Universities are bursting with interesting stories. Every day, on college campuses across the country, researchers are pioneering new discoveries, volunteers are giving back to their communities and athletes are breaking records. Special moments that will go down in a university’s history are happening all the time.
When universities harness the power of photos and videos to tell these stories, they take advantage of an incredible opportunity to build their brands and increase revenue.
They can share the images now to create buzz on Twitter and Instagram, or share them later to build the school’s visual legacy.
The problem is many universities are held back by common challenges with their visual assets. University photo departments are strapped for time and cash. Organizing photos and sharing them across several departments can be a nightmare. And as demand for photos and videos continues to increase, the workload isn’t slowing down.
That’s why we’ve asked the pros to weigh in. Here are six strategies for overcoming challenges facing universities photography and communications departments.
Charles Smith, University Photographer, Jackson State University
Challenge: Organization.
Organizing content is a real challenge right now.
I was a freelance photographer working primarily editorial assignments for various news outlets and wire services while working full time in administration for a local arts council. The photographer side of my life was about telling a visual story, editing those images, writing cutlines, and transmitting to the client. Basically, my photo world was run fast, speed go… once I finished with a client, I was done.
When I started here at JSU, I was immediately informed that I had to get a useful archive up and running. What I had in front of me was thousands of images in folders on a few different computers with a limited and cumbersome backup system.
Strategy: Visual Asset Management.
I immediately joined the University Photographers Association of America (UPAA) and found some uber talented and knowledgeable folks. I learned all about digital asset management and researched companies that specialized in archiving, managing and distributing images. In the end, Photoshelter Libris stood out above others that I found and I begged our administration to purchase the software. So now I’m in the midst of organizing, editing and uploading some of our older but still useful images while setting up a system to archive and distribute images on a daily basis. Folks, this is a really challenging task!
I would say that having an organized system that gives you quick access to your images is vital. As we all know, the news media is a deadline based industry so quick efficient access is vital. Furthermore your internal clients have department deadlines so organization is the keys to the kingdom.
Bob Linder, Director of Photographic Services, Missouri State University
Challenge: Access.
I think it is important to consider the value of your institution’s digital assets. Whether from an historic perspective or a revenue stream, they were produced at no small expense in money and time.
The harsh fact is that ¾ of your assets will probably never need to see the light of day. The problem is we can’t see the future and don’t know which files they are. If you can’t find them they might as well not exist.
Strategy: Metadata.
Too many years have passed here storing images on CDs in file cabinets. While uploading our current photo shoots to Libris we are also retroactively uploading shoots in reverse order.
I’ve been lucky in finding a student who was a former photo editor who has returned to school to earn a teaching degree. She edits and uploads past photo assignments adding metadata. Even so, it is a task that is years in the making but you have to start somewhere!
Steve Latham, Director, Photographic Services, Jacksonville State University
Challenge: Sharing.
It’s challenging to keep images fresh, diverse, visually interesting and still be able to fit the often restrictive style templates used by our marketing and web designers.
Another challenge is the time required for adding metadata… keywords, captions, etc., and making it all easily available to both campus and non-campus clients.
Strategy: Digital Asset Management that works for everyone.
Think carefully about what DAM system you want to employ, tailor it to your expected user base and their needs, not just what works for the photographer. Actually try using the system on a trial basis, coming at it from a novice/client point of view rather than a photographer/administrator viewpoint. Ask non-tech people to try it and give feedback on ease of use, stability, etc. When discussing client needs, whether DAM related or content related, push them to be as specific as possible about what they expect/need and how the images will be used.
Andy Seeley, Assistant Athletics Director for Communications, University of Central Florida
Challenge: Time.
We manage all the photographs for the athletic department. When you have nearly 500 student-athletes, 16 teams and hundreds of events each year, that can be a daunting task.
One of the bigger challenges we faced with sharing content or using it internally used to be having to find the photo, scale it down to fit in an email, email it to the recipient, check to see if they got it, etc. Sometimes we’d have to re-send it because it was still too big for their inbox, etc.
Strategy: Streamlining.
Libris has really helped us organize our photos and make them easily searchable both internally and externally.
Now, we share internally and externally by either allowing access to download from our Libris site or getting it to them via the Quick Send option and we’re done.
Zack Lane, University Photographer, Hofstra University
Challenge: Access.
I try to organize my content in such a way that if someone new to my computer (or wherever the photos are stored) tries to access photos from an event, he / she could locate them with ease. I use folders to separate photos by year, and then divided up between different scenarios – events, athletics, candids, etc. The challenge over time is to keep the organization structure consistent from year to year.
Strategy: Consistent keywords.
I need to choose appropriate keywords to tag the best images with to make them easily searchable for any number of situations. Usually when I think I’m done tagging a photo, I try to look at it from a different angle & think of any other words that could be used to describe the photo that I may have missed. Tags could be something as simple as “spring” or “baseball cap,” capturing minute details of the image, but would match the purpose another staff member has for the photo. Equally as important is ensuring I remain consistent with the keywords that I choose, so that images across events and periods of time get grouped together.
Donald Page, Photographer & Assistant Director of Digital Media, University of Tennessee Athletics
Challenge: Photo sales.
I operate the photo arm of our social media @vol_photos. We have 59,000 Twitter followers and a constant photo stream. We would post these photos and there was a clear demand for people to hang the images we were taking on their walls. We’re the only ones that have access to certain photos and are able to sell certain things. So we saw not just a gap in the market, but a gap in providing for our fans.
Strategy: NCAA compliant photo store.
We launched a photo store with Libris because the way they operate business is NCAA compliant. The ability to generate your own budget can’t be overstated. You’re sitting on assets that are valuable – not just to your university but to other people who support your university. This isn’t just a money-maker for us, it’s a service for our fans.
Case Studies
For further reading on how universities get more ROI from their visual media libraries with DAM, check out our case studies: