Brown Image Gallery

The Brown Image Gallery (BIG) is Brown's digital asset management system (DAM) and is an important University-wide resource. It serves the campus community both as a valuable tool for individual departments to use to organize and manage their own images, logos, video and other digital assets, and also as a shared resource for all units to make selections from these assets available to other communicators across the Brown community.

Shared Service Model
Managed by the Office of University Communications, the BIG was purchased by the University with the understanding that it operate as a shared service of mutual benefit to all units of the campus community that produce digital assets for communications with Brown's various audiences.

The strength of the BIG is the wealth of images contributed by the many offices across campus capturing the vibrant academic and social life of the University. Offices across campus –  especially those with staffed communications operations – are expected to contribute images for general campus use to the BIG on a regular basis. 

Assets Groups
Digital assets are stored and organized into asset groups by the participating departments. Each unit maintains its own asset group’s content and permissions for access to their assets.

Additionally, there is a shared University Assets Group, open for general use by all Brown users who have base-level access. Base-level access is granted to anyone with a Brown University authenticated username and password.

The expectation that all units will contribute to the University Assets Group. This ensures a strong, useful resource to the entire University community, which will reduce duplication and reliance on freelance photographers to capture images often already captured by other departments.

Getting Started

  1. Brown community members may set up a BIG user account by visiting brown.widencollective.com and logging in with a Brown.edu username and password.
  2. The Brown Image Gallery Protocol outlines standards for contributing assets.
  3. A set of guidelines for adding images provides tips and best practices.
  4. Terms of use are outlined on the Appropriate Use page of this website.
  5. Academic and administrative units interested in setting up a departmental assets group in the BIG should email [email protected].

Glossary of Common Terms

  • digital assets: photography, logos, graphics, illustrations, animations, video, audio and other digital intellectual property with use rights attached to them.

  • digital asset management system (DAM): a general term for any software that organizes and shares digital assets across a community.

  • Brown Image Gallery (BIG): the name of Brown University’s DAM.

  • Widen Collective: the company that created and maintains Brown University’s DAM software.

  • University Asset Group: the primary shared asset group within the BIG accessible to all university users.