Fotoware

Managing and preserving digital collections

As museums and archives digitise more of their collections, the challenge extends beyond simply storing files. Images, video and documents need to remain connected with accurate object information, metadata, copyright restrictions, consent and usage rights.

Fotoware allows institutions to create a central, searchable resource for these assets while connecting DAM with other systems such as collection management platforms. Metadata can be standardised and workflows automated, helping teams reduce repetitive administration while maintaining consistent information across systems and channels. Institutions can also control who has access to particular material and how it can be distributed.

This is particularly useful for organisations managing collections across different departments or locations. Queensland Museum, for example, uses the platform as part of the management of a collection spanning five campuses, with standardised metadata, defined user roles and integrations between the DAM and other institutional systems.

Supporting access and digital storytelling

Digital collections increasingly serve audiences well beyond the physical museum. Fotoware helps cultural organisations prepare and distribute assets for websites, exhibitions, communications, research and other digital channels.

At Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, the technology forms part of the museum's digitisation workflow, helping automate the handling of new assets and their distribution to external users. The RISD Museum has used DAM as part of a connected digital ecosystem that has helped make more than 84,000 artworks available online.

Other organisations demonstrate the range of collections involved. Sydney Living Museums has used Fotoware for many years to manage heritage archives across a group of historic houses, gardens and museums, while moving its DAM environment to the cloud has supported improvements in asset ingestion, discoverability and delivery.

Automation, rights and metadata

Fotoware combines search and metadata management with workflow automation, integrations and tools for managing licensing and rights. Its technology can automate processes including ingestion, metadata enrichment, approvals and distribution, with AI-assisted capabilities available for tasks such as visual recognition, tagging and translation. Human teams retain oversight of these processes.

For museums and archives working with valuable or sensitive collections, the ability to preserve provenance, maintain consistent metadata and manage permitted uses of an asset can be as important as making that asset easy to find. This makes DAM an increasingly significant part of the wider digital infrastructure supporting the preservation, interpretation and sharing of cultural heritage.

Selected GLAM customers

Rijksmuseum Amsterdam; MUNCH; Queensland Museum; National Historical Museums of Sweden; Art Gallery of New South Wales; RISD Museum; Sydney Living Museums; White House Historical Association; National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design, Norway.