Seminar in Library Management - Digital Asset Management
INFO 282

John Horodyski
E-mail
Office Hours: Via email, and telephone advising can be arranged.

This course is designed to introduce students to the fundamental concepts, terminology, practice, and application of digital asset management in the public and private sectors. It will feature discussions on metadata, workflow, taxonomy, data security, and preservation of digital assets.

Expectations

Students are expected to participate fully in all class activities. It is expected that students will be open-minded and participate fully in discussions in class and debate in a mature and respectful manner. Use of derogatory, condescending, or offensive language including profanity is prohibited. Disagreement is healthy and perfectly acceptable. Expressing disagreement should always include an explanation of your reasoning and, whenever possible, evidence to support your position. In accordance with San José State University's Policies, the Student Code of Conduct, and applicable state and federal laws, discrimination based on gender, gender identity, gender expression, race, nationality, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, or disability is prohibited in any form.

Course Workload

Success in this course is based on the expectation that students will spend, for each unit of credit, a minimum of forty-five hours over the length of the course (normally 3 hours per unit per week with 1 of the hours used for lecture) for instruction or preparation/studying or course-related activities including but not limited to internships, labs, clinical practica. Other course structures will have equivalent workload expectations as described in the syllabus.

Instructional time may include but is not limited to:
Working on posted modules or lessons prepared by the instructor; discussion forum interactions with the instructor and/or other students; making presentations and getting feedback from the instructor; attending office hours or other synchronous sessions with the instructor.

Student time outside of class:
In any seven-day period, a student is expected to be academically engaged through submitting an academic assignment; taking an exam or an interactive tutorial, or computer-assisted instruction; building websites, blogs, databases, social media presentations; attending a study group; contributing to an academic online discussion; writing papers; reading articles; conducting research; engaging in small group work.

Core Competencies (Program Learning Outcomes) Supported

INFO 282 supports the following core competencies:

Upon successful completion of the course, students will be able to:

1. Evaluate a digital collection of different media assets to determine their value in their current and long-term roles within an organization.
2. Describe how the professional skill sets of librarians and archivists are converging with the practice of digital asset management, from content classification and organization to records management and long-term access and preservation of digital assets.
3. Critically think about how metadata, including descriptive keywords and taxonomies, can be used to organize digital content in a constructive and valuable format for users.
4. Demonstrate good project management skills, from project design through implementation and training.

Textbooks

Required Textbooks:

• Austerberry, D. (2013). Digital asset management (2nd ed.). Focal Press. Available through Amazon: 0240808681.

• Horodyski, J. (2016). Inform, transform, and outperform: Digital content strategies to optimize your business for growth. Advantage Media Group. Available through Amazon: 1599327554.

Recommended Textbooks:

• Krogh, P. (2006). The DAM book: Digital asset management for photographers. O'Reilly Media, Inc. Available through Amazon: 0596100183.

• Mauthe, A., & Thomas, P. (2004). Professional content management systems: Handling digital media assets. John Wiley & Sons. Available through Amazon: 0470855428.

Canvas Site
This course will include participation via the Canvas site.

DAM Reading Briefs
There will be readings assigned for seven (7) of the units, with a one (1) page summary brief required.

Online Participation
There will be ongoing online participation on the INFO 282 SJSU Canvas Discussion Board.

Blogs to follow (RSS feeds preferable):
Follow the two blogs listed below, preferably using RSS feeds.  Over the course of the semester, please comment on three posts from three separate blogs by submitting a paragraph of 100-250 words to the Canvas Discussion Board.  Be prepared to speak to the class briefly about the posting and your comment. Copy and paste the original posting on the assignment and be sure to include your name, date, and “blog comment assignment” with the title of the blog in the upper left corner of the page.

• DAM News - https://digitalassetmanagementnews.org/
• CMS Wire - https://www.cmswire.com/digital-asset-management/
• Real Story Group - https://www.realstorygroup.com/Blog

Projects
There will be three projects starting with:

• Project #1 (Supports CLO #1, #3)
  • A metadata analysis of an online digital collection of photographs with the intent to identify vocabulary design, retrieval requirements, and licensing issues. You will use Flickr http://www.flickr.com/ and post a digital collection of 15 – 20 images from your personal collection, each of them applied with metadata (tagging in Flickr terms).
  • Format will be a 3-4 page report detailing your metadata analysis, and organization of your digital collection emailed to me, including a link to your Flickr site.

