Behind the scenes: Digital Asset Management at Ingenium

When you hear “museum job,” what do you think of? The guides and hosts you see when you visit? Maybe curators who build collections, or conservators who preserve and take care of precious artifacts? All good answers, and extremely important jobs — but not the ONLY jobs.

Historical black and white photograph of two young men in front of a letter filing cabinet.

Photo Credit

Clerks sorting messages in filing cabinets, CN Images of Canada Collection, X-32080

Not an actual photo of the author organizing digital assets at Ingenium.

I am the Digital Content Officer for Ingenium and its three museums — the Canada Agriculture and Food Museum, the Canada Aviation and Space Museum, and the Canada Science and Technology Museum. My main responsibility is our Digital Asset Management System (or "The DAM"). As you can see, one of the perks of the job is getting to say DAM a lot and getting away with it. Another perk is getting to review the photographs taken across all three of Ingenium's museums, and seeing some pretty cool stuff every day. Here’s a taste of some of the incredible images I get to work with.

A man sits in the cockpit of a black and orange biplane.

Photo Credit

ingenium

Iron Maiden’s lead singer, Bruce Dickinson, flying the vintage Waco biplane at the Canada Aviation and Space Museum, Sept. 28, 2016.

A building-sized mechanical dragon with steam coming from its nostrils.

Photo Credit

Ingenium

La Machine’s massive mechanical dragon, “Long-Ma,” after being unpacked at the Canada Aviation and Space Museum in July 2017.

Vintage bicycle with no gears or pedals.

Photo Credit

Ingenium

Johnson Hobby Horse bicycle from Ingenium’s collection, made in 1818 (artifact no. 1981.0202)

So, what is Digital Asset Management? A digital asset is simply a multimedia file, like a photo, video, or audio clip. Since Ingenium runs three national museums, two historical archives, a working runway and a farm, we create A LOT of digital assets: marketing materials, educational programming photos, artifact treatment documentation, event footage, artifact “glamour shots,” historical photo scans, and so much more. The job of a Digital Asset Management professional, at its core, is to talk to all of these different asset creators and work with them to develop standards for naming and storing, making sure assets are findable, reusable, and properly preserved.

DAM is a relatively new type of job in the heritage sector, and one that is seeing a great deal of growth. It is by no means unique to museums — in fact marketing and communications companies were the first adopters. Many organizations recognize that this behind-the-scenes work helps staff waste less time searching for the “perfect image,” or tracking down copyright information. In Ingenium’s case, it helps us be more creative, connecting historic archival material with contemporary visuals, illustrating articles, and participating in new initiatives such as data visualization.

(left) Black and white photograph of a locomotive. A man with a vintage video camera in the foreground. (right) Modern photo of a black locomotive with green accents, on display in the Canada Science and Technology Museum.

Photo Credit

Ingenium, CN Images of Canada Collection, CN-06592

A historic photograph of the 6400 Locomotive from the CN Images of Canada Collection (left), compared to a photograph of the 6400 at the Canada Science and Technology Museum.

In the current global pandemic situation, digital presence has become even more important for cultural institutions. Because we have been working on digitizing and organizing interesting content for many years, Ingenium is in a good position to use our digital assets on social media, reaching out to historical societies for more information about our archival photos, and even using them to create a bit of humour.

I will leave you with a gallery of some of my favourite photos I have come across, in no particular order. If you want to see more of our amazing archival collection, feel free to visit our Digital Archives. Happy browsing!

White and brown long eared goat pushing its head through a wire fence.

Photo Credit

Ingenium

Really photogenic goats at the Canada Agriculture and Food Museum

Brown and white long-eared goat standing in a room.

Photo Credit

Ingenium

Really photogenic goats at the Canada Agriculture and Food Museum

Two men in military dress preparing to parachute from an aircraft.

Photo Credit

Ingenium

Skyhawks demonstration and skydiving at the Canada Aviation and Space Museum, June 2015

Photograph of the royal train bathroom, with purple walls and toilet paper.

Photo Credit

Ingenium

Photo of the inside of the Governors General Rail Car washroom; note the purple toilet paper.

Photograph of spider eyes taken with a microscope.

Photo Credit

Ingenium

C.R. Percival Slide Collection micrographs, Spider Eyes (Heteropoda)

Author(s)

Kristy von Moos

Kristy von Moos is the Digital Content Officer at Ingenium. Kristy has a BA in History and Philosophy from St. Thomas University, and an MA in Public History from Carleton University. She has worked with cultural media, research, and virtual exhibit companies, and enjoys bringing history, education, and technology together.