ContentDM VS ? Comparison

I'm from a small college library in Wyoming.  We are
considering a CMS
to manage our archival collection of WWII Heart Mountain
Relocation Camp
images, plus other collections.  OCLC's ContentDM has been
suggested as
a potential product.  How does this compare to other
products that are
being used?  Thumbnails and larger jpegs of our images are
currently
viewable on our web site.  We need a good way to search our
collections,
thus a CMS system.  Thank you for all suggestions and words
of wisdom.

 

Nancy Miller

Northwest College, Hinckley Library

Powell, WY

http://www.n
orthwestcollege.edu/library/

 

 

_______________________________________________
Web4lib mailing list
Web4libwebjunction.org
http://lists.we
bjunction.org/web4lib/

Hi Nancy,

We have been using CONTENTdm at Lehigh University for the
past 6 years, 
and I can wholeheartedly endorse the product.  CONTENTdm is
flexible 
enough to handle simple photograph collections to
complicating archives 
of books, maps, newspapers, and ephemeral.

The user interface is completely customizable, but just as
usable right 
out of the box.  The metadata client is straightforward to
use in both 
the PC-installed client and the web client.

CONTENTdm and OCLC are very committed to the product, and
the user 
community is fairly active and very helpful, with a number
of regional 
users groups available.

And for searching, it was announced at ALA Midwinter that
CONTENTdm 
would be implementing the WorldCat search engine in the next
major 
release to make searching even better than it already is.

If you want your collections to be searchable from WorldCat
or Google, 
you can also export them from CONTENTdm to OCLC or make them
harvestable.

Feel free to take a look at our Digital Scholarship Center
collections 
at http://digital.lib.leh
igh.edu/

Prior to using CONTENTdm we used Greenstone, an open source
application. 
  We are in the final stages of a conversion of our
collection on 
Greenstone to CONTENTdm.

Please feel free to contact us with any specific questions
you may have.

Cheers,
Tim

Tim McGeary
Senior Systems Specialist
Lehigh University
610-758-4998
tim.mcgearylehigh.edu
Google Talk: timmcgeary
Yahoo IM: timmcgeary

Nancy Miller wrote:
> I'm from a small college library in Wyoming.  We are
considering a CMS
> to manage our archival collection of WWII Heart
Mountain Relocation Camp
> images, plus other collections.  OCLC's ContentDM has
been suggested as
> a potential product.  How does this compare to other
products that are
> being used?  Thumbnails and larger jpegs of our images
are currently
> viewable on our web site.  We need a good way to search
our collections,
> thus a CMS system.  Thank you for all suggestions and
words of wisdom.
> 
>  
> 
> Nancy Miller
> 
> Northwest College, Hinckley Library
> 
> Powell, WY
> 
> http://www.n
orthwestcollege.edu/library/
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Web4lib mailing list
> Web4libwebjunction.org
> http://lists.we
bjunction.org/web4lib/
> 


_______________________________________________
Web4lib mailing list
Web4libwebjunction.org
http://lists.we
bjunction.org/web4lib/

Hi Nancy,

We have been using CONTENTdm at Lehigh University for the
past 6 years, 
and I can wholeheartedly endorse the product.  CONTENTdm is
flexible 
enough to handle simple photograph collections to
complicating archives 
of books, maps, newspapers, and ephemeral.

The user interface is completely customizable, but just as
usable right 
out of the box.  The metadata client is straightforward to
use in both 
the PC-installed client and the web client.

CONTENTdm and OCLC are very committed to the product, and
the user 
community is fairly active and very helpful, with a number
of regional 
users groups available.

And for searching, it was announced at ALA Midwinter that
CONTENTdm 
would be implementing the WorldCat search engine in the next
major 
release to make searching even better than it already is.

If you want your collections to be searchable from WorldCat
or Google, 
you can also export them from CONTENTdm to OCLC or make them
harvestable.

Feel free to take a look at our Digital Scholarship Center
collections 
at http://digital.lib.leh
igh.edu/

Prior to using CONTENTdm we used Greenstone, an open source
application. 
  We are in the final stages of a conversion of our
collection on 
Greenstone to CONTENTdm.

