1. USING CARLI DIGITAL COLLECTIONS
Jessica Gibson
CARLI Annual Meeting 2012
November 9, 2012

2. About CARLI Digital Collections
9/9/2018
About CARLI Digital Collections
136 published collections to date
29 libraries with published collections
8 additional libraries in process/training
Over 120,000 published digital items
Over 315,000 individual files
When I say 120,000 digital items, I am counting things like Compound Objects—which are made up of multiple pages/files—as ONE item. The 315,000 count of files is counting each of those pages individually.
CARLI: The Consortium of Academic and Research Libraries in Illinois

3. This is the main page. Note the global header and footer information that persists throughout all pages of CARLI Digital Collections. In the middle is the featured collections slider. The “collections” box has links to the four “browse by” options. The “more” box has additional information.

4. CARLI Digital Collections Main Page
Featured Collections slider images (ten collections, changes quarterly)
List collections by name, topic, media, or institution
Advanced Search options
About the collections as a whole
Link to CARLI documentation for member libraries
Feature Collections slider images:
Ten collections
Changes quarterly-ish
Clicking on picture often takes you to item
Clicking on Collection name takes you to collection’s home page
List collections by name, topic, media, institution:
Driven by a collection of collection in CONTENTdm
This is why we request certain kinds of information about a collection before we publish it
Can easily browse a collection from the record or view the home page
Advanced Search
Has various searching options for:
One or more collections
Keywords or phrases
Search selected fields, proximity of words, or dates (if the collection metadata supports it)
About CARLI Digital Collections provides an overview of the site, usage, history, copyright information
Handy link for CARLI members to the CARLI website for CARLI-specific documentation
CARLI: The Consortium of Academic and Research Libraries in Illinois

5. List collections by name
List collections by name. 20 results per page.

6. List collections by topic
List collections by topic. Collection managers identify which topics apply to their collections when the collection is published, and they can update this information at any time if information changes.
Topics sometimes change to reflect new categories/groups of collections, or for better organization. DCUG makes those decisions and the group reviews the topics and media periodically.

7. List collections by media type
List collection by media type. Collection managers identify which types apply to their collections when the collection is published, and they can update this information at any time if information changes.

8. List collections by institution
List all the collections currently published by an institution.

9. Advanced Search page
The Advanced Search page is available from the menu bar on every page.
If you choose “advanced search” from the main page, you’ll have the option to search all collections or pick specific collections to search in. (this screenshot)
If you choose “advanced search” while viewing an individual collection, the search will be conducted within that collection only.
The search box in the upper right hand corner with the “search all” button will always search all collections in CARLI Digital Collections.

10. Collection Home Pages One for each published collection
Library determines the content of the page
At minimum:
Describe the collection
Provide contact information for questions about collection
May also contain:
Images
Custom Queries and Results (CQRs)
Other html coding for format or features
Collection Homepage Customization Opportunities:
Within CARLI Digital Collections, each published collections has its own “home page”. The library/collection manager determines the content of the page. At minimum, we require that the collection home page describe the digital collection and provide contact information for users if they have questions about the collection; however, there are many other options for the collection home page, including images, Custom Queries and Results (CQRs), links to other websites, etc.
Libraries may also wish to create local webpages on their own library servers describing their collection(s). Links to images and Custom Queries and Results (CQRs) can also be embedded on your local pages with ease.
CARLI: The Consortium of Academic and Research Libraries in Illinois

11. CARLI System Documentation
sysdocs.html
CARLI’s CONTENTdm FAQ
Requirements for items in CARLI Digital Collections
CARLI’s Digital Collection Development Policy
Best practices written by the CARLI Digital Collections Users’ Group (DCUG)
Procedures for collection managers
Statistics and usage reports
The FAQ is the best place to begin if your library is interested in getting started with CARLI’s CONTENTdm installation. It covers many broad issues. If you have specific questions, you can always contact CARLI support.
The Requirements section outlines the expectations for collections that are published as part of CARLI Digital Collections
Collection Development Policy outlines what kind of content is appropriate
Required Metadata fields document describes minimum requirements for the metadata used to describe the items in collections.
Prerequisites for publication lists the minimum requirements that must be met before CARLI will publish a collections in CARLI Digital Collections. Note that, just because a collection is published, does not mean that it is now static and cannot be changed. We encourage libraries to continue to grow their published collections even after publication.
CARLI’s Digital Collections Users’ Group (DCUG) has written a number of best practices documents to provide guidance to CARLI members looking for information on digitization and digital metadata.
The CARLI Office has posted many documents with step-by-step CONTENTdm procedures for participating libraries.
Monthly statistics are available for all published collections (except Sanborn, drat) and are viewable by everyone. DCUG is also experimenting with providing some Google Analytics data for the CARLI Digital Collections site as a whole. (Google Analytics data is not available for specific collections.)
Keywords are the search terms that visitors are using to find CARLI Digital Collections. This data can provide insight into the needs of visitors as well hinting at what they may be expecting to find when they come to the collections. Keywords may also provide a glimpse at possible topics for new collections.
Traffic Sources are the websites and resources that drive users to CARLI Digital Collections. These sites can be search engines (such as Google or Bing), social media sites (such as Facebook), library or university sites, or web sites and blogs covering a wide variety of topics. This data may furnish ideas for where to promote your digital collections.
CARLI: The Consortium of Academic and Research Libraries in Illinois

12. CARLI Public Wiki: Digitization Resources and CONTENTdm documentation
9/9/2018
CARLI Public Wiki: Digitization Resources and CONTENTdm documentation
dm Contains information and links to documentation, web sites, and other sources that can assist CARLI members in developing and maintaining digital collections. A place to share your local library documentation.
CARLI’s public wiki has a robust page of links to digitization resources, CONTENTdm documentation, and other information on digital projects (metadata, vendors, funding, preservation, online communities, publications). CARLI member libraries are encouraged to share their local documentation here as well.
If you haven’t looked at the CARLI public wiki, please check it out!
CARLI: The Consortium of Academic and Research Libraries in Illinois

13. Questions?
Contact CARLI Support! Phone: or
If you have any questions about getting started with CONTENTdm or any technical problems using the software, contact CARLI Support. We will be happy to assist you, and if the problem requires additional technical support, we will contact OCLC’s CONTENTdm Support department.
Answers to potential questions:
When will CARLI upgrade to CONTENTdm version 6? While it is true that version 6 contains many interesting new features, it is also plagued with many bugs and problems, even to the point of not being able to support some core functionality. CARLI is carefully watching the progress of version 6 releases, and when we feel that version 6 is stable and does not represent any major steps backwards, we will plan for an upgrade. Version 5.4 runs very well for us at present.
Can we use CONTENTdm as an institutional repository? CONTENTdm does not have any way by which users can upload their own items; items are uploaded via a client, using a secure username and password. CARLI does not allow the CONTENTdm server to be used for master file storage—it is for display images and their associated metadata only. In addition, image files stored on the CARLI CONTENTdm server will not be migrated to different file formats in the future.
CARLI: The Consortium of Academic and Research Libraries in Illinois