The Fitzwilliam Museum are now using their CIIM platform to synchronize their Adlib Collections Management and Portfolio DAMS information, to both simplify their digitization workflow and prevent the need for ‘double data entry’
The Fitzwilliam Museum were already CIIM users and their implementation was extended to facilitate automatic synchronisation between their Collections Management and DAMS systems. The museum had historically chosen a file naming convention which (via the application of a rule set) related media filenames to object accession numbers. CIIM utilises this information to obtain the latest object (and authority) metadata from their Adlib Collections Management System and to write it into their Portfolio DAMS, so that DAMS users always have up-to-date object information. In addition, CIIM is able to report on media for accessioned items in Portfolio which does not actually link to an object (perhaps because of a file naming error), thus helping to ensure data integrity.
In the other direction, CIIM acts as an authenticated media proxy and provides a structured URL for each Portfolio asset. This URL is added to media records, which are written into Adlib and linked to the correct object(s) thus allowing Adlib to access media direct from Portfolio. As well as simplifying the workflow this approach also removes the need to create additional media copies.
These modules are available to other CIIM users and for other Collections Management and DAMS systems.
Blog cover photograph © Andrew Dunn: reproduced under licence.
