Once you get a DAM, you may have a lot of analog data (paper, prints, negatives, etc.) you want to get into your DAM, but you’re wondering…

“How am I going to scan all this stuff and add keywords to it all in a timely manner?”

First of all, you should cull through to see what is worth adding to the DAM and decide what may have value to your organization. Some of the material may not. That is up to your organization to decide upfront on a high level, but consider your organization’s legacy as well as its future with some forethought.

Once you have narrowed down your focus to what is worth scanning into digital form and keywording, you’ll need to decide how and who will do this.

If you may have paper, negatives, transparencies (aka slides) and/or prints you need scanned. You have a few choices for who can do this:

1. Hire/assign people to scan part/full time at a workstation.
2. Out source it to an outside vendor.

What about the metadata and keywording?

1. Hire/assign people to collect specific information about the assets and turn that information into metadata within your metadata schema.
2. Outsource the metadata/keywording task to an outside vendor.

If it is a matter of security or needing institution knowledge to do this, the simple answer is the first option. Nothing can replace your institutional knowledge unless it is fully documented (which is rarely the case). If this work requires accumulating information about the assets, use these resources to your benefit while they are still around. If it is a matter security or sensitive information, you are should probably keep it all in house.

Continues @ http://anotherdamblog.wordpress.com