CONTENTdm
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
CONTENTdm is digital collection management software that allows for the upload, description, and access of digital collections and is Z39.50 compatible. CONTENTdm is not limited by format and is capable of handling documents, PDFs, finding aids (including Encoded Archival Description, or EAD), images, videos, and audio files. In addition to simple digital files, CONTENTdm can also connect content so multipage documents, scores, or books can be uploaded and organized into chapters, books or by page number. CONTENTdm can also display six sided multidimensional objects. CONTENTdm is mostly used by libraries, archives, museums, government agencies, universities, corporations, historical societies, and other organizations that wish to host a digital collection.
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[edit] History
CONTENTdm Digital Collection Management Software was originally conceived by CISO, the Center for Information Systems Optimization, at the University of Washington. The University of Washington's digital collections were growing, and there was an increasing demand for online access to those collections. See the University of Washington's digital collections The University of Washington started to use CISO lab software to display their collections on the internet in 1999.
In 2001, DiMeMa (Digital Media Management, Inc.) was formed to support the increasing user community and to accelerate product development. After extensive field testing, the software was made available outside of the University of Washington. It was named CONTENTdm Digital Collection Management software. The name is not an acronym, CONTENT is capitalized to distinguish the software from items in a digital collection. The letters dm stand for digital management. Since CONTENTdm grew collaboratively based on feedback from users, CONTENTdm is now an easy to use and powerful digital collection management solution.
In order to enhance global discovery, CONTENTdm collections' metadata are able to be uploaded and cataloged in WorldCat which is the world's largest bibliographic database. WorldCat can also be searched at WorldCat.org. In 2006, OCLC acquired DiMeMa.
[edit] Design
When CONTENTdm was created, there were five goals:
1. Search Efficiency: the digital assets had to be easily searched (by the textual metadata entered during the file upload process.)
2. Scalability: projects had to be able to grow in size easily and seamlessly.
3. Features: product development had to be on-going and able to keep up with digital demands. Some examples of these developments are the ability to upload JPEG2000 file format and use OCR, Optical Character Recognition on text documents to allow for full text searching.
4. Web compatibility
5. Interoperability: especially within formats and across systems and platforms
Today, CONTENTdm is standards-based and the metadata is based on Dublin Core, a flexible extensible metadata standard created by OCLC in 1995. Dublin Core has been accepted as an NISO standard (NISO Standard Z39.85-2001).
[edit] The Process: How It Works
CONTENTdm's main interface is called the Acquisition Station. The Acquisition Station is where you can upload digital files, describe them, and upload them to your webserver for internet availability. Uploaded files are approved in the Administration interface, which also provides collection management functions such as editing metadata templates, administering the use of controlled vocabularies, exporting metadata in XML, and viewing statistical reports.
