Why You Might Need a Media Asset Management System
Jinfo Blog

By Katharine Schopflin

Abstract

This article describes why it is as important to manage our corporate audiovisual material as our written documents. Katharine Schopflin outlines what you need from a system to manage your media assets and what to do if you become responsible for creating order out of asset management chaos.

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Why Do We Need to Manage Media Assets?

Corporate information systems are increasingly filled with audiovisual material. Document stores are infiltrated by pictures, sound and moving image files. Some are made as a record of corporate activities, others acquired for internal or external communication.

It is just as important to manage these assets as it is to manage our written materials and yet they appear in our systems with incomprehensible filenames, no background information and no easy way to find out about them without opening them.

What Information Do We Need?  

Such files need to tell us:

• Where we can use them - are they our copyright? Do we need to credit a third party?
• Where and when the recording or photograph happened
• Who is involved
• The topic or subject - without our having to open them.

This metadata is essential if we want to avoid misusing the material, missing opportunities to re-use or exploit it, or simply storing large useless files. And we need this information to be recorded as early as possible in the point of creation or upload.

Sometimes only the person holding the camera or microphone knows the essential details. It is far too easy for them to upload a file into a network drive or even a repository such as SharePoint without passing them on.

What to Look For in a Media Management System?

The best solution is a content or media asset management system. It should:

• Be easy to use
• Support metadata such as who created the file, when and where
• Support controlled vocabularies such as those around topic and place
• Be supported by training and procedures so that everyone knows their responsibilities.

Intranet and web content management systems offer sensible ways to do this, but too often they are walled gardens only to be used for items intended for publication. It may be worth making a case for a corporate system, backed up by editorial and usage guidance. It could make your organisation more efficient, enable the re-use of media, avoid embarrassing copyright and licensing infringements and enable you to connect with your public. It could even supply a source of income generation.

Develop Proper Procedures

My in-depth article "Audiovisual Assets - an Information Manager’s Guide" describes the special nature of media files and how best to manage them. I also describe the metadata that should be recorded, and the different types of system you can use to index your assets - plus the pros and cons of each. 

If you become responsible for media assets, don’t feel overwhelmed and don’t launch into viewing and indexing them without proper procedures and a good system. Instead:

• Identify who brings them into the organisation and their procedures
• Assess tools and resources available to store and index them
• Assess risks and advantages of improving storage and access
• Identify types of material worth keeping, delete the rest
• If there is a case for a dedicated asset management system - make it!

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