CONTENTdm at DePauw: Customization, Projects, and Tips

CONTENTdm User Group Conference May 27 & 28, 2015

Presented by, Sudha Anand

Library Systems Admin, DePauw University

Agenda

• Customizing our Homepage

• The Audio Project

• Crowdsourcing using Flickr

• CDM Data Clean-up

• CDM Quick Tips

• Future Plans

Customizing our Homepage

Our Homepage

Reason for Customizing:

• Went from being locally hosted to OCLC hosted to combat ‘Find’

problems

• Contentdm/Digital Library is now part of the PALNI (Private

Academic Library Network of Indiana) consortium

• Wanted a separate ‘Institutional page’ similar to the old one to

make sure our patrons remain unaffected by this move

Old Homepage

Homepage - W/O Customization

Getting the Code: • Copy the ‘View Page source’ code from any contentdm site to a

file called index.php on the local desktop • We got ours from our PALNI Consortia Digital Library Homepage • Obtain the size of images used in the site and prepare your

image files to match • A handy tool that can be used for editing code: Notepad++

(helps keep track of the coding blocks like: div, head, link, style, script, etc.. )

• Use w3schools ‘Try it Yourself’ tool to test blocks of code before editing the file

Customizing Our Homepage

Blocks to Edit: • Page Title

• Top & Bottom navigation • Banner • Collection List and information • Search list • Advanced Search list(this is located in the footer block of the

page) • About the Collections information • Add extra features like share widgets and spotlights • Image Links

Customizing Our Homepage

• A Look at Notepad++:

Customizing Our Homepage

Uploading the Index.php:

• Navigate to the Custom pages portion of the global settings on

the Website Config Tool

• Using the manage files menu, upload the index.php file to the

appropriate folder(based on single school or consortium)

• Also upload all the corresponding image files to the appropriate

folder

• Save and Publish to see the newly updated site.

Customizing Our Homepage

New Homepage http://digital.library.depauw.edu/

The Audio Project

Goals: • Provide user copies of audiotape collections • Protect original recordings from physical wear

What we had: • A Contentdm collection with only metadata

What we decided to try: • Contact OCLC support • Ask if there is a way to attach audio files to pre-existing

Metadata

What OCLC said: ‘YES’ there is a way

The Audio Project

Audio Selection: • First pick the record you would like to add audio to and

download it to the CDM project client • Get the path of the mp3 file to be attached • Things to remember:

– Contentdm supports MP3 and WAV audio files – Audio files that are H.264-encoded and Flash-compatible will

play inline when selected by an end user. Other audio and video file formats can be stored but will be played via a plug-in or browser capability to support the format.

– More information about supported files types can be found in the FAQ portion of this page

The Audio Project

Adding Audio: • In the project client right click on the item thumbnail and select

‘Replace Item’

The Audio Project

Adding Audio contd: • On the Replace Item box, click ‘ Browse’ and select the MP3 file

to be added and click ‘Open’

The Audio Project

Adding Audio contd: • Coming back to the Replace Item box on selection, make sure

that only the ‘Create display image’ option is selected • Do not select the ‘Apply metadata template to replacement item’

as this will clear the items current metadata and replace it with data from your template

The Audio Project

Adding Audio contd: • Wait a few minutes for the audio file to be added and watch the

thumbnail switch

• Now Upload the file for approval to add the record to the collection

The Audio Project

Our Audio Collection: • Successfully added audio to 1300 items

The Audio Project

Crowdsourcing using Flickr

Crowdsourcing using Flickr

Goals: • Use Crowdsourcing as a way to transcribe a Civil War Journal

written by Colonel James Riley Weaver

What we had: • Photocopied pages of an old and valuable journal • A live Contentdm setup to display the transcribed work

Dilema: • Do we need another piece of software to setup the

crowdsourcing?

