University of Oxford uses CONTENTdm for World War I resources

Birmingham, UK, 08 December 2008  – The ninetieth anniversary of the Armistice sees the University of Oxford launch the final element of two remarkable online First World War archives providing open access to an unrivalled database of primary source material as part of the JISC Digitisation Programme.

The University of Oxford's 'First World War Poetry' and 'Great War' Digital Archives hold over 7000 and 6500 digital images respectively and both use OCLC's CONTENTdm software to store, manage and make available online, these highly valued collections.

The ‘First World War Poetry Archive’ builds on the success of the University's existing Wilfred Owen archive, already referenced by teachers and researchers worldwide.  Highlights of the collection include poems, maps, letters and diaries from various eminent 'front line' poets.  The works of Wilfred Owen, Edward Thomas, Robert Graves, Isaac Rosenberg, Vera Brittain and Roland Leighton appear alongside other contextual and teaching resources such as photographs, audio and film material.

In addition, the University's 'Great War Archive' web site brings together thousands of digital images of items submitted by members of the public.  The majority of these images are of treasured family heirlooms which have never been on public display until now.  Due to the nature of these materials they were previously widely dispersed and in a fragile condition.  They were digitised to preserve, improve their usability and widen access via the web.

After assessing various solutions available, the University chose and implemented OCLC's CONTENTdm Digital Collection Management software because of its flexibility as a system for the delivery of digital collections to the web.  "We chose CONTENTdm as it best suited our requirements for customisation and the many ways in which data can be exported" explained Michael Loizou, Oxford University's Technical Lead.

Kate Lindsay, Oxford University's Project Leader expands "The Great War is arguably the most resonant period in modern British history.  These memorabilia and poetry archives will provide easy access to an unrivalled collection of material which will be of use to anyone interested in getting closer to this world-changing conflict.  One of the main reasons for building these archives with CONTENTdm was its versatility in the types of media that it could handle.  Our requirements for these archives were very demanding.  We invested time working with and customising CONTENTdm to meet these needs.  To have a system that supported this was one of its main benefits."

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