Building a Collaborative Digitization Project Using CONTENTdm: An Overview of The Technology Used for the HBCU-CUL Digitization Initiative May 22, 2006 Ira Revels, CUL Professional Development Week

22 May 2006Ira Revels, CUL PD Week2 Covered in this presentation… Project Overview Defining CONTENTdm Why CONTENTdm? Feature demonstration CONTENTdm users and collections

22 May 2006Ira Revels, CUL PD Week3 Project Overview What is the HBCU-CUL Digitization Initiative? Goal is to link digitized collections found at HBCU’s through a shared web accessible portal.

22 May 2006Ira Revels, CUL PD Week4 Project Overview, cont. Objectives –build a cadre of HBCU library staff who have been taught digital imaging –construct digitized collections at each of the ten participating institutions –create a plan for a cooperative HBCU Library Alliance digital library built on digitized collections

22 May 2006Ira Revels, CUL PD Week5 Project Overview, cont. Major Partners –CUL - (responsible for grant administration and project management, training, consultation, and workflow support ) –The HBCU Library Alliance - (supports training and meeting logistics as well as the project website)

22 May 2006Ira Revels, CUL PD Week6 Project Overview, cont. Major Partners, cont. –The Southeastern Library Network (SOLINET) – (responsible for aspects of project administration) –The Robert W. Woodruff Library of the Atlanta University Center – (responsible for administering the CONTENTdm database and because of its central location in Atlanta, Georgia to many of the institutional participants it has provided meeting space for our past two meetings of the project Advisory Committee. The Library also serves as the current base of operations for the HBCU Library Alliance)

22 May 2006Ira Revels, CUL PD Week7 Project Overview, cont. Other Partners –Institutional Partners – (responsible for production, which includes selection and digital image and metadata production; administering their sub contract agreement with Cornell; hiring and training scanning technicians; and reporting their issues, concerns, and successes.)

22 May 2006Ira Revels, CUL PD Week8 Project Overview, cont. Alabama State University Atlanta University Center Bennett College for Women Fisk University Grambling State University Hampton University Southern University-Baton Rouge Tennessee State University Tuskegee University Virginia State University

22 May 2006Ira Revels, CUL PD Week9 Project Equipment Scanners – Epson Expression XL-Photo 12.2”x17.2” and transparency adapter Computers – Dell Optiplex GX620 MT, 2GB RAM, 80 GB SATAII hard drive (3GHz DC, 2x1M, 800MHz FSB) Storage – Backup storage on second hard drive. 160GB SATA HD, 16X DVD+/-RW Monitor – Dell 19” VGA/DVI Flat Panel Network – Ethernet connection

22 May 2006Ira Revels, CUL PD Week10 Project Software System - Microsoft® Windows ® XP Professional, SP2 Productivity – MS Office 2003 Scanning – Silverfast v6 Image Editor – Adobe Photoshop CS2 Manipulation – ABBY FineReader v7, Adobe Acrobat Professional, CONTENTdm Acquisition Station Calibration – Kodak 20 step grayscale target and Monaco EZColor target

22 May 2006Ira Revels, CUL PD Week11 What is CONTENTdm? CONTENTdm is a digital collection management system that provides tools for organizing, managing, publishing and searching digital collections over the Internet. -

22 May 2006Ira Revels, CUL PD Week12 What is CONTENTdm?, cont.

22 May 2006Ira Revels, CUL PD Week13 Why CONTENTdm? Collection management and access is a major issue for HBCUs We needed to identify a product that would facilitate the individual needs of the institutions involved, yet offer a common platform that facilitated collection-building in a fairly short period of time.

22 May 2006Ira Revels, CUL PD Week14 Why CONTENTdm?, cont. Affordable Could be quickly set up and easy to use, intuitive user interface Could be used by more than one institution (a true collaborative tool) Facilitated the creation and use of common vocabularies Scalable Supports Common Standards

22 May 2006Ira Revels, CUL PD Week15 CONTENTdm DEMO Configuring a new collection

22 May 2006Ira Revels, CUL PD Week16 CONTENTdm Customers and Collections Appalachia College Association –Digital Library of Appalachia University of Utah –Mountain West Digital Library