- CONTENTdm
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,PDF s,finding aid s (includingEncoded 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.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. [http://content.lib.washington.edu/ 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 [http://www.WorldCat.org WorldCat.org] . In2006 ,OCLC acquired DiMeMa.Design
When CONTENTdm was created, there were five goals:
1. Search Efficiency: the digital assets had to be easily searched (by the textualmetadata 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 uploadJPEG2000 file format and use OCR,Optical Character Recognition on text documents to allow forfull text search ing.
4. Web compatibility
5. Interoperability: especially within formats and across systems and platformsToday, CONTENTdm is standards-based and the
metadata is based onDublin Core , a flexible extensible metadata standard created byOCLC in 1995. Dublin Core has been accepted as anNISO standard (NISO Standard Z39.85-2001).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 , exportingmetadata inXML , and viewing statistical reports.ee also
*
Book scanning
*Optical character recognition
*Digital library
*Institutional repository Links
* [http://www.oclc.org/contentdm/default.htm OCLC's CONTENTdm Website]
* [http://www.contentdm.com/ CONTENTdm's Website]
* [http://doyle.lib.muohio.edu/ Digital Collections at Miami University]
* [http://www.contentdm.com/customers/index.html List of Registered Customer Collections]
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