JOB PURPOSE

As Scotland’s leading conservation charity, the National Trust for Scotland cares for, shares and speaks up for Scotland’s heritage. Since 1931, we’re pioneered public access to and shared ownership of some of the most magnificent buildings, collections and landscapes in Scotland. We care for ancient houses, battlefields, castles, mills, gardens, coastlines, islands and mountain ranges, as well as the plants, animals and birds that live there.

To share these special places, we hold approximately 50,000 image assets to promote and explain the purpose of the Trust. We are conscious that we do not have a robust digital asset management system to store and manage access rights to these images. These include images of:

• People
• Places – castles, gardens and landscapes
• Conservation in action
• Wildlife and nature

Note: there is an existing database (Portfolio) which holds imagery of collections items (as undertaken in a previous digitisation project).

Currently, these assets are saved across a range of locations: SharePoint, locally on people’s own machines, Flickr, on external hard drives. There are significant risks to the Trust having no coherent storage system:

• Misuse of imagery (contravening IP/copyright information) because we have no way of securely tagging and storing contracts/permissions forms alongside imagery
• Loss of assets (many are currently stored on external hard drives)
• Difficulty of sharing imagery both internally and externally
• Storage costs from duplication of images across personal machines

This immediately affects Content/Marketing, Communications and Fundraising within Audiences & Support. We currently do not have the resource or expertise within the Directorate to initiate this project so are looking for an external expert to develop a plan for how to transition to a DAMs.

The purpose of this role is to assess our current position, auditing our assets and putting in place a robust plan for an intuitive, well-governed asset management system in line with the work already done by the Collections team. We would like to use Portolio, a system already in place in other areas across the Trust, but would like the successful applicant to assess the efficacy of Portfolio, and report on its benefits/issues/whether we can optimise it to work for us, or whether an alternative package should be considered so we can make an informed decision. This will ensure a consist approach to asset management is taken across the Trust.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES AND ACCOUNTABILITIES

• Audit assets (video, imagery, illustrations) within the Directorate to gauge the scale of the requirements and clarify work required on copyright records.
• Assess the functionality of Portfolio for imagery, including a report on whether any development work is required to ensure it is suitable for the needs of the directorate.
• Build upon the work already done by the Collections Team to develop clear cataloguing standards for the DAMs to improve access and rights management and to ensure that a consistent approach is taken to asset management across the organisation
• Develop a plan for how to transition live imagery to Portfolio, and how to manage the transition of the image backlog.
• Design a plan for the implementation of workflows for good digital asset management including a review and disposal criteria policy and ongoing resource requirements.

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS, SKILLS, EXPERIENCE & KNOWLEDGE

Qualifications

Essential

• Strong track record in DAMs management and/or commercial digital image library management

Desirable

• Educated to a degree level in a relevant heritage or information technology subject

Experience

Essential

• Technically knowledgeable, technically experienced person
• Proven experience with Portfolio and other DAMs systems
• Thorough understanding of the cataloguing and meta data protocols for the retrieval and exploitation of digital assets
• Experience of planning and delivering a DAMs audit/approach project
• Ability to work independently
• Experienced and independent self-starter, with the knowledge and confidence to review existing systems
• Excellent knowledge of copyright and other legal compliance issues
• Experience of develop digital management workflows

Desirable

• Experience in a charity, heritage or cultural organisation.

This is a new fixed term role which will lead on the development of learning products, equipment and resources as part of our schools and family engagement programme Timesliders. Timesliders is an ambitious new concept for the Trust and this role will review and refresh our current products, as well as develop new creative, fun and exciting resources for the programme, with the aim to roll it out at other Trust properties in the future.

Based within the national Learning team, this role will work closely with the Timesliders Learning Coordinator, property teams, marketing and communications, designers, and external creatives, freelancers and contractors. This post will also work closely with Operations Managers and Visitor Services Managers at the properties to ensure staff are trained and supported in using creative learning resources to deliver the programme to schools and families.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES AND ACCOUNTABILITIES

1. Lead the development of creative products that support the delivery of Timesliders at properties across the North East.
2. Review and evaluate the creative products and equipment, in line with audience and stakeholder feedback.
3. Develop sustainable plans for creative products and equipment to ensure the longer-term delivery of Timesliders.
4. Oversee production of creative resources (e.g. puzzles, activity packs, etc), working with external contractors/agencies, as well as internal stakeholders
5. Coordinate the development of new Audio Stories, working with property teams, national teams, writer(s), studio, actors and Learning Coordinator
6. Direct the procurement of resources, props and activities – ensuring there is a standard approach across properties.
7. Create simple audio and video to support the delivery of activities (e.g. filming welcome clips for pupils)
8. Collaborate with the Trust’s marketing teams to ensure creative products are in line with Trust guidelines and branding.
9. Consult with property colleagues to assess the required props and resources, and act as main contact for reporting when they are damaged, need updated, etc.
10. Assist property colleagues in learning how to use new props, equipment and resources, through training, support and guidance.