consequently, this is far um predates a
lot of the um um digital assets that
were on market that were suitable for
glams also before
the creation of any kind of digital
asset management system uh digital sorry
preservation system.
Consequently, this data structure is
incredibly complex.
Um it's also highly um convoluted
process for staff. So essentially it has
meant a high error within our data um
and has made a hu it's made it really
difficult from a human er um from a
human error point of view is very very
high and oopsie I've just gone to the
next slide by accident.
Consequently, essentially at the end of
the day, this system is no longer fit
for purpose.
Um, our on-site storage is in three like
three repositories. Um, we have backups
to the cloud and to LTO tapes. Um but
essentially at the end of the day the
disc space is means it's more of a dams
than it is an is a collection management
system.
Essentially we really need at the end of
the day a system that appropriately
manages our collection all our digital
assets. This is this icon. I got it
developed by um AI for me. Essentially
throws a very overburdened emu.
This graph and thanks to my colleague
and my team who um pulled the data out
of ENU to demonstrate this um
essentially shows the growth of digital
assets that are being managed and
inserted into ENU.
You can see a really large jump.
Um that was a consequence of a project
called the accelerated digitization um
accelerated collections digitization
project. Sorry, a bit of a mouthful. And
since then the growth has the growth of
our digital assets has been steadily
increasing and has put an enormous
pressure on our on our EU and our
storage and backups.
We also have developed really highly
customized workflows to support bulk
imports into our systems and in and
assist with our very complex publishing
process. Currently, we have over a
million records published to our
collections online and we average over
2,000 newly published records per month.
I should also emphasize the current
version we're operating in EMU is
version 6.5 and if you know anything
about EMU the back end of the database
essentially is only 32 comp 32 bit
compliant which essentially means for
any of our digital files over 2 gig
partition of those files happen
ultimately this means many of our
digital collections especially our AV
collections have not been able to be
loaded into ENU
So this G graph actually genuinely
doesn't show all our digital assets that
we have and that we need to manage
across all our collections.
We're currently in the process of
upgrading our version of EMU to the
latest version which is 64bit compliant.
However, we really do need a system that
manages this most effectively and
supports our aspirations for digital
sovereignty.
We really need these systems to be
integrated as well
in order to streamline our work
processes
and take away a lot of the manual
processes we have to deal with
especially with the amount of records we
have to publish per month.
So essentially a digital preservation
system or DPS is designed to ensure and
look after our digital assets in the
long term regardless of their file
format. As mentioned in the
introduction,
I um Rosetta I worked with previously. I
was a super user for the unpublished
collections at Turnville Library during
the National Digital Heritage Archive or
NDHA project which implemented Rosetta
in 2008.
This was co co-designed by Exal Libus
with the collaboration of the National
Library of New Zealand and at the time
it was basically the only digital
preservation system on the market. Since
then there's been a number of different
offerings
including
preservica
um which is another leading product
which actually has been used by the
national archives in the UK but also
archive matica which is open source
digital preservation solution.
Sorry.
First published in 1997, believe it or
not, this OS standard um since 2005 has
been the bedrock for long-term
preservation of digital materials and
objects. And it's a fundamental document
that has guided preservation, digital
preservation since. So if you don't know
about it already, the OIS model is you
basically is the underlying system that
informs all our digital preservation
systems. It provides a lot of the common
languages um language and terms sorry
around when we're talking about digital
preservation. In particular, you might
see that SIP. SIP stands for submission
information package
at or archival information package and
the delivery information package at the
end there to the consumer.
Another one is this um the DCC um the
curation life cycle model. This expands
on the idea of digital preservation
requires actions throughout the life
cycle of your digital objects to sustain
long-term access to them.
Just want to highlight
that in the center in the core there
core of the um cycle uh of this um life
cycle model is the data the digital
objects and databases.
This is quite outdated I would
acknowledge but it does miss some of the
additional preservation actions in this.
