Using Data Profiles to select Digital Asset Management Systems

Many grants, including grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF) require recipients to utilize data management plans; some grants, like those given by NSF, require recipients to place their data in searchable data repositories. It is difficult to find one data repository that meets every researcher's needs. To solve this problem, we utilized Purdue's Data Curation Profile Toolkit to interview researchers at our university and assist in developing data profiles/plans. These profiles provided the Digital Asset Management (DAM) project team with valuable information about the researchers' data needs. The DAM project team created a matrix of the researchers' data needs and used the matrix to evaluate the credentials of 24 Digital Asset Management Systems (DAMS). The team was able to select the DAMS that met the needs of researchers. Using this method, any university could select a DAMS and be confident that it would meet the needs of the researchers it was intended to serve.