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One system to rule them all: The story of merging two inventory management systems
Journal of Digital Media Management,
8
(1),
6-14
(2019)
Abstract
This paper outlines the process and methods behind an initiative at Paramount Pictures to consolidate all inventory in one data system by migrating the physical inventory metadata from an outdated database into the existing digital asset management (DAM) system. This two-year, multi-departmental project included mapping metadata fields, editing database schemas, linking each physical item to its proper title and managing development to accommodate the scanning, shipping, and shelving of physical materials at multiple locations. The results were successful and Paramount Pictures now operates a single inventory system, better equipped to react to the changing technology landscape and implementing cloud solutions in the future.
Keywords: data; migration; digital inventory; preservation; archive
The full article is available to subscribers to the journal.
Author's Biography
Kathryn Claypool is Senior Manager, Inventory and Archive, at Paramount Pictures, where she has managed daily inventory operations for new titles, coordinated metadata taxonomy for inter-operability and run first-line support in worldwide technical operations for the ALIAS digital asset management system. She has managed various legacy system migration projects, from health science data to all sizes of content migration project conducted by Paramount.
Chuck Woodfill is Executive Director for Inventory and Logistics at the Paramount Archive, responsible for both physical and digital inventory. Prior to this, he spent 20 years as Head of the Paramount Pictures Film and Tape Archive.
Kirsten Martin manages the receipt and archiving of deliverable production assets at Paramount Pictures. She has over 20 years’ experience in post-production, mastering, asset management and metadata and led the effort to map OPIS codes to the ALIAS metadata structure for migration to the Paramount Pictures Archive.
Charlotte Johnson is responsible for the digital asset management of preservation material in the Paramount Archive. She worked on the initial implementation of ALIAS, Paramount’s digital asset management platform for servicing the digital supply chain, and its subsequent expansion to incorporate preservation materials. Her editing work, showing off the gems of the Paramount Archive, has played everywhere from the TCM Film Festival, to a giant LCD screen in Times Square.
Eric Hoff is an archive librarian at Paramount Pictures, where he has worked for over 12 years, cataloguing and managing the physical inventory traffic for the Paramount Archive.
Jessica Storm is a media archivist at Paramount Pictures, where she works to digitally preserve and archive the Republic Pictures collection, along with other older titles in the Paramount Pictures catalogue. She was previously a film preservation technician at Film Technology Company and a cataloguing assistant at UCLA Film and Television Archive. She has a master’s degree in moving image archive studies from University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).
Andrea Kalas has led the Paramount Pictures Archive for over ten years. She has also championed film preservation and run archives at the British Film Institute, the UCLA Film and Television Archive, DreamWorks SKG and Discovery Communications. She is an expert in film preservation and restoration and a pioneer in digital preservation and archive analytics. She has been President of the Association of Moving Image Archivists twice and is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and Technology Committee.