If you look closely enough the only
preservation action that they have
within this model is migration and I'll
talk a bit a bit more about that later
on.
So what is the best combo
Simon say game of systems? Ideally we
would have all three and in fact many of
the well-endowed glams internationally
do have an infrastructure with which
encompasses all three that is all
integrated.
Reality is many glams especially with
the current economic climate can only
maintain at minimum
one or maybe more. That is why oh or or
just like dams like we have. Sorry. That
is why many of the collection management
systems Oh gosh, I've done it again.
Sorry. Um collection management systems
have dams functionality built into it
like ours, like our ENU. Um why many of
the dams that you might see being
offered at the moment currently talk
about having digital preservation
functionality. I question some of that
when you try to get to the nitty-gritty
of it, but they do promise it. And
additionally, some of the DPS systems
also have tried to build in some of the
DAM's functionality and making it more
usable and more accessible in order to
download or share your digital assets
that are stored within your DPS.
Not all systems support easy
integrations between each other.
For instance, there's no integration
between our emu and net x. There's only
cross referencing and we have done some
small coding with an emu which can give
users the illusion of an integrated
system.
NetX did announce in May 2024 that
support for integration with ENU and
other collection management systems is
on the horizon, but we haven't seen any
fruits of that yet. Technology
constantly changes and your current CMS
dams or DPS may no longer be fit for
purpose for your organization. So you
need to be constantly looking on the
horizon for what is your next best
solution. To enable this, you need to
ensure that your data is migration ready
as much as possible. And when I mean
migration ready, that is essentially
making sure your data is consistent as
possible and you're documenting as well
as possible any decisions or changes
you've made to your system. In
particular, customizations like we have
done within our ENU.
But systems are only part of the
picture.
TDR or the trusted digital repository.
This is a concept that was first
discussed in a report by the research
libraries group
RLG and the online computer library
center OLC.
Since 2012, this has become an ISO
standard and known as the trusted
digital repository checklist. I'm
finding recently a lot of colleagues in
the glam sector are starting to use DPS
and TDR,
oopsie, be pardon, I keep on doing that.
Um, TDR interchangeably when in reality
a DPS is part of a TDR and a TDR is more
than just a system.
It's about compliance with preservation
standards like that OIS model that I
mentioned previously. It's about
organizational viability, financial
stability of your organization in order
to maintain those systems in the long
term. Technical procedural suitability,
system security. Do you have those
backups? Do you have your business
continuity plans in place? Procedural
accountability if something doesn't
work. Achieving a TDR is aspirational
for many glams. It's the gold standard
for digital preservation.
So what are we doing instead?
So we have been on a journey around
digital preservation maturity for a wee
while. And one of the tools we've used
to help us understand because it's such
a big problem and it can be incredibly
overwhelming is using this incredibly
useful tool that has been put out by the
digital preservation coalition called
the rapid assessment model, the DPC RAM.
We've been benchmarking and using this
model since 2020 and it's really helped
inform where we need to focus our
attentions on and where we're doing
really good, where we're not doing so
good and really helping communicate what
that is to upper management about that.
So, I'd highly recommend if you haven't
done so already, start benchmarking with
the DPC RAM.
We've also done some really small steps
hardware. When I first started working
at Tapa, we didn't have a right blocker.
And that's what the right block is
beside there. That's our blue forensic
um piece of hardware.
This was really important to make sure
when we were transferring files, we
weren't
by mistake altering them when we were
doing so. We now have a h standalone
digital preservation commu computer to
assist with processing really large
digital acquisitions.
We were previously I was trying to do
this on my small laptop which
essentially it was breaking under the
pressure of me running some of the
processes required when I was looking at
some of these digital collections. We've
included
within a lot of the job descriptions and
previous to me starting a lot of this
was not unbelievably not mentioned in in
many job descriptions but the inclusion
of physical and digital well-being of
our collections. It was always assumed
um that you know there was always that
emphasis on the physical and the digital
was ignored in many cases especially in
our storage considerations.
