London’s Imperial War Museum is implementing a digital asset management system to handle its expanding collections and improve public access and commercial services.

Director of collections Mark Whitmore says the museum will outgrow its existing digital management system in 10 years.

The main challenge is the complexity of the museum’s collection, which includes permanent and temporary exhibitions integrating audio and visual interactive displays.

‘We need much better searching capability across all collections for researchers, commercial users, teachers and the general public,’ said Whitmore.

The new system will enable the web site to become a virtual branch of the museum, providing 300,000 online users a year with access to an archive integrating paintings, drawings and sculptures, cine film, videotape, historical sound recordings, photographs and library items.

It will also create a commercial arm of the museum by providing electronic delivery and payment for items including photography, sound recordings and copies of works of art.

Benefits of the system include access to better quality information, refined cataloguing and more integration with the web site, says Whitmore.

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Further reading:

OU selects single content system

British Library digital archiving project reaches final stages