Digital Asset Management at The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Interview with Leah Constantine, Cataloguing Assistant at The Metropolitan Museum of Art
How did you become interested in digital asset management?
While I was studying at the University of North Texas, I took several interdisciplinary art history courses that began my interest in museum work. I soon realized while working in museums that digital was facilitating action in the background and advancing initiatives in all fields. I saw a need to adapt to reflect that change. I then pursued the Museums and Digital Culture program at the Pratt Institute where I took courses that involved preservation studies for both physical and digital materials. Among them was a conservation class where I was dealing directly with the physical object which is important because we need to take care of the physical before we can be digital. I also took digital asset management and digital preservation courses that led my interests to where I am now.
What brought you to The Met?
I was fortunate while studying at Pratt to find opportunities in digital asset management and work with skilled professionals in the museum field that led me to join my current team at The Met. My work began with a large project to catalogue The Met’s digitized slide collection saved from the former Slide Library after its closure in 2011. The remaining slides made their way into various collections and the ones that were saved by the former Slide Library staff were digitized for long-term access and use.
What is the makeup of the digital asset management system (DAMS) team?
We are a small team organized under the Collections Information umbrella because we are all stakeholders in how our digital assets are accessed and preserved. I came to The Met on a project basis but, of course, cataloguing such a large collection never ends. There is always more that can be done to improve the catalogued materials and you have to consider what is the minimum information required and the maximum information available, which is potentially limitless.
Who uses the DAMS?
The DAMS is available to all Met staff and is primarily accessed by all employees that work with The Met’s collection, such as collection managers and curatorial teams. Part of our work is always trying to advocate for the DAMS and encouraging people to want to use a system that supports the work of the Museum and that our team is devoted to maintaining.
What impact does The Met’s digital strategy have on the DAMS?
Every department in the Museum uses digital in their own way to support the visibility of their work and communicate across teams. There is a vast digital presence and maturity across the institution and every digital strategy helps to create unified practices that can continue to support our DAMS. Staff can upload, share, and collect digital assets without barriers to accessing the system because it is built into the practice of maintaining a sustainable digital strategy. For example, by digitizing image collections like the slides and adding them to our DAMS, some of those slides can be shared with the public through the support of the Thomas J. Watson Library Digital Collections, which can then support others work, like my own, in conducting further online research of our past collections and broadening the visual history of the Museum.
Some of my favorite collections of images are available online in the Thomas J. Watson Library Digital Collection. There are collections of architectural images, which is quite vast for a 150-year old institution, and the Fifth Avenue façade banners that have enthusiastically welcomed millions of visitors to the Museum for decades.
Tell me about a project or projects you’ve loved working on.
We have a large collection of audio guides collected in our DAMS and, for a time, my work included cataloguing them and adding the necessary descriptive information. I had the amazing opportunity to listen back to these incredible exhibitions and histories and have to admit that I was obsessed with the nostalgia that I felt listening to these past audio guides. It was so wonderful to engage with these moments and correlate some of these stories with the historic images that I was cataloguing as well. With all the advanced opportunities that current technology has allowed us to preserve these assets, it is a great joy to still be able to experience those nostalgic times from our Museum’s past.
How has the pandemic and working from home impacted your position?
Interestingly, many people have realized the importance of accessing our DAMS during this time as the emphasis on digital accessibility coincides with the flexibility of creating a work-at-home space. We’ve seen increased activity in asset uploads and general access of the system with all users. It is great to see the increased confidence in users wanting to become stewards of these digital collections.
How have you seen digital asset management evolve over your career?
Digital asset management continues to grow. It is almost a necessity for digital strategy, not just pushing content onto a website, but for maintaining any digital collection. Digital is everywhere. We no longer have analog emails and press releases. Communication is all digital. When I was interning at the Jewish Museum, I had the opportunity to work in a small DAMS and then transitioned to The Met’s very large DAMS, which still continues to grow. A key in digital asset management is maintaining and advocating for the system you have built. I’ve also seen job titles and descriptions in all fields related to libraries, archives, and museums continue to change and all require some understanding of digital asset management. These are all unique roles, but all staff and systems have to work together to support any digitally advanced institution. I’m lucky to work at The Met, a museum that places so much value on the importance of team effort.
Written by Marisa Kurtz, Pratt Institute M.S. Candidate Museums and Digital Culture, Advanced Certificate in Conservation and Digital Curation
Please find me at mkurtz6@pratt.edu or marisa.a.kurtz@gmail.com