Just cuz it's digital storage doesn't
mean it's f infinite and not expensive
or equally as expensive as the
infrastructure and sometimes around our
our storage physical storage needs.
Also technical appraisal workflows are
now embedded in all our acquisitions
conservation and loans for anything in
relation to digital assets within our
collections.
We've also improved scripts such as our
bulk image importing and now we're
recording check sums of all our digital
assets as they're saved into ENU. When I
first the first month of me working at
the Papa at Papa discovered over quarter
million of our digital assets had
nullled check sum data. And just to
emphasize, check sum. Recording the
check sums of your digital assets is
incredibly important for the integrity
and knowing nothing's been altered or
lost with that digital file.
Without them, we can't guarantee that
the files are genuine or errorree, and
they're essential for us when we're
trying to look at any future migrations
of our digital assets into other
systems.
One of the biggest workflow improvements
we've done is around our timebased media
artworks or TBMA.
This was a focused project in which we
looked at clearly ascertaining what the
process was, who was responsible for
that process and what systems they were
interacting with that process.
Also, another really important and
useful piece of kit that um digital
preservation coalition has put out is
one called the CAT, the competency audit
toolkit. This looks at your individual
current skill levels, gaps within your
job descriptions um and the divide
between that and the actual actual tasks
that they need to do on a daily basis as
well as the skills level required to
maintain a level of digital preservation
capabilities that you want to have in
your organization.
So a real life example of that is within
my team.
So this is my team as it stands at the
moment
and one key integration addition to my
team in the last in the last two years
has been the digital asset systems
manager.
Previously, this role was own was
outside of this team and previously was
only focused exclusively on the media
library or the um net X. And as you
probably can gather from those previous
slides where I mentioned that ENU was
used previously for a deposit of most of
those this was quite unequitable in that
most of the digital assets were actually
stored in ENU and most of the digital
assets that we really need to look at
how we how we manage them and look after
them
was actually out sitting outside of our
system. So it was incredibly important
to have a consolidated role that looked
at this s like upper wide.
We use also a large variety of tools
outside of ENU and net X to analyze and
understand our collections. We are also
early adopters within Papa using AI to
assist with our MA mahi wherever
appropriate. And if you listen to
Courtney and Adrian's presentation more
recently with the NDF sessions, they
would have possibly touched on this a
fair bit.
So,
also another really important resource
is your local digital preservation
community. in particular at in
Wellington there's an incredibly strong
community
um going right back to the old NDHA
um project team days but essentially
this community has had incredibly
massive contributions to international
digital preservation standards over the
years and I'll just mention like met
some premise we've been incredibly
active we are very um open and
transparent community and sharing our
frustrations, our joys um and
particularly every year we have tried to
hear the results of our DPC RAM
assessments.
So that's Wellington community there.
Unfortunately, I wasn't present that
day, but my colleague um Cat Whitney,
who is our digital asset systems
manager, is present, and she's the one
in the white coat.
Also, there's an incredibly strong and
growing Australasian pres digital
preservation community in particular
with a um is a list serve or comes
through as a Google group is the
Australasian preserves. And a lot of
people can ask questions or advertise or
talk about what they're working on or
any kind of new documentation or policy
um that they're working on or training
opportunities. Another one is the dams
and glams. This is very informal. Um
this is essentially a lot of the larger
museums and galleries in Australasia
Tapa included but it's mainly looked
after by the museums Victoria
we meet up very occasionally and we'll
share again um our joys our our some of
our failures but yeah and another one is
um we have recently become an observer
participant in the emulation as a
service infrastructure project. Um we're
in phase two of this project. Um and in
currently like a lot of glam
institutions, we only use migration as a
preservation strategy.
So this is incredibly important
especially in relation to our timebased
media artwork collection which has a lot
of g some of them gaming element
software and is in obsolete formats.