• Project #2 (Supports CLO #1, #3)
  • An analysis of a digital video collection to identify issues related to its access, content, format, and eventual repurposing by users, as well as a metadata analysis.
  • Format will be a 3-4 page report and metadata fields for the video clips

• Project #3 (Supports CLO #1-4)
  • The third project will build upon the experience of the previous two projects and will be to create a project plan for a digital asset management implementation. This project plan will be up to you to decide what the DAM system will be comprised of and what its objectives will be. You will need to determine what the assets would be (i.e., images, videos, graphics, etc.), how many you will use, etc. for this imaginary DAM system.
  • Format will be a 12-page report.

The standard SJSU School of Information Grading Scale is utilized for all iSchool courses:

In order to provide consistent guidelines for assessment for graduate level work in the School, these terms are applied to letter grades:

• C represents Adequate work; a grade of "C" counts for credit for the course;
• B represents Good work; a grade of "B" clearly meets the standards for graduate or undergraduate (for BS-ISDA) level work;
  For core courses in the MLIS program (not MARA, Informatics, or BS-ISDA) — INFO 200, INFO 202, INFO 204 — the iSchool requires that students earn a B in the course. If the grade is less than B (B- or lower) after the first attempt you will be placed on administrative probation. You must repeat the class if you wish to stay in the program. If - on the second attempt - you do not pass the class with a grade of B or better (not B- but B) you will be disqualified.
  
• A represents Exceptional work; a grade of "A" will be assigned for outstanding work only.

Graduate Students are advised that it is their responsibility to maintain a 3.0 Grade Point Average (GPA). Undergraduates must maintain a 2.0 Grade Point Average (GPA).

Per University Policy S16-9 (PDF), relevant university policy concerning all courses, such as student responsibilities, academic integrity, accommodations, dropping and adding, consent for recording of class, etc. and available student services (e.g. learning assistance, counseling, and other resources) are listed on the Syllabus Information web page. Make sure to visit this page to review and be aware of these university policies and resources.

These are the weekly topics that will be covered in reading and Canvas discussions.

2023 – Fall - INFO 282 – Digital Asset Management (DAM) Schedule

Week 1             - August 23                  - Introductions / Q&A / Course Overview

                                                            - Class Introductions / Getting to know each other.

Week 2             - August 30                 - Unit 1 - Concepts and Terms

- Reading brief due at EOD, 11:59 PDT Friday, September 8, 2023

Weeks 3 – 4     - September 6, 13        - Unit 2 - Image Collections / Databases

- Reading brief due at EOD, 11:59 PDT Wednesday, September 20, 2023

Weeks 5 – 6     - September 20, 27       - Unit 3- Metadata

- Reading brief due at EOD, 11:59 PDT Wednesday, October 4, 2023

- Project #1 due at EOD, 11:59 PDT, Friday, October 6, 2023

Weeks 7 – 8     - October 4, 11             - Unit 4 - Workflow

- Reading brief due at EOD, 11:59 PDT Wednesday, October 18, 2023

Weeks 9 – 10   - October 18, 25           - Unit 5 - Taxonomy

- Reading brief due at EOD, 11:59 PDT Wednesday, November 1, 2023

Weeks 11         - November 1               - Unit 6 - Data Security 

- No Reading Brief Due

- Project #2 due at EOD, 11:59 PDT, Friday, November 3, 2023

Weeks 12 – 13 - November 8, 15        - Unit 7 - Preservation of Digital Assets

- Reading brief due at EOD, 11:59 PDT Wednesday, November 22, 2023

Weeks 14 – 15 - November 22, 29       - Unit 8 - Project Management  

- No Reading Brief Due = Bonus Grade

Week 16           - December 6   - Course Conclusion / Final Readings / Wrap-Up

-Blog Assignment Due at EOD, 11:59 PDT, Monday, December 11, 2023

-“What is DAM?” Due at EOD, 11:59 PDT, Monday, December 11, 2023

-Project #3 due at EOD, 11:59 PDT Friday, December 15, 2023