A digital asset library is a centralized storage location, or library, for digital assets that organizations use to store, manage, and share all their digital content: images, videos, audio files, documents, and other types of media. The purpose of a digital asset library is to provide a “single version of the truth” where you can access, share, and collaborate on digital assets to improve the efficiency and consistency of your workflows. In short, it’s content when, where, and how you need it.
In this article we will clarify the following things:
Key benefits of a digital asset library include:
A digital asset library can only develop its full potential if you maintain and manage it regularly. We’ve put together a few tips for you:
Create a logical folder structure and group related assets together. You can also add metadata to your assets, such as tags, keywords, or descriptive information, to make it easier to find assets in the future.
It’s important to keep track of the different versions of your assets as changes are made over time. You can implement version control by adding a version number to the file name or using a digital asset management system that automatically tracks changes.
Be sure to save your assets in an appropriate format to ensure they’re usable and maintain their quality. For example, save images in a lossless format such as PNG or TIFF, and save video and audio files in a format optimized for editing and playback.
Regular backups are important to ensure your assets are protected in the event of a hardware failure or other unexpected event. You can back up your assets to an external hard drive or use cloud storage services such as Google Drive or Dropbox.
Control who can access your digital asset library and what access rights they have. You should set up user roles to simplify the access management process.
By following these steps, you can effectively manage your assets in a digital asset library and ensure that your digital content is well organized, protected, and easily accessible when you need it.
Unfortunately, a digital asset library doesn’t create itself. To make your life easier, we’ve created a seven-point checklist for you.
Before you set up a digital asset library, you should consider what types of content you want to store, how they’ll be used, and who’ll access them. This will help you find the right software or system.
There are several options for setting up a digital asset library, including cloud-based systems like Google Drive or Dropbox, enterprise-level digital asset management (DAM) software - not to be confused with brand asset management - or self-hosted systems like a network attached storage (NAS) device.
When choosing a system, consider your budget, the number of assets you want to store and the level of security and accessibility you need. One of the most popular digital asset libraries is Microsoft SharePoint. SharePoint includes features such as document libraries, lists, blogs, calendars, and task management that can be used to improve productivity and streamline workflows. SharePoint is often used in conjunction with other Microsoft Office applications.
Once you’ve decided on a system, you now set up the necessary folders, categories, and metadata fields to organize your digital assets.
Set a naming convention for your assets to ensure consistency and ease of use. For example, you can use a standard format for asset file names.
Import your assets into the digital asset library and add new assets as you create them.
Determine who can access the digital asset library and what access rights each person has (e.g. read only, edit, delete). Set up appropriate user accounts and permissions. You can do this using Active Directory, for example. Active Directory allows you to organize user and computer accounts and assign accesses to them. You can assign specific permissions to a group of users as well as to individuals.
Finally, review and update the assets in your library regularly to make sure they are up-to-date and accurate, and that you don’t lose any data.
By following these steps, you can create a digital asset library that helps you effectively organize and manage your assets for long-term brand communication success.
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The Content Enablement solution provides your content when, where and how it is needed. All your documents, templates, etc. are stored in a library. From Office applications you can directly access and insert these files from the library.
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