Being an observer for this
project has provided us a unique
opportunity to learn from other glam
institutions like Acme and Galleria New
South Wales on how how they are
investigating and using emulation as a
type of digital preservation strategy
and that's what I was talking about
before within that life cycle strategies
on that life cycle only mention
migration. So, we're looking at other
strategies going forward.
And another big one, there's a huge
global digital preservation community.
And in fact,
um, it's coming to Wellington this year.
It's very exciting. It's first time that
it's ever come to New Zealand. I believe
it's the second time ever to the
Southern Hemisphere.
Um, so I would highly encourage if you
haven't done so already to look at the
program, get engaged with it because
it'll be amazing to learn even by
osmosis, even if it's well above your
head. Um, some of the sessions are very
informal. Um, I'm on a couple of the um,
subcommittees for it and I highly
encourage you to engage in it or have a
look at the options. There's workshops,
there's all sort things on there, but
also have a look at the amazing
resources
like the DPC. I'm a bit of a fan girl of
them, but they have amazing resources on
their website like the two um ones I
mentioned, the RAM and the CAT. Um, but
it really helps inform your policies and
understanding what you want if you are
going out on market to look at a digital
preservation system, how to help you
navigate that space.
But yeah, that's it from me and I'll
hand it back over to Naomi.
Thank you so much, Kirsty. That was
awesome. Um, I I really enjoyed how you
included just some very practical,
simple, actionable things. I think
sometimes this kind of mahi can be um
like really overwhelming or seem a
little bit um insurmountable. So I think
that's just super helpful especially
because we know we get um to our
sessions we have a lot of really small
institutions who you know this can seem
um seem quite scary. Um and I also I
have to say I loved the photo of you all
by the Wellington sign especially
considering how atrocious the weather
has just turned here in Wellington. Um
but it you're totally right. It is so
important to lean on your community, to
lean on your peers and your colleagues
and talk to each other and support each
other. So, I think we're we're all
guilty of it, right, of just kind of
being in our little cocoon and our
little focus bubble of forgetting that
there are other people just down the
road who you could have a chat to. Um,
it's time for people to post questions.
Um, but just in case anybody's shy, of
course, like a good chair, I have
prepared one earlier. Um, so you spoke a
little bit about people having um and it
did make me smile and probably everybody
else assets in uh on random desktops and
hard drives and like I think we can all
we've all been there. Um I wondered how
you might have brought people along the
journey in terms of convincing them to
um use the correct systems, do things
properly. um especially people who um
may not work in the collection space.
This might be really new to them. Um
they've been doing things the same way
for 30 years. Um so just a little bit of
that kind of um yeah, your perspective
on how to to get people to take this
mahi seriously and bring them along with
any change that might be coming their
way.
>> That's a really that's a big question.
Um but um there's a couple of things in
there. One of the key things again
that's going back to the DPC looking at
some of their resources around this but
essentially creating what we call I
didn't mention it but we created quite
early on a digital asset register. So
just getting an idea of what's
potentially out there where they are who
holds them what's on them. Um how old
are they? What is their context? Why are
they there? you know, all sorts of
little things like that really helps you
kind of understand just really at the
basic level what you've got going on.
previous organi um where I previously
worked at Turbo. I was um at one point
the inaugural the the the original only
digital pre uh person working in
processing digital collections along my
colleagues in ATL which were the digital
archavists and I was basically working
on the extensive backlog of digital
materials that was building up and in
those curatorial areas. it became such
that they realized they needed two
additional MI. So they created two
additional people to do the same mahi
that I was doing. Um cuz it literally
was years and years and years worth of
backlog. Um and we had amnesties around
that too which was really interesting.
So a lot of things came through the
woodwork.
Um a lot of things also hidden in your
collections that you might not discover
just incidentally. you go through a file
and then there's a pen drive in there,
you know. Um but I think um yeah,
developing some processes, some
policies, kind of getting understanding
what you're capable of doing within your
organization or not, being realistic
around that, setting expectations and
not being too hard on yourself. Um but
yeah, there's a lot to unpack in that,
but yeah, so much I could provide.
a pen drive in a file horror story like
I do.
