News
February 18, 2002
Introducing Version 3.2 of the CONTENTdm Digital Collection Software Suite
Evolving from the current CONTENTdm base, Version 3.2 provides comprehensive support for electronic imaging, digital collection development, management and access. CONTENTdm Version 3.2 supports additional file types and provides ease-of-use enhancements, increased flexibility and customization of search options, and new media-capture features. In addition, each release of CONTENTdm integrates suggestions from our collaborative user community that enhance and streamline the overall operation of the software.
Highlights
- Supports new data and file types
- Monograph builder
- Supports URLs as data types, allowing links to items that reside on other servers, such as videos on a streaming server
- "My Favorites" option allows media items to be saved in personal files for later use
- "Compare" feature enables simultaneous viewing of two objects in "My Favorites"
- New image rights options including banding, branding, and watermarking
- Image handling tools allow users to "blur", "sharpen", and "rotate" images
For a full list of CONTENTdm's capabilities, please see the Features section of this website.
New data and file types
One of our design objectives is to serve as the interface to your organization's digital assets. These assets often include a richly diverse set of media items, such as photographs, text documents, monographs, diaries, postcards, audio and video clips. We are continually expanding our support for new media items.
Monograph builder – CONTENTdm Version 3 offered support for multi-page documents, enabling users to link together pages and retrieve them as a single item. With the new monograph support in Version 3.2, documents can be stored and retrieved with their hierarchical structure intact. For example, a journal may be divided into chapters, articles, pages, etc. Now users can define the names of any level of the hierarchy (up to nine hierarchical levels). Examples we've specifically implemented are 19th century engineering bridge design books and Environmental Impact Statements. In these cases and in your environment, the goal is to enable the user to encode and store the materials so that the online content is more valuable and meaningful.
URL data type support – The ability to store a URL as a CONTENTdm file type opens up a whole new world of content management for the CONTENTdm Server. It enables lengthy audio and video sequences, such as lectures or historical interviews, to be stored on a streaming media server. The URLs stored in CONTENTdm point to the specific items on your streaming media server, providing efficient and reliable delivery over the Internet. Null data type support - CONTENTdm now allows users to post metadata for items that are not yet in place. Null data support allows you to quickly add images or items at a later date. For example, users might import metadata from another source, such as a SQL file or use the CONTENTdm Template Creator and the Spreadsheet View to finalize the set up of a partial collection. Rather than entering the metadata individually for subsequent items and risking errors and inconsistencies, users can create all the metadata records in a single process and add the images or other media items at later date.
New search capabilities
My Favorites – This tool allows users to select a subset of items from the collections they view and store them in a file called My Favorites. These may be any media type – images, documents, audio files, etc. Users can view and rearrange the items in a browser window. This Favorites file can be retained for subsequent use, for example a user might log off and log on at a later date. CONTENTdm will restore their Favorites file. Users can save this file on their local system for other purposes as well, including e-mail or posting on websites to be used as supporting materials for a curriculum topic. Visual Compare – When searching image collections for specific items, it can be difficult to determine which image is best suited for a specific use. The Compare feature allows users to view two items in the Favorites file at the same time. If a full resolution file is available CONTENTdm allows detailed comparison using "zoom" and "pan" tools. Browse - Users can browse item-by-item any collection on a CONTENTdm Server without formulating queries or having any prior knowledge of the collections. This is particularly useful for first-time viewers or users who are unfamiliar with query formulation. Direct access to full resolution view – CONTENTdm's Image Viewer provides one-click access to full resolution versions of images (in TIFF or MrSID® format) when available.
Administrative enhancements
To reduce the time and resources spent performing installation and administrative tasks for your CONTENTdm collections, Version 3.2 provides:
Pre-install system check software - This utility program is run before the CONTENTdm Server is installed to verify systems software is compatible with the CONTENTdm Software Suite. Version Identification – Users can quickly verify that they are using the latest software before troubleshooting any problems. Number of items stored counter – This simple tool on the Server Administration page allows you to periodically check how many items are stored in each collection. The Windows 2000 Collection Manager - Provides a graphical "point and click" user interface for creating new collections. Query Building Tool – Generalized search links – When predefined searches have been set up using CONTENTdm's Query Building Tool, this new feature generalizes the search links rather than specifying an enumerated list, so the link is updated automatically when new collections are added.
Extended display options for custom web pages – Users can choose to display item titles or small images in the thumbnail view. Images work well with thumbnails but document-only collections are displayed best using titles.
Acquisition Station enhancements
Image and data rights options – For organization identification, publicizing copyright marks, and providing limited content protection, CONTENTdm offers banding, branding and watermarking tools. Collection Administrators can easily add a band of text, brand or logo to every item in a collection or watermark individual items. 
Image processing features – Users can sharpen, blur, or rotate JPEG or TIFF images during the input process. This provides rudimentary image processing. For sophisticated image-processing requirements, we recommend preprocessing with advanced imaging software. Batch import text files into metadata fields (OCR) for full text searching – Catalogers may now batch import text (obtained from OCR or transcription) into the full text metadata fields for their collections. This improves the efficiency of the collection-building process for users with large documents or monographs. Automatic-generation of administrative metadata - Image height, width, and color space can now be captured and stored with images during batch import. Improved thumbnail images and auto-generated display images – The Acquisition Station now generates higher quality thumbnail and display images in search results. Improved batch ASCII import with better feedback – We've added additional automated user assistance to help users easily resolve data translation problems when importing ASCII delimited files into CONTENTdm. Many organizations have developed metadata information about their collections in local tools such as Access, Excel, and Filemaker Pro. This work can be transferred to CONTENTdm by exporting data as ASCII delimited and importing into CONTENTdm. Reduced size of Acquisition Station – This provides faster downloading of the Acquisition Station for use by remote Collection Administrators.
CONTENTdm and the digital future...
Our software will continue to evolve. We have our ideas, based on conferences, publications, research into leading edge technologies, and - first and foremost - our users. Some things we know and others are anyone's guess. So what do we do? Build on a flexible foundation, be a part of the digital community, and learn from each other. This is our commitment. Our technology offerings will continue to evolve, and lead the field. As a CONTENTdm user, you'll recognize your input.
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