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CONTENTdm : Overview

Overview

CONTENTdm provides a complete solution to help you store, manage and deliver your library's digital collections to the Web. Showcase a wide range of media types from documents, newspapers, photographs and maps to audio and video files. With CONTENTdm, you can turn your special collections into fully searchable online resources available from any Web browser. Add your collection's metadata to WorldCat, and make your digital collections more visible to people on the Web.

Meeting all your digital collection management needs

CONTENTdm is the total software solution for your digital collection projects, whether you're just starting or you've outgrown the system you've been using.

Organizations of all types—from small historical societies using volunteers, to research universities with dedicated departments—have found CONTENTdm easy to implement and use.

When you choose CONTENTdm, you become part of an active user community that is advancing efforts to digitize primary resources by sharing best practices and putting millions of items on the Web.
By showcasing their digital projects using CONTENTdm, libraries and other cultural organizations have received recognition from their institutions, local communities and national library associations, as well as secured grant and matching funding, and supported classroom learning.

CONTENTdm provides a complete solution that seamlessly grows with your projects, eliminating the need to purchase and support multiple software packages for your different digital collections.

Flexible

CONTENTdm gives you full control over digital resources, their descriptions, access and display. It stores any type of file—from multiple-page documents, PDF files and large maps to audio and video files. You can also configure all metadata fields in any CONTENTdm collection.

Secure

Item and collection-level security ensures your resources are available only to specified users or IP addresses. Within a single collection, you can decide to make the metadata accessible to all, while requiring a password to view the actual file. Whatever your needs, CONTENTdm gives you the security options to meet them.

Easy

CONTENTdm requires minimal effort to install and use, letting you focus on planning and building collections. Users often build or convert collections within one to three months. They are aided by comprehensive help files and tutorials on the CONTENTdm User Support Center that provide anytime, anywhere information. Supplemental training and consulting services are available.

Efficient

CONTENTdm streamlines your workflow. Tools such as batch processes, wizards, controlled vocabularies, templates and spreadsheets are provided to assist you in building collections quickly and accurately. A time-saving batch import feature allows thousands of items to be imported directly into CONTENTdm.

You can queue postcards, books, newspapers and documents to process at your convenience. The integrated CONTENTdm OCR Extension allows you to add full text to your records during collection building.

Powerful

CONTENTdm’s text-based search engine is designed to retrieve results from millions of items in less than one second. The database structure was developed to handle both unstructured and semi-structured data. No additional database application is required, and other applications can operate
on hardware servers running CONTENTdm.

Acts as an institutional repository

PDF documents, theses, dissertations and reports all can be easily stored and managed in CONTENTdm. With its ability to store any type of file, CONTENTdm can serve as your institutional repository to bring together all your digital collections into a cohesive and accessible Web-based environment.

Serves consortia

CONTENTdm enables collaboration by supporting distributed collection building, multiple workflows and remote item entry. Depending on your environment, you may choose to share central hosting of collections, or unify multiple sites in your geographic area by creating a single access point using the CONTENTdm Multi-Site Server.

Offers Web discovery and display options

End users can browse or search any CONTENTdm collection using a standard Web browser. Predefined queries can guide end users to specific results, or they can generate their own sophisticated queries using advanced search tools. Have your CONTENTdm collection's metadata added to WorldCat and your digital collections get greater exposure both locally and globally via WorldCat on the Web.

Provides solutions for newspaper collections

CONTENTdm offers a range of solutions for your historical newspapers, including support of the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP) data format. With CONTENTdm, you can turn your historical newspapers into fully searchable online resources available from any Web browser.

Open, extensible and interoperable

While most users operate CONTENTdm as is, its open architecture supports extensions. A complete PHP-based API is available to technical staff, and its Web interface is fully customizable. Additionally, CONTENTdm readily works with other software such as federated search applications. Records in existing databases can be easily imported into CONTENTdm, while exporting metadata is simple using the XML export function.

Supports OCLC Connexion Digital Import

Catalogers can use OCLC Connexion client to add digital items to CONTENTdm collections when editing records in WorldCat. This feature streamlines digital collection creation by integrating it with standard cataloging workflows and automatically crosswalks MARC records to Dublin Core, eliminating the need for duplicate data entry.

A Closer Look

Marquette University, Raynor Memorial Libraries

Ready for some virtual reminiscing? The Raynor Memorial Libraries have digitized The Hilltop Yearbooks (1915-1996) to commemorate Marquette University's 125th anniversary. The Hilltop collection contains almost 30,000 pages in 82 volumes and includes browsing by year and decade, along with keyword searching and a custom query for the volumes' colored plates. Digitized audio and video files from the University Archives are also available from the site.

"Librarians and archivists at Marquette University have been impressed with the flexibility and powerful delivery options offered by CONTENTdm. The standards-based platform is essential to Marquette. Moreover, OCLC's technical support and the rapidly expanding community of CONTENTdm users has helped us navigate new terrain as we seek to deliver rich informational resources to our diverse clientele."

Matt Blessing
Head, Department of Special Collections and Archives
Raynor Memorial Libraries

View The Hilltop collection.

CONTENTdm on a global scale (Powered by WorldCat)

When you add your collections to WorldCat through CONTENTdm, you help build the world's most comprehensive bibliographic database. With more than 90 million records, WorldCat connects librarians, students, researchers and other users to 4,000 years of recorded knowledge. And with WorldCat.org and the Open WorldCat program, its online catalog records and holdings information are now discoverable by Web users everywhere, making library resources more visible.