Why is the digitisation of such an enormous number of assets and the integration of a new CMS becoming not just a UK story but one with much wider relevance? Reason: because one of the roles of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew is to educate and provide online resources to help with combating biodiversity loss. The DAM is not just a tool to hold assets but a repository playing an important role in the online resources space.
Dominic Naughton, the Library and Archives DAM Lead at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew will share the journey to-date on the progress of the mass digitisation of the Herbarium and Fungarium and will also highlight what’s next including:
- Digitising the Botanical Illustrations and Economic Botany/Ethnobotany collections.
- Integrating the DAMS with the new Integrated Content Management System as collections are moved over from multiple, separate databases.
Dominic will share the challenges presented by having scientific, artistic, marketing and heritage assets within a single DAM system specifically:
- Redefining metadata categories and vocabulary to apply across collections.
- Mandatory metadata requirements and limitations.
- Staying up-to-date on scientific names and a constantly changing taxonomic framework.
