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CONTENTdm frequently asked questions
For more information, see quick technical facts, system requirements or contact us—we can even set up a Web information session for your organization.
Jump to: Database and metadata | Search functions | File formats | Authentication | Platforms | Miscellaneous
Database and metadata
- Is CONTENTdm a relational database? What is the underlying management system?
CONTENTdm uses a text-based search engine built using Internet standards and protocols. It is optimized for fast text querying capability. This provides great flexibility in metadata support and fast performance for large collections. CONTENTdm supports text searches within or across multiple text-based metadata fields, enabling rich metadata searching within or across collections. You do not need to purchase or support any additional databases to run CONTENTdm.
- Does CONTENTdm allow data to be imported from an existing application?
Data can be imported from other systems using delimited ASCII. This facilitates batch import of existing collection items and metadata from Microsoft Excel, Access or other common data programs that support export of their data in delimited ASCII format.
- Does CONTENTdm allow data to be exported into a nonproprietary format such as XML?
Yes. CONTENTdm supports the export of data to XML, SGML, or tab-delimited text format. CONTENTdm provides custom XML export options so users can define specific fields to be exported and designate the format for each exported field, including repeating fields and customization of XML tag names. In addition, the CONTENTdm collection metadata is accessible through OAI, if you choose to enable this function. This gives you a number of flexible options to link to other software, such as online catalog systems.
- Can records be integrated into our local Web OPAC?
Yes. CONTENTdm supports WorldCat harvesting and your collection records can be harvested and added to WorldCat. When records are uploaded to WorldCat, they are cross-walked to MARC by OCLC batch load staff with input from the library’s collection administrator. In the MARC record, the 856 field can contain a URL to the digital object stored in your CONTENTdm collection so users can access that item whenever they view the MARC record. Once in WorldCat, CONTENTdm collection records can be downloaded directly to your OPAC.
- Does CONTENTdm support OAI?
CONTENTdm is fully compliant with OAI-PMH version 2.0. This includes collection-level selection to enable you to choose collections for harvesting on designated servers. Support is also provided for OAI flow control (resumptive token), which permits large harvests of collections to be broken into smaller batches for more reliable network transmission.
- Does CONTENTdm support the Metadata and Encoding Transmission (METS) schema?
Yes. CONTENTdm has an open and accessible data structure, and all items stored in CONTENTdm are described in XML, so it is easy to export data and use in many ways. For example, one of our users, the California Digital Library, developed a tool that transforms CONTENTdm XML exports into METS files conforming to a specific METS profile that they use for import into their state-wide system. The tool can be customized to produce METS files from any kind of standardized XML document.
- How is the metadata stored and indexed? Have you developed your own search software?
All metadata in CONTENTdm is stored in XML. It is indexed using a text-based database developed by OCLC. The database uses an optimized search engine (indexing words and phrases) and has been designed to scale to handle millions of records. The CONTENTdm search engine is fast, flexible and accurate.
- How are the digital files stored?
CONTENTdm stores digital items in file directories on the server. The individual items are accessible through a text-based index (database) that points to the items. This allows CONTENTdm to serve the items quickly, make them available with a unique URL, and allow extensive metadata records for each item.
- Can databases be distributed?
Multiple collections can reside on a single server, and they can be administered remotely. This enables multiple, distributed groups to collaborate on digital collection building. Users can submit new items and metadata descriptions through remote CONTENTdm Acquisition Stations or through Web-based workflows.
- Are there any limitations on the number of files, number of metadata fields or field lengths?
CONTENTdm can scale to handle millions of items. The maximum number of items in a single collection is 16 million. The maximum number of metadata fields a user can create for each collection is 100. The maximum number of characters supported in a single metadata field is 128,000. Other practical limitations may result from your hardware limitations, such as available disk space.
Search functions
- What is the CONTENTdm searching method?
CONTENTdm provides text search capability across user-defined fields and multiple collections. CONTENTdm also has a browse capability that allows users to view all the items in a collection. Searches can be performed on a single field or multiple fields in a collection and across multiple collections on a CONTENTdm Server or multiple servers using the Multi-Site Server. Each collection item is identified by text-based metadata. The CONTENTdm search engine optimizes indexing each time items are added to the collection. For more information about searching, see end user experience.
File formats
- Does this software handle books, periodicals and other documents?
CONTENTdm allows you to create items consisting of multiple elements such as books with multiple pages, postcards, and multiple views of an object so user’s search results will bring up entire entities rather than just individual elements. Full text searching of documents is also supported.
- What file types does CONTENTdm support?
CONTENTdm can store any file format. It can also display any file format that can be displayed in your browser either natively or via a plug-in. This includes all common formats such as JPEG, GIF, or TIFF images, WAV or MP3 audio files, AVI or MPEG video files, PDF files, and even URLs. Large-format image collections also benefit from the JPEG2000 capability available with CONTENTdm.
- Can CONTENTdm be customized to accommodate slides as well as digital images?
CONTENTdm can handle different media types within a single collection (or database), so you can combine slides and photos, or other media such as text, video, or audio. You also can create separate databases, if necessary. CONTENTdm can search across databases if they reside on a single server, or across collections on multiple servers with the addition of the Multi-Site Server software.
Authentication
- Does CONTENTdm have a provision for encrypting or protecting images from being copied without permission?
Images can be protected by restricting access to them using the CONTENTdm security features. Additionally, the Image Rights options enable you to band, brand, or watermark images with copyright information or a logo. There is no facility in CONTENTdm to prevent images from being saved by users viewing them in a Web browser. In general, any image that can be viewed in your browser can be captured and saved.
