Because archives should move with the world.

The State Library of Western Australia engaged DAMsmart to digitise thousands of audio and audio-visual items from the Library’s heritage collection as part of a large AV preservation project. The State Library WA team has been consistently satisfied with DAMsmart’s standard of work. Their attention to the care and handling of fragile and unique collections is exceptional as is their communication, transparency of workflows, technical knowledge, guidance and advice.

Over the past two years DAMsmart have been helping with the mass digitisation of the Lew Griffiths video library. This library contains over 5,000 video tapes. As part of the Minamothu Archive, it’s the life’s work of the Walkley and AFI Award winning photo-journalist and documentary maker, Lew Griffiths, and an archive of national significance. DAMsmart have played a vital role in the preservation of the video section of this valuable resource. Their expertise in the field of digitising and data management has led to the  streamlining of the processes needed to save these materials for future generations and their assistance in choosing the right path forward, through this complicated process, has always been sound and has led to a better understanding of what’s required more generally to complete the whole task. Whenever complications arise, the team at DAMsmart seem able to come up with an answer on how to resolve it, and move forward.

​​Australia Zoo has worked with DAMsmart for several years on a project aimed at preserving our archival media. This ongoing collaboration involves digitising various media formats to protect and secure our files, ensuring they remain accessible in the future.

DAMsmart has consistently delivered exemplary service, demonstrating their dedication to excellence. We highly recommend their services to other businesses seeking to enhance their media preservation efforts and ensure the longevity of their archival materials. We look forward to continuing our relationship with DAMsmart to safeguard our valuable collection of files.

“DAMsmart provided us with a professional service. Everything was supplied exactly as promised, on time and on budget and according to our specifications and requirements. In short, they gave us what we asked for, when we asked for it seamlessly, efficiently and with absolutely no surprises or hassles.”

Australian Mutuals Archives has been working with DAMsmart since 2019. We hold a collection of over 600 audiovisual items dating from the 1950s in several obsolete formats that are becoming more sought after by the customer owned banking sector as marketing tools. We have had DAMsmart digitise these in batches and each time the result is better both in terms of the digitised product and its presentation with accompanying metadata which makes it easy to catalogue. Highly recommended!

When Pacific Cooperation Broadcasting Limited (PCBL) required the digitisation of hundreds of priceless tapes for the Broadcasting Corporation of Niue (BCN), they turned to digitisation and media asset management specialists DAMsmart. There were several reasons PCBL chose DAMsmart to manage this most valuable of projects.

Peter Fraser, PCBL Chief Financial Officer, said “Those reasons centred on their knowledge, expertise and skill in digitising even the most fragile of assets and the results speak for themselves. The project was completed, and everything transferred to portable NAS drives and I’m happy to say PCBL and BCN are delighted with the results. So much so, that we have asked DAMsmart for a proposal to digitise several hundred more tapes”.

 “Many thanks to the DAMsmart team for their professionalism and for delivering us such an excellent end result.”

Digitising and preserving the irreplaceable interviews that make up the Australians at War Film Archive was a critical matter, not only for us, but for all those who will want access to these astonishing personal records now and well into the future. DAMsmart was our first and last choice for this project because of their integrity, efficiency and complete care of the client’s valuable assets. The project was completed on time and on budget, and it’s hard to ask for more.

The AIATSIS collections are in many cases the only known recordings of an Indigenous language or ceremony, preserving that content and making it accessible for future generations can only be done by creating a digital copy. Many of these are on audio and video tape, of which there is consensus amongst archives and UNESCO, that any tape not preserved by 2025 will likely be lost forever.

DAMsmart have been a welcome and valued partner to AIATSIS, supplementing our own digital preservation efforts to ensure the entirety of our at-risk and irreplaceable magnetic audio and video collection are fully preserved in advance of the UNESCO 2025 deadline.

SBS had a real need for detailed and professional digitisation expertise which DAMsmart were able to provide, this enabled us to deliver on all of our objectives in digitising over 42,000 tapes across multiple formats.

We had a series of aged, deteriorating camcorder tapes – we sent them to DAMsmart and our problems were solved – on time, on budget and in the formats we needed. These guys are great problem solvers.

The Asian Film Archive has engaged DAMsmart for a number of digitisation projects over the last 3 years. The staff at DAMsmart understood the requirements for long-term preservation and could provide recommended actions toward our digitised collections. They always delivered in a timely and professional manner.

KJ would like to thank DAMsmart for their outstanding work on digitising our film collection.  Right from the start Andrew provided valuable advice and took us patiently through each step of the process and the various options we could choose to digitise and store our collection.  The work was completed efficiently and quickly.  The end product was over 13TB of films digitised in both preview and high resolution.  I would highly recommend DAMsmart for any of your digitisation needs.

The Australian Museum engaged DAMsmart for two digitisation projects including both audio and audio-visual material across a variety of formats. DAMsmart provided a very personable service not only assisting us during the planning phase of both projects but keeping us informed of the progress of the project.  Their professionalism and care were evident with what they could retrieve from badly deteriorated material. The projects were completed in a very timely manner and to budget. During both projects Damsmart staff were professional, provided digitised material to acceptable digitisation standards and contextually helpful metadata.

The State Library NSW engaged DAMsmart initially in 2014 for a pilot project digitising out at risk Oral History and Sound Recordings collection. DAMsmart not only demonstrated their excellent ability at professional standard digitisation for preservation but also where exceptional to work with. Due to the success of the pilot project the Library were pleased to engage DAMsmart for our mass digitisation project in 2015. This engagement required DAMsmart to digitise  a large amount of collection material in a very short time frame. Not only did they effectively manage the high risk project, they were excellent in demonstrating their abilities to meet our project reporting and risk management requirements they also produced an extremely low rate of errors, all of which were expected in this environment.

DAMsmart has provided digitisation services for University of Wollongong Library since 2010. Over this time we’ve been consistently pleased with the knowledge and attention of their staff, and by the quality of their final product. DAMsmart’s work contributes to the success of some key areas in our digitisation program, ensuring the long-term preservation of irreplaceable heritage material.

In 2017 Townsville Citylibraries received a nationally significant donation of over 8,000 pieces of North Queensland regional television broadcast material, spurring a need for expertise and equipment to ensure the long-term safety and viability of the obsolete and deteriorating collection. DAMsmart were able to provide both the technical service and professional guidance to achieve our digitisation objectives, resulting in a full or partial recovery of 99% of the materials to national standards of archival quality.

Museum Victoria is among the larger cultural institutions for whom DAMsmart has carried out work. Most recently, Museum Victoria commissioned DAMsmart to digitise approximately eighty motion picture films from its Donald Thomson Collection. The Donald Thomson Collection is unique as one of the most significant collections of Aboriginal cultural heritage material in the world. The collection has been listed on the UNESCO Memory of the World Register.