Digital images are becoming more and more valuable to the companies whose work they record, and to the photographers to whom they, at least initially, belong. But they are also multiplying by the thousands on hard drives and CDs and if they are not organized to make them retrievable, they can quickly go to waste.

The professionals call the process Digital Asset Management. They say having a functioning DAM system can be the difference between putting your hands on an image when you need it, and not being able to put it to use. Systems used by the photographers interviewed for this issue vary in sophistication, although most say what they are doing now is not as good as it should be. All considered the problem serious, whose remedy starts with protecting files.