For galleries, libraries, archives, and museums (GLAM), digital transformation is a daily balancing act. These institutions are the guardians of culture, history, and identity – but managing that responsibility in a digital-first world is an ever-evolving challenge. Collections are often spread across aging systems. Metadata lives in silos, and digital files multiply faster than teams can catalog or contextualize them. Meanwhile, audiences – from researchers and educators to the general public – expect instant, on-demand access to collections, from high-resolution images to fragile archival documents.
Access, however, is only part of the story. GLAM institutions must also ensure the long-term preservation of digital assets without losing the context and meaning those assets carry. That means more than just digitizing – it requires rethinking how to manage, preserve, and share cultural heritage in a way that’s sustainable, scalable, and secure. And attractive.
This is where integrated museum digital asset management becomes essential. When your DAM system isn’t siloed but fully connected with your other core tools and workflows, it becomes the beating heart of your digital strategy – powering collaboration, streamlining operations, and enabling truly effective collection management.
Integrated DAM is more than just a storage solution. It’s the foundation for future-ready museum collections management – one that empowers institutions to meet rising audience expectations while protecting cultural legacy for generations to come.
To start off with, a DAM system isn’t just storage. It’s a single source of truth for all media, facilitating teams to find, manage, and preserve every digital asset tied to your collections.
By integrating your Digital Asset Management with the rest of your technology ecosystem, you enable smoother workflows, reduce manual work, and ensure that assets are always accurate, up-to-date, and accessible.
Let’s explore how these connections could work in practice.
The IIIF (International Image Interoperability Framework) Viewer transforms how audiences interact with high-resolution images of cultural artifacts. It allows museums and other cultural heritage institutions to deliver rich, zoomable images embedded with metadata directly from the DAM, enhancing exhibitions, research, and online experiences.
The IIIF Viewer pulls directly from the DAM, ensuring consistency, accuracy, and reduced manual effort.
Your digital artifacts deserve the same care as physical ones. The E-depot and preservation integration ensures long-term archiving that meets rigorous standards – directly from the DAM.
This results in peace of mind knowing that your digital heritage is protected from obsolescence and loss. Furthermore, GLAM organizations can meet international digital preservation standards and maintain compliance with archival best practices, ensuring institutional accountability and data security.
Managing object records in Axiell Collections is easier when it’s connected to your digital asset management system. Link digital media, such as photos, videos, and documents, directly to object records with no manual duplication.
With this, teams can work faster, knowing that every asset is always linked to the right object data.
The Datamachine Visual Search integration adds AI-powered image recognition to your DAM. Users can search visually—even when metadata is incomplete.
With this integration, you can find the right asset instantly, even if you don’t have the right keywords in place as a potential search query.
When your DAM integrates seamlessly with tools like IIIF, E-Depot, Axiell Collections, and Visual search, your organization becomes more efficient, more accurate, and more prepared for the future:
We recently hosted a webinar focused on the GLAM sector, which you can watch below. This on-demand webinar showcases direct examples of how museums can achieve a successful digital transformation journey by connecting their essential technology stack with the aim of future-proofing their digital presence and keeping pace with evolving technologies, including AI.
Watch our on-demand webinar below, and learn directly from digital transformation experts, Kristina Huddart (Huddart Consulting) and Hilde Hagen (WoodWing), how integrated DAM solutions drive efficiency, preservation, and audience engagement in the GLAM sector.