From Electronic Indices to Digital Rights Management Technology
Todd Bishop, The Museum of Modern Art, USA
Rina Elster Pantalony, Canadian Heritage Information Network (CHIN), Canada
http://www.moma.org

Mini-Workshop: Digital Rights Management

What are museums' intangible assets? How can they be leveraged and for what purposes? Why and how can you track them? Are there technological means to protect them?

Collections management systems present a picture of the physical collection of a museum and have long been employed to manage them. Now museums are facing new experiences by introducing Digital Rights Management (DRM) technologies that catalogue, track and protect their intangible interests relating to the physical collection. Before considering, purchasing and/or customizing DRM technology, however, museums must first determine the breadth, depth and flexibility of their intangible assets.

This mini-workshop will examine DRM technologies, and the type of collection audit required in order to gather the necessary information needed to catalogue the intangible assets of a museum. It will define museum intangibles as determined through the experiences of both authors and through formal and informal surveys and will propose a list of issues to cover in any information audit on museums' intangible assets.