CONTENTdm Overview
CONTENTdm Digital Collection Management Software is the result of years of development and collaboration with archivists. A flexible, multifunction software package, CONTENTdm provides tools for all aspects of digital collection management.
"With over five million objects on the server we have long-term expansion plans and are confident that CONTENTdm technology will continue to grow to support our efforts."
Kenning Arlitsch, Head of Information Technology, J. Willard Marriott Library, University of Utah
Functionality
By handling all media types, CONTENTdm meets the needs of a wide range of users. Current users include universities, public libraries, museums, commercial and government entities, and nonprofit organizations. Collection items include newspapers, maps, photographs, yearbooks, transcribed diaries, rare books, oral histories, audio and video clips, poster art, and more. Check out our users' collections to see how others have implemented CONTENTdm.
CONTENTdm functionality allows you to create collections quickly and easily using a simple point and click interface. Our software also provides tiered access to administrative tools so you can maintain collection integrity. For a more detailed explanation of CONTENTdm functionality, check out our features.
To learn more about setting up and using CONTENTdm, see the Quick Technical Facts brochure.
Flexibility
CONTENTdm is 100% Web compatible, so servers and collections can be administered from remote desktops. Item and metadata entry can occur at as many as 50 remote locations using the Acquisition Station. Collections are readily accessible to end users through standard Web browsers.
CONTENTdm's flexibility has fueled creative solutions among our customers. Customers have formed partnerships so that the independent online collections of multiple organizations can be simultaneously searched and viewed through one seamless CONTENTdm Web interface. Customers with extensive scanning expertise and hardware have partnered with other organizations that lack hardware and scanning experience to maximize their investment.
Collection Sharing
For many organizations, the drive to digitize collections is spurred by an interest in sharing unique collections with a wider audience. CONTENTdm technology and features make it easy to share collections and collaborate.
Collections can be added to OCLC WorldCat so that your unique special collections become part of WorldCat's 80 million record global catalog. Descriptive metadata is added to WorldCat but collection owners retain complete control since individual items are served from your local server. CONTENTdm Servers support OAI harvesting by functioning as OAI repositories for customers who wish to make their metadata available for harvesting. CONTENTdm Multi-Site Server enables users to query multiple CONTENTdm Servers from a single search interface. Organizations can build and manage collections locally while allowing access to a wider range of users.
Affordability
With CONTENTdm, there's very little demand for internal technical resources because the software is easy to implement, learn, and use. CONTENTdm features and product support resources help keep the cost of personnel and training low by offering easily understood user interfaces, ample online help, and tutorials to accelerate training.
CONTENTdm's pricing structure allows users to minimize their initial investment by offering a range of storage capabilities to meet changing needs, so the software grows as your collections grow. Customers who subscribe to our Annual Maintenance Agreement can develop collections incrementally with CONTENTdm without re-installing the software. Plus, you'll gain additional value from CONTENTdm with our product upgrades and ongoing technical support.
Fast and Scalable
CONTENTdm retrieves search results in less than a second from collections of more than a million objects without any degradation of speed as collections grow. Our technology and pricing structure allow seamless growth for your digital collections.
For organizations that want to maintain their own collections and collaborate with others to provide access to a broader range of materials, CONTENTdm offers the Multi-Site Server. Users can search collections located on multiple CONTENTdm Servers in diverse geographical regions from a single search interface, yet each collaborating partner with a CONTENTdm Server can maintain its own collections and local identity. Learn more about the CONTENTdm Multi-Site Server.
Common Standards
OCLC's adherence to commonly accepted standards allows CONTENTdm to provide functionality that consistently meets a wide range of needs.
CONTENTdm is Z39.50 compatible through a free open source software application called ZCONTENT developed by the University of Utah Marriott Library. ZCONTENT provides access to digital collections on CONTENTdm servers from library portals and local catalogs and can be downloaded for free from the CONTENTdm User Support Center.
CONTENTdm Servers support OAI harvesting by functioning as OAI repositories for customers who wish to make their metadata available for harvesting. Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting Version 2, or OAI-PMH v2, is a recognized standard that allows harvesting of metadata across a network.
Use of the Dublin Core and the Visual Resource Association Core within CONTENTdm allows for a common language when describing media and searching across collections. Collection Administrators also can apply their own field descriptions and map back to the Dublin Core standard to provide flexible searching to end users.
XML is used for all internal structure description. CONTENTdm also offers custom XML export of metadata that supports user-defined fields and formats for greater compatibility with local catalog systems and other applications.
Technical Support
Our staff provides prompt and informed support to CONTENTdm evaluators and licensed users. We track user feedback and channel users' requests into our future development plans. CONTENTdm users often support each other by sharing both their general and specific experiences with digital collection development. We assist by providing contact information (with approval) for those with similar collection interests and technical environments.
If you're ready to explore CONTENTdm for yourself, simply complete our evaluation request form to begin your free trial.
| 