Please feel free to contact us with any specific questions
you may have.

Cheers,
Tim

Tim McGeary
Senior Systems Specialist
Lehigh University
610-758-4998
tim.mcgearylehigh.edu
Google Talk: timmcgeary
Yahoo IM: timmcgeary

Nancy Miller wrote:
> I'm from a small college library in Wyoming.  We are
considering a CMS
> to manage our archival collection of WWII Heart
Mountain Relocation Camp
> images, plus other collections.  OCLC's ContentDM has
been suggested as
> a potential product.  How does this compare to other
products that are
> being used?  Thumbnails and larger jpegs of our images
are currently
> viewable on our web site.  We need a good way to search
our collections,
> thus a CMS system.  Thank you for all suggestions and
words of wisdom.
> 
>  
> 
> Nancy Miller
> 
> Northwest College, Hinckley Library
> 
> Powell, WY
> 
> http://www.n
orthwestcollege.edu/library/
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Web4lib mailing list
> Web4libwebjunction.org
> http://lists.we
bjunction.org/web4lib/
> 


_______________________________________________
Web4lib mailing list
Web4libwebjunction.org
http://lists.we
bjunction.org/web4lib/

Our historical archive is using ContentDM, and I haven't
heard
complaints about the software. It seems to do what the
archivists want
to do, and they plan on continuing development of the
system, and
eventually placing it into production.

I think the biggest impediment to running the software may
be finding
someone to administer the system. ContentDM is written in
PHP, and that
means there are several software dependencies that need to
be installed
and periodically patched to keep the system healthy. When I
lurked on
the ContentDM list for a few months, I saw people posting
quite often
about server issues, usually stemming from a lack of
understanding of
the underlying software. If you're working in a dedicated
"Microsoft
Shop", or just a place where the support staff have
little or no
experience working with PHP, you may run into a FUD problem.
However,
PHP is gaining wider acceptance, and becoming mainstream, so
this may
not be an issue. If you do go with ContentDM, just make sure
that you
identify someone in your organization with the requisite
knowledge to
administer the system, and make sure that they are
proactively upgrading
the system. 

- David



---
David Cloutman <dcloutmanco.marin.ca.us>
Electronic Services Librarian
Marin County Free Library 

-----Original Message-----
From: web4lib-bounceswebjunction.org
[mailto:web4lib-bounceswebjunction.org] On Behalf Of Nancy
Miller
Sent: Thursday, April 24, 2008 10:47 AM
To: web4libwebjunction.org
Subject: [Web4lib] ContentDM VS ? Comparison


I'm from a small college library in Wyoming.  We are
considering a CMS
to manage our archival collection of WWII Heart Mountain
Relocation Camp
images, plus other collections.  OCLC's ContentDM has been
suggested as
a potential product.  How does this compare to other
products that are
being used?  Thumbnails and larger jpegs of our images are
currently
viewable on our web site.  We need a good way to search our
collections,
thus a CMS system.  Thank you for all suggestions and words
of wisdom.

 

Nancy Miller

Northwest College, Hinckley Library

Powell, WY

http://www.n
orthwestcollege.edu/library/

 

 

_______________________________________________
Web4lib mailing list
Web4libwebjunction.org
http://lists.we
bjunction.org/web4lib/


Email Disclaimer: http://www.co.marin.ca.us/nav/misc/EmailDisclaimer.cfm




_______________________________________________
Web4lib mailing list
Web4libwebjunction.org
http://lists.we
bjunction.org/web4lib/

Our historical archive is using ContentDM, and I haven't
heard
complaints about the software. It seems to do what the
archivists want
to do, and they plan on continuing development of the
system, and
eventually placing it into production.

I think the biggest impediment to running the software may
be finding
someone to administer the system. ContentDM is written in
PHP, and that
means there are several software dependencies that need to
be installed
and periodically patched to keep the system healthy. When I
lurked on
the ContentDM list for a few months, I saw people posting
quite often
about server issues, usually stemming from a lack of
understanding of
the underlying software. If you're working in a dedicated
"Microsoft
Shop", or just a place where the support staff have
little or no
experience working with PHP, you may run into a FUD problem.
However,
PHP is gaining wider acceptance, and becoming mainstream, so
this may
not be an issue. If you do go with ContentDM, just make sure
that you
identify someone in your organization with the requisite
knowledge to
administer the system, and make sure that they are
proactively upgrading
the system. 

