The DAM Metadata Disconnect | Archival Media Preservation.
After reading some marketing information from a DAM vendor, and working in the field for nearly 20 years, I just needed to vent about how some present their product.
Some DAM system vendors often tout their automated systems as replacements for what they claim is “costly manual tagging”. Yet, after implementing one of these expensive systems, their customers often turn to information professionals for metadata development help, because their end users are unable to find the assets they need in a timely manner. There is an obvious disconnect between full automation versus high-end manual service.
Using “smoke and mirrors” has unfortunately been an approach for some DAM system vendors. Like stage magicians, they use misdirection to steer potential customers away from the failings of their systems, sometimes by using confusing jargon or misleading customers about the true costs of accurate, efficient metadata development. They argue that automated indexing is superior and less expensive than human catalogers, yet the customers who purchase these systems are disappointed to find that after spending hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars on an automated system, they still need to hire information professionals to make their assets truly useful. At this point, like the professional mechanic trying to repair the shade-tree mechanic’s work, the issue can become more costly than it would have been if the information professionals were consulted in the first place. Cleansing metadata is always more difficult than designing it well in the beginning.
So, despite the “sexy librarian” stereotypes that abound, our profession is often “out-sexed” by the glitz and glamour of technology and the deliberately misleading sales pitches of some DAM vendors. Some corporate officers are enamored of technology and reluctant to expend budget on people. It is only when they realize that the assets that are vital to their core mission cannot be easily found and reused that they turn to information professionals to “fix” the metadata problems. Keep in mind that reuse generates income to help pay for the database system, and in the most successful cases, to more than pay for the existence of the archives & its staff.
Continues @ http://archivemediapartners.com
Related articles
- A Brief History of Metadata for Digital Assets (digitalassetmanagement.org.uk)
- Identifiers for asset management (digitalassetmanagement.org.uk)
- A metadata entry/management approach (digitalassetmanagement.org.uk)
- Metadata interoperability (digitalassetmanagement.org.uk)
