Table of Contents

Digital Collections and Metadata Services

Status Line

  • Digital Collections and Metadata Services
  • Feb 2007
  • Issue: 209

Latest Version (4.2) of CONTENTdm Digital Collection Management Software Released

CONTENTdm is a digital asset management system with web publishing capabilities. With CONTENTdm version 4.2 comes several new features, as well as a bundling of all patches and bug fixes to date. Current Annual Maintenance Agreement holders can download the new version from the CONTENTdm User Support Center http://www.contentdm.com/USC/index.asp or can request a CD from DiMeMa (support@dimema.com), the company that was established to market CONTENTdm after it was incubated at the University of Washington.

Some of the improvements and enhancements are:

Multiple Compound Object Wizard
Compound objects queued in the Multiple Compound Object “Add List” are now persistent, allowing users to close the Multiple Compound Object Wizard without losing items waiting for upload. Objects remain until the Compound Object is built successfully or deleted from the Add List. Users no longer need to queue and upload in a single session. Additionally, new error recovery features in the Multiple Compound Object Wizard will let users complete a compound object build if an error interrupts the process.

OCR Extension
Improvements to the Acquisition Station's OCR extension include an upgrade to the latest version of ABBYY FineReader (Version 8), OCR language recognition for 36 languages and dialects, including French, German, Spanish, Dutch, Finnish and Mohawk, warnings when images are larger than the A4 standard that counts as a single page, the ability to add OCR text to items already in a collection and a Fast Mode option to increase processing speed (recommended for clean documents with simple layouts only).

Compound Object Viewer
There are new options for viewing compound documents, particularly for newspapers. New compound object viewing options include the ability to toggle the left-hand navigation menu off and on, allowing for a larger viewing area, a static zoom and pan toolbar which stays put when scrolling large images and a re-location of the navigational thumbnail, which can also be toggled off and on, to underneath the navigation menu.

Newspaper viewing options include the ability to highlight and view individual articles within digitized newspapers that have been specially processed to include article segmentation data. When cultural heritage institutions hire vendors to do newspaper processing they are given the option to have article segmentation done as part of the processing. If the option to have article segmentation is chosen, those newspapers will display the new article highlighting feature in CONTENTdm 4.2. DiMeMa has taken an additional step in newspaper digitization by developing a new application called the CONTENTdm Importer to be used only by third-party newspaper digitization vendors for reformatting newspapers directly into CONTENTdm collections. These vendors can use this application to process newspapers in large quantities into CONTENTdm collections. Cultural heritage institutions that hire third-party vendors that use the CONTENTdm Importer will have their newspapers delivered to them in CONTENTdm collections, rather than receiving data to import into a CONTENTdm collection. The CONTENTdm Importer is not a cultural heritage institutionuser application. It is for third-party newspaper processing vendors only.

Controlled Vocabulary
CONTENTdm has been updated with the latest version of the Library of Congress Thesaurus for Graphic Materials 1 (TGM1), which comes loaded with CONTENTdm. The new version contains 11,887 terms. Additionally, the maximum number of characters allowed in a single controlled vocabulary term has been increased to 128 (up from 100).

Additional Upgrade and Migration Notes

Server

  • Simple server upgrade from 4.0/4.1 If migrating from 3.5-8 to 4.2 first migrate to Version 4.1 using the 4.1 migration kit then apply 4.2 update to version 4.1. Documentation is included in the kits, including information on how to upgrade customized templates.
  • The 4.1 migration kit can be downloaded from the “Downloads” section of the User Support Center http://www.contentdm.com/USC/downloads/index.asp.
  • If you need assistance accessing the User Support Center, please contact usc@dimema.com.
  • Versions 3.6 and earlier no longer supported effective February 28, 2007.

Acquisition Station

  • 4.1 Acquisition Station compatible with 4.2 Server and vice versa.
  • Installation of 4.2 Acquisition Station requires removal of existing Acquisition Station.
    • . Use Add/Remove Programs in Windows.
    • . Existing projects will not be changed or deleted.
  • License code required for installation.
  • Windows Vista not yet supported.