- David



---
David Cloutman <dcloutmanco.marin.ca.us>
Electronic Services Librarian
Marin County Free Library 

-----Original Message-----
From: web4lib-bounceswebjunction.org
[mailto:web4lib-bounceswebjunction.org] On Behalf Of Nancy
Miller
Sent: Thursday, April 24, 2008 10:47 AM
To: web4libwebjunction.org
Subject: [Web4lib] ContentDM VS ? Comparison


I'm from a small college library in Wyoming.  We are
considering a CMS
to manage our archival collection of WWII Heart Mountain
Relocation Camp
images, plus other collections.  OCLC's ContentDM has been
suggested as
a potential product.  How does this compare to other
products that are
being used?  Thumbnails and larger jpegs of our images are
currently
viewable on our web site.  We need a good way to search our
collections,
thus a CMS system.  Thank you for all suggestions and words
of wisdom.

 

Nancy Miller

Northwest College, Hinckley Library

Powell, WY

http://www.n
orthwestcollege.edu/library/

 

 

_______________________________________________
Web4lib mailing list
Web4libwebjunction.org
http://lists.we
bjunction.org/web4lib/


Email Disclaimer: http://www.co.marin.ca.us/nav/misc/EmailDisclaimer.cfm




_______________________________________________
Web4lib mailing list
Web4libwebjunction.org
http://lists.we
bjunction.org/web4lib/

Hi Nancy,

I'm the main developer for another piece of open source
software that  
specializes in this sort of thing with the twist that it is
heavily  
into user generated content.  It's called Kete and you can
see an  
example of it at http://horowhenua.kete
.net.nz/, the site it was  
written for.  It has been developed based on the Ruby on
Rails web  
framework and the Zebra search index engine using Z39.50 and
OAI-PMH  
Dublin Core among other standards.

It is also being used as more of a straight CMS by the New
Zealand  
Mental Health Commission (http://www.mhc.govt.nz/)
with an eye towards  
enabling more community participation in the future.

In the US, Orange County Library in Florida is developing a
community  
project based on it.  Eric Atkinson spoke about it at
CIL2008 (http://www.infotoday.com/cil2008/day.asp?day=Wednesday

).

You can find out more about Kete at the community site for
it at http://kete.net.nz/

  which also is run on the software.  If you are interested
in  
searching across your library's different collections, you
might be  
interested in a report I recently wrote for Horowhenua
Library Trust  
on current strategies we are considering:

http://k
ete.net.nz/site/documents/show/32-federated-search-report-fo
r-horowhenua-library-trusts-material

Cheers,
Walter McGinnis
Kete Project Lead
Katipo Communications, Ltd
http://katipo
.co.nz/solutions/kete.html

On Apr 25, 2008, at 5:47 AM, Nancy Miller wrote:

> I'm from a small college library in Wyoming.  We are
considering a CMS
> to manage our archival collection of WWII Heart
Mountain Relocation  
> Camp
> images, plus other collections.  OCLC's ContentDM has
been suggested  
> as
> a potential product.  How does this compare to other
products that are
> being used?  Thumbnails and larger jpegs of our images
are currently
> viewable on our web site.  We need a good way to search
our  
> collections,
> thus a CMS system.  Thank you for all suggestions and
words of wisdom.
>
>
>
> Nancy Miller
>
> Northwest College, Hinckley Library
>
> Powell, WY
>
> http://www.n
orthwestcollege.edu/library/
>
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Web4lib mailing list
> Web4libwebjunction.org
> http://lists.we
bjunction.org/web4lib/
>



_______________________________________________
Web4lib mailing list
Web4libwebjunction.org
http://lists.we
bjunction.org/web4lib/

Hi Nancy,

I'm the main developer for another piece of open source
software that  
specializes in this sort of thing with the twist that it is
heavily  
into user generated content.  It's called Kete and you can
see an  
example of it at http://horowhenua.kete
.net.nz/, the site it was  
written for.  It has been developed based on the Ruby on
Rails web  
framework and the Zebra search index engine using Z39.50 and
OAI-PMH  
Dublin Core among other standards.