>> Oh, floppy discs. A flo 8 in floppy
disc, you know.
>> Yeah. Oh, man. Yep. Been there. Um, so
we've got a question. I'll um it's in
the chat, but I'll um say it out loud as
well, so it goes onto the recording. Um
this is from Dave Sanderson. How do you
differentiate your work from attempts in
corporate land to get everyone's data
into SharePoint, especially when it's
often also trying to meet recordkeeping
slash data management goals?
That's interesting you say that because
as I was saying, I didn't call it out
specifically, but that digital asset
systems um it was a digital asset system
manager was sitting in a knowledge what
was called knowledge and information um
group or team and they were looking
after our public records as well as our
own archives because a lot of people
don't realize we actually do not
transfer archives to archives New
Zealand. we look after our own way back
to 1865.
Um,
so that's a really interesting one. Um,
with the SharePoint, I know my colleague
who's the head of that team still very
much struggles with it right now with
people saving things randomly. We don't
know what we don't know. Um,
yeah. And people will, let's be honest,
at the end of the day, people are always
saving things in the wrong place
regardless of best intentions sometimes.
Um, if they're going to find a way to do
something, they're going to do it. Or
else, just to be sure, I'm going to put
it in all three. I'm going to put it in
email. I'm going to put in a media
library and I'm going to put it into a
record management system and onto my
port and into you know it can be a huge
problem. We're trying to tackle that
from a large IT perspective. So, our
chief of chief of um the C yeah the
chief of the information team and I
always forget his actual title but um
Craig Leain who you would have seen
present at the NDF um that was held the
the session um earlier this year um
he's really struggled with that because
the digital the data storage perspective
it's huge. We have a huge amount of
duplication across the entire
organization and tackling that is a
cultural shift and yeah it's a hard one
and it's not just my you know we feel it
across the entire organization but yeah
I hopefully that answers the question.
>> Oh we've got a couple more questions.
So, next one is, are there
recommendations for storing working
digital files such as 3D scanning point
clouds versus final files? Eg. And I
hope I get this correct because this is
not actually my field. I'm a total
amateur at this. Um, but have a look in
the comments. Eg. Final 3D. I don't know
this acronym objects STL model within
DAMS. I've totally butchered that.
>> Okay. Okay. It's a bit of a pity my
colleague um Cat's not present today,
but essentially we have had sessions
discussing that essentially we kind of
treat the whatever they have a working
folder that they usually use with the
digital um um the digital creators here
at Tapa because of course we have a
large um team working on that kind of um
those kind of content we create. Um so
they have a lot of their own working
photos. it's usually the final product
that we save into the dams or else um
that's what I that's what that's what
we've kind of agreed to more recently
but again some of those answers to the
nuts and bolts of that workflow have
only just been kind of worked on um and
it's a little bit I've only touched on
it in respect to the fact that I um I
manage the um cat who looks after that
system um and looking at what her
capabilities and understanding what we
have from a longtime storage point of
view with our um our net x but
essentially they're looking at you know
that is the final baked product goes
into um goes into net x media library
hopefully that I'm sorry there's a lot
of comments I'm just trying to read
through
>> it's all good I'm I'm reading them out
so we've got a a little bit more time so
we've got two more questions that have
come in um and obviously you know Any
other questions? Kirsty's very um kindly
said she'll answer them by email. So,
assuming you have a library and
archives, how do you manage your
relationship with the library and their
systems and their desire to store their
assets in their systems?