What we decided to try: • Use the freely(1000GB) available photo storage with

built-in backup – Flickr

The Journal’s Significance:

• The Journal was kept by Colonel James Riley Weaver throughout

his service in the Union Army and confinement in Confederate

States prisons during the Civil War

• Colonel Weaver was a Professor of History and Political Science

at DePauw

• 2012 marked DePauw’s 175th year and

the diary adds to DePauw’s significant

history

Crowdsourcing using Flickr

The Process: • Grouped scanned pages into albums ready to be uploaded • Setup a Flickr Account and uploaded all the images

– DePauw Archives

Crowdsourcing using Flickr

The Process Contd: • Used the Item description field to request help and provide

instructions for transcribing • Utilized the comments field as the place for entering

transcription

• Archives staff monitored the Flickr account and the transcriptions

Crowdsourcing using Flickr

Publicizing the Project: • Made and distributed a brochure about the project

Crowdsourcing using Flickr

Publicizing the Project: • DePauw’s Facebook and Contentdm pages were also used to

promote and publicize the project

Crowdsourcing using Flickr

Project Completion: • The transcription was compiled, completed and uploaded for

restricted use in Contentdm in late January 2015

Crowdsourcing using Flickr

CDM Data Clean-up

CDM Data Cleanup

Goals:

• Periodic cleanup of Contentdm data

Tools used:

• The Contentdm Export Utility

• Microsoft Access

• Project Client

• Project Client Spreadsheet view

• Contentdm Verify Utility

Getting the Data: • Use the Contentdm Export Utility on the Administration portal to

take an export of the data – XML

• Standard export gives you all the metadata from the collection • Custom export lets you pick fields of data you want to export

– Tab-delimited • Creates a text file and exports all the metadata

• We used the Custom XML export for flexibility

• Make sure to include the ‘ItemURL’ field for easier cleanup

CDM Data Cleanup

Importing Data into Access: • Create a new Access Database File • Use the External Data option to import the Contentdm export

file either XML or tab delimited text

• By default this will create a table called ‘record’ with all the data from the export file

CDM Data Cleanup

Importing Data Into Access contd: • The following is a sample screen of data in the record table from

our newspaper collection

CDM Data Cleanup

Sorting & Filtering the Data: • Use the filter function in Access to select outliers(spell check,

wrong date format, etc.) -

E.g. Our time periods are always in decades

• Use the ItemUrl field information to find the correct record on Contentdm and make the edit using the Project Client

CDM Data Cleanup

CDM Data Cleanup

Compound Objects & Spreadsheet view: • During data cleanup for compound objects, due to the multiple

pages requiring data edits, use the spreadsheet view on the Project Client to edit data on multiple pages at once

Controlled Vocabulary:

• Data issues happen even on Vocabulary controlled fields

• Very long vocabulary lists may prompt users to type it in from a

paper list or memory, this leads to possible typing mistakes

• Human error while approving items also tends to have similar

results

CDM Data Cleanup

Verify Utility: • Contentdm provides a way to locate such records using the

‘Verify’ tool

CDM Data Cleanup

CDM Data Cleanup

The Verify tool is located under the controlled vocabulary ‘Browse’ function in Collection Field Properties

CDM Quick Tips

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CDM Quick Tips

Approval & Indexing: • Periodically full index Contentdm collections to ensure better

and faster searching • If the approval list has a huge number of items(>100) consider

approving them in batches of 100 to avoid adding terms mistakenly to the controlled vocabulary list

• Setup scheduled indexing to avoid multiple approving or indexing attempts by staff members

• If locally hosted, consider setting up scheduled batch scripts if you have trouble indexing

CDM Quick Tips

Project Client: • The Project Client sometimes locks up with the error message

“Unable to open most recently used project. An error occurred parsing xml file. ‘EndElement’ is an invalid XmlNodeType. Line 8, position 5.”

• This indicates that the project has been corrupted and a new project has to be created

• To avoid loosing work due to this message clear the project of items periodically

CDM Quick Tips

User Permissions:

• Use rights and permissions to limit providing approve and index

rights to people till they are familiar with using Contentdm

• Even with full rights on a collection, indexing might fail or

clicking on index might just refresh the page

• In such scenarios provide full rights on all collections to that user

to see if this resolves their problem, if it does, report it to OCLC’s

support team.

Future Plans

• Customize Landing Pages

• Dashboard for Contentdm Statistics

Thank you!

Feel free to contact me with any queries, Sudha Anand Library Systems Administrator DePauw University Libraries sudhayegyanarayanan@depauw.edu

Our Digital Library: http://palni.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/depauw/