Embedded Metadata - A Tool for Digital Excavation

In June of 2012, I commenced the weighty task of searching the far reaches of Phoenix Art Museum's digital storage spaces to import images into a recently acquired collection management system, The Museum System (TMS). Before my newly created position as Visual Resource Coordinator began, each department generated and stored assets with their own organizational system in digital silos. I excavated long forgotten folders on various servers and desktops, hunting for visual documentation of the art collection and past installations. Embedded metadata was used as a tool to identify subject matter of images and indicate which folders had been searched. These assets were then reorganized with a new file name convention and folder structure. This poster will discuss my method for using embedded metadata to track information about digital assets as well as challenges and opportunities for further development. This method could be implemented by other cultural organizations as a low cost approach to tracking basic metadata, content creators and copyright restrictions.