>> Okay, it's a little bit separate, I'll
be honest. Um so, yes, we do to a
certain extent. I'm only speaking from
Tapa's perspective. Um we do um allow
to have our rare books cataloged in emu
and distributed through our collections
online. It's very high level. Um Martin
Lewis who's in charge of our um our
library here at Tapa has been doing that
for a very long time. And we do
distribute the digital assets that we
create as part of like you know creating
those digital surrogates the high
resolution scans of the plates within
our really incredibly rare scientific
rare books but it's just focused on the
rare books and again we don't have
integrations with any other thing. It's
just emu by itself. So we do not
integrate with our uh our library
management system per se where they
manage those um manage the the entire
library.
Um yeah so it's only select few which is
what is anemia and that is bare bones
and we do cross reference to them kind
of similar to what I was saying we it's
cross referencing with a little bit of
code which kind of gives the impression
that we do link to these other systems
but it's not really we do have a bit of
that for media library and we do have it
for what we um our our record management
system which is called po mataho and it
gives the illusion for a lot of our
users is that they are integrated but
they're not.
It's all smok and mirrors a bit.
Um, I also have to say I did see at the
top a person making a call out like with
the fact that the person who was the eye
in the Wellington was what I consider
original OG the goat of all time is um
Mick Crouch who's from um who's at
archives New Zealand who was original
what we community of the Wellington um
and I don't know if Mick's here today
but um he was original um thought behind
the Wellington community, especially the
um digital preservation implementers
guild, DPIG for sure is what it used to
be called here in Wellington. Um but
yeah,
I love DPIG. That's definitely got to go
on top of the acronym list. Um
>> it's been very acronym heavy. So sorry
anyone
who hasn't followed.
>> One last question before we close. Um,
what digital preservation system do you
use and why did you choose it over other
options?
>> Okay,
as I mentioned, we don't have a digital
preservation system here at Papa.
We would to acquire one does cost a bit
of money and I think um we are really
hopeful to acquire one in the near
future. Um, but the only digital
preservation system that I'm personally
familiar with with is Rosetta, like I
mentioned, and but I was part of the
NDHA project in which we basically
co-designed that with Exal Librus to
develop Rosetta. I knew Rosetta before
it was Rosetta, when it was beta. Um,
yeah, personally, this is I'm going to
just put it out there. Personally,
Rosetta I don't really feel is really
appropriate for a museum or gallery.
It's more appropriate for libraries. Um
I'm my gut feeling is more towards
Preservica or Archivematica which I know
is heavily used by other similar
organizations overseas to us. Um
but yeah.
>> Oh, awesome. Thank you so much. Look,
we're right on 1:00. So, um that's us.
Uh just a little bit of closing
housekeeping for everybody. So, just
reminding you all that um we will be
emailing the recording out um to
everyone and um Christy has said she
will answer follow-up questions. So, um
I'm sure we'll be able to get her email
address um out there as well if
anything, you know, pops up at 2:00 a.m.
in the morning that you just have to
ask. Um, we'd also indeed love it if you
make sure you sign up to our newsletter
so you can hear about um, our next
online sessions and other announcements.
Um, our next session is going to be
about oral history collections um, with
Sue Berman and Renee Our from Oakland
Council Libraries. Um, so really looking
forward to that one. If you're really
really really keen on getting involved
with NDF, our board elections are
actually coming up in November. So
nominations are open now. Um if you're
curious about NDF, you want to know more
um before you put your hand up maybe all
of us um we love NDF. We love talking
about NDF. So please reach out. You can
email um via the website and ask to talk
to one of us or um you know you'll see
all of us on LinkedIn. So honestly hit
up our DMs. We're more than happy to
talk about it. We love this community.
We love what we do and anybody who's
thinking about um putting their hand up,
we'd love to have a chat to you. Um and
just finally a huge huge thank you to
everybody for joining us today. Um I
love the comment. Love these brutally
honest discussions about our own sector.
Thank you for your cander, Kirsty. We
love it too. And yeah, once again, thank
you so much, Kirsty. It's um been a
pleasure listening, learning, and we're
just so thankful for your um your time
and your generosity. Um that's it from
us.