If you are not sure which version of CONTENTdm you are running, check “About CONTENTdm Acquisition Station” under “Help” in the Acquisition Station menu. You can check the version on your CONTENTdm server by typing http://yourserveraddresshere/cgi-bin/version.exe in your web browser.

For assistance with the upgrade process, please contact CONTENTdm Support at support@dimema.com or 877-797-0887.

CONTENTdm and WorldCat harvesting

There's a feature in CONTENTdm that is often overlooked, but is worth considering and that is batch-loading your CONTENTdm collections' metadata into the OCLC WorldCat database. Why would you want to, you ask? To increase the visibility of your digital collections. With your metadata in WorldCat, your digital collections would be visible through FirstSearch WorldCat, WorldCat.org and OpenWorldCat. Below is a version of a Q&A that was recently issued by Taylor Surface at OCLC explaining CONTENTdm harvesting into

WorldCat.

How do I make a CONTENTdm collection available through WorldCat?

The process involves these steps:

  • First, you Register each CONTENTdm collection using the WorldCat Registration form in CONTENTdm Administration.
  • Then, OCLC will Harvest the metadata from each collection.
  • Next, OCLC's data specialists will Cross-walk the Dublin Core metadata to MARC format and create a file of MARC records.
  • OCLC then Loads the MARC records into WorldCat.

What is meant by “registration”?
Registration is the process by which you identify the collections to be harvested. For each collection, we need to know basic information, such as:

  • Library name and contact information.
  • Title and description of the collection.

    To begin the process, go to the CONTENTdm Administration page for your CONTENTdm collections http://your.server.address/cgi-bin/admin/start.exe.
  • Click the Collections tab and then click Export. The Export metadata page opens.
  • Select the Collection you wish to register from the Current Collections drop-down box. Then click Change.
  • Select WorldCat. Click Next. The WorldCat registration page opens.
  • Complete the form and then click Next.
  • Confirm the information you entered is accurate and then click Register.
  • To add additional collections, repeat the process.

    • Instructions are also available in the help files at http://www.contentdm.com/help4/collection-admin/exporting5.html.

    What happens after I initiate the registration?
    OCLC will harvest and translate the metadata from the collections you have registered. An OCLC data specialist will contact you with any questions about your collections. This should occur within a few days following your registration. Once approved, the database specialist will load your records into WorldCat and you will receive a report with OCLC numbers and cross-reference to your records. (If you would like OCLC to create a file of records, you should contact Nylink and ask about Batchload Output services.)

    What is meant by “harvesting”?
    Harvesting begins by extracting and copying the Dublin Core metadata from each CONTENTdm collection that has been registered. The copied data is then processed by OCLC Batchload services.

    What is meant by “cross-walking”?
    Cross-walking is the process of translating the Dublin Core metadata to MARC format. An OCLC data specialist will use a best-practices template (cross-walk) to map the metadata for each collection. Once the work is complete, the MARC records will be loaded to WorldCat.

    Will I have an opportunity to edit the WorldCat records?
    Yes. Once the records have been loaded to WorldCat, you may edit your records in WorldCat.

    How often will my collections be harvested?
    You decide how often to update your collections. OCLC can arrange for your collections to be harvested once, quarterly, semi-annually, or annually.

    If I edit a CONTENTdm record after it has been harvested to WorldCat, will it be re-harvested?
    Collections need to be scheduled for re-harvesting. We will work with you to establish a harvesting schedule. If a collection is scheduled to be re-harvested, the entire collection is harvested. Records that have been loaded previously will be matched and replaced. New records will be added to WorldCat.

    [OCLC - edited by Joyce Rambo, Reference & Digital Collections Librarian, Nylink]

    Digital Collection and Metadata Services Contact Information

    For more information about CONTENTdm, please contact Donna Dixon, Nylink’s OCLC Services Librarian (dixond@ nylink.org) or Joyce Rambo, Nylink’s Reference & Digital Collections Librarian (ramboj@nylink.org).

    Page last updated: 2/21/2007

    Copyright 2007