- What kind of security or access controls does CONTENTdm offer?
CONTENTdm supports both collection- and item-level security. Access to items and collections can be restricted based on operating system user names or IP addresses. You also can choose to require permissions for items and metadata or to set permissions so that metadata is available to all users but permissions are required to view the associated file.
- Does CONTENTdm support authentication via LDAP?
CONTENTdm relies on the underlying Web server for authentication services. The Apache LDAP authentication module enables authentication via LDAP. Consult the Apache/LDAP documentation for details.
Platforms
- Does CONTENTdm run on the Mac?
CONTENTdm collections can be accessed and viewed on Mac or PC using current Web browsers. The CONTENTdm Server runs on Windows 2000, Windows 2003, Sun Solaris 9 or later, and Linux systems. The Acquisition Station requires Windows 2000 or XP. The Acquisition Station has been successfully run on the Mac using PC emulators. For more information, see system requirements.
- Is the CONTENTdm Server available in Linux or another UNIX version?
The CONTENTdm Server is available for Sun Solaris 9 or later and Linux and can be evaluated on those platforms. CONTENTdm has been tested for compatibility on Red Hat Enterprise 4 and 5. CONTENTdm can be expected to run on Linux products with the Linux 2.4+ kernel. CONTENTdm also has been installed and run on: SUSE Linux 10.2 and versions of Debian, Ubuntu Server, Fedora, Aurox, and CentOS. Additionally, CONTENTdm runs on Windows 2000 and Windows 2003.
- What Web server do I need to run CONTENTdm?
You can use Microsoft IIS or Apache Web servers to run CONTENTdm.
- What are the recommended Web browsers for viewing collection Web sites?
The recommended browsers for viewing CONTENTdm Web Templates and CONTENTdm Administration are Microsoft IE 6.0+, Firefox 1.0+ and Safari 3.1+ on PCs, and Safari 1.2+ and Firefox 1.0+ on the Mac. The recommended viewer for PDF files is Adobe Reader version 7.0+.
Miscellaneous
- How do you print labels for media, such as slides, from CONTENTdm?
For printing, CONTENTdm allows you to easily convert your data to tab-delimited format. You can then use Word or other software to print the labels.
- How open is the API? Can we develop custom interfaces to the CONTENTdm Server?
CONTENTdm has a well-defined query API that allows for custom client development. If your interface is used simply for accessing your media collection through basic queries, customization is very straightforward. To see examples of the thousands of collections and ways the CONTENTdm community uses CONTENTdm, see CONTENTdm in action.
- If our images are already in a database, how difficult will it be to move them to CONTENTdm?
It’s simple to load an existing database into CONTENTdm. If you can export your existing text description information into a tab-delimited file (most databases have this capability) and can identify one of the fields as the file name of the corresponding image, you can easily load data and items into CONTENTdm using the data import tools.
- Do you support Z39.50?
The University of Utah Marriott Library has developed open source software that adds Z39.50 compatibility to any CONTENTdm Server. The purpose of this software is to provide access to digital collections on CONTENTdm Servers from library portals and local catalogs. ZContent is a Perl script and module that provides a Z39.50 target for the CONTENTdm Server. ZContent processes incoming Z39.50 requests, converts them to appropriate CONTENTdm requests, and returns the results in either USMARC or XML format.
- Does CONTENTdm support languages other than English?
CONTENTdm supports entering, storing, displaying, and searching in the following languages: Afrikaans, Albanian, Basque, Catalan, Danish, Dutch, English, Faeroese, Finnish, French, Galician, German, Icelandic, Indonesian, Italian, Malay, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish, Swahili, and Swedish (collectively known as the Latin 1 character set). Other languages and extended characters can be entered, stored, and displayed in CONTENTdm, but search capability is limited. The CONTENTdm Web templates can be fully localized. A French language demonstration site is available.
- Does CONTENTdm support EAD?
Yes, EAD finding aids can be added to CONTENTdm collections. Text from EAD finding aids is automatically extracted when the finding aid is added to a collection. The text that is extracted consists of the titles and names found in all levels of the file. The EAD finding aid is viewed in the Web interface by means of an XSLT style sheet.
- What is an item? What is a compound object? How are they counted against my license level?
An item is any digital file that has been added to a CONTENTdm collection, such as a photograph, a page in a book, or one side of a postcard. The metadata describing a single item accompanies the single item, and together they are counted as one in the total number of items.
For example, if you have 500 photographs, each photograph (image with associated metadata) counts as one item. Therefore, 500 items are added to the collection and counted in the CONTENTdm license level total.
A compound object consists of two or more files bound together with an XML structure that enables the end user to retrieve them as a single object. Compound objects can be documents, books, the front and back of postcards, or six-sided views of three-dimensional objects. Each of the individual images or pages, as well as the resulting compound object itself, has associated metadata and is included in the item count.
For example:
- If you have 10 two-sided postcards that would be counted as 30 items in the CONTENTdm license level total (i.e., 20 images, plus 10 items for each postcard's metadata description).
- If you have scanned 20 diaries of 100 pages each, that would be counted as 2,020 items in the CONTENTdm license level total (i.e., 2,000 images, plus 20 items for each dairy's metadata description).
- How can I tell how many items and objects are in a collection?
CONTENTdm provides reports that give collection administrators information about the item count, compound object count, file types, and build history.
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