Ugheldze’ hwle’cilaes (Sharing & Caring): A Contemporary Approach to DAMs and Digital Repositories

This session will explore how the nature of collections and user intent can help guide the selection process for a digital repository (digital asset management, collections management, and access systems). Concepts related to digital stewardship such as digital asset management, digital curation, and digital preservation will be discussed. Students will learn to distinguish the difference between types of digital asset management systems, digital repositories, and digital collections software, and how those distinctions can affect collections management and access. Finally, session participants will have the opportunity to experience the digital repository selection and management process by walking though one particular community-centric digital repository project from beginning to end followed by a collaborative exercise that will help participants put their new knowledge into practice.

 Learning Outcomes

  • Define what are “collections” and how those perceptions influence their management and access

  • Learn to evaluate how local needs, organizational mission and culture determine the selection of DAMs, CMS, and digital collection access software

  • Describe and explore popular proprietary and open-source digital collection access, management, and preservation systems – the good, the bad and the ugly

  • Understand how concepts like metadata, digitization, project management, and digital preservation are interrelated to DAMs and digital repositories

Selena Ortega-Chiolero headshot

Your Instructor

Selena Ortega-Chiolero

Museum Specialist for Chickaloon Village Traditional Council (CVTC)

Selena Ortega-Chiolero is the Museum Specialist for Chickaloon Village Traditional Council (CVTC) and serves as the Caretaker of Collections for the CVTC Permanent Collections and Archives that house the history and cultural expressions of Nay’dini’aa Na’ Kayax (Chickaloon Native Village) a federally recognized Ahtna Dene Tribe in Southcentral Alaska. She supports the Tribe’s work in cultural site preservation, cultural tourism, and repatriation. Selena has worked with an array of archives, museums, galleries and non-profit organizations throughout California and Alaska. Her broad industry experience includes museum and archival administration, development, curation, collections management, and public programming. She holds degrees in both Art History and Asian Studies from California State University, Sacramento, certifications in Museum Studies from the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) and Cultural Heritage Tourism from George Washington University, and recently completed her Master of Fine Arts in Cultural Administration (Tribal Museums/Cultural Centers) from IAIA. As an active member of Museums Alaska (Alaska’s statewide museum association), Council Member for the Society of American Archivists, and Co-PI for SAA’s Native American Archive Section’s Indigenous Archival Training program, she continues to dedicate her time towards helping to reframe the understanding and practices of cultural heritage ownership, management, and access so that it acknowledges Indigenous identity, stewardship practices, and knowledge systems.