It is also being used as more of a straight CMS by the New
Zealand  
Mental Health Commission (http://www.mhc.govt.nz/)
with an eye towards  
enabling more community participation in the future.

In the US, Orange County Library in Florida is developing a
community  
project based on it.  Eric Atkinson spoke about it at
CIL2008 (http://www.infotoday.com/cil2008/day.asp?day=Wednesday

).

You can find out more about Kete at the community site for
it at http://kete.net.nz/

  which also is run on the software.  If you are interested
in  
searching across your library's different collections, you
might be  
interested in a report I recently wrote for Horowhenua
Library Trust  
on current strategies we are considering:

http://k
ete.net.nz/site/documents/show/32-federated-search-report-fo
r-horowhenua-library-trusts-material

Cheers,
Walter McGinnis
Kete Project Lead
Katipo Communications, Ltd
http://katipo
.co.nz/solutions/kete.html

On Apr 25, 2008, at 5:47 AM, Nancy Miller wrote:

> I'm from a small college library in Wyoming.  We are
considering a CMS
> to manage our archival collection of WWII Heart
Mountain Relocation  
> Camp
> images, plus other collections.  OCLC's ContentDM has
been suggested  
> as
> a potential product.  How does this compare to other
products that are
> being used?  Thumbnails and larger jpegs of our images
are currently
> viewable on our web site.  We need a good way to search
our  
> collections,
> thus a CMS system.  Thank you for all suggestions and
words of wisdom.
>
>
>
> Nancy Miller
>
> Northwest College, Hinckley Library
>
> Powell, WY
>
> http://www.n
orthwestcollege.edu/library/
>
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Web4lib mailing list
> Web4libwebjunction.org
> http://lists.we
bjunction.org/web4lib/
>



_______________________________________________
Web4lib mailing list
Web4libwebjunction.org
http://lists.we
bjunction.org/web4lib/

Hi Nancy,

You might also consider Greenstone (http://www.greenstone.org). I'm a  
little biased (I run a company specializing in Greenstone  
customization and support) so probably not the right person
to give a  
balanced comparison between ContentDM and Greenstone, other
than to  
say they offer similar functionality.

One significant difference is in the licensing of the two.
Greenstone  
is open source and ContentDM is not, so the latter involves
ongoing  
licensing costs.

Greenstone has been used to build everything from small
image  
collections to large complex newspaper collections. For some
examples  
of collections built with Greenstone take a look at http://www.dlconsulting.com/greenstone-services/projects
 
  and http://www.greens
tone.org/examples.

Kind regards,

Stefan Boddie
DL Consulting Ltd.
http://www.dlconsulting.c
om


On Apr 25, 2008, at 5:47 AM, Nancy Miller wrote:

> I'm from a small college library in Wyoming.  We are
considering a CMS
> to manage our archival collection of WWII Heart
Mountain Relocation  
> Camp
> images, plus other collections.  OCLC's ContentDM has
been suggested  
> as
> a potential product.  How does this compare to other
products that are
> being used?  Thumbnails and larger jpegs of our images
are currently
> viewable on our web site.  We need a good way to search
our  
> collections,
> thus a CMS system.  Thank you for all suggestions and
words of wisdom.
>
>
>
> Nancy Miller
>
> Northwest College, Hinckley Library
>
> Powell, WY
>
> http://www.n
orthwestcollege.edu/library/
>
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Web4lib mailing list
> Web4libwebjunction.org
> http://lists.we
bjunction.org/web4lib/
>



_______________________________________________
Web4lib mailing list
Web4libwebjunction.org
http://lists.we
bjunction.org/web4lib/

Hi Nancy,

You might also consider Greenstone (http://www.greenstone.org). I'm a  
little biased (I run a company specializing in Greenstone  
customization and support) so probably not the right person
to give a  
balanced comparison between ContentDM and Greenstone, other
than to  
say they offer similar functionality.

One significant difference is in the licensing of the two.
Greenstone  
is open source and ContentDM is not, so the latter involves
ongoing  
licensing costs.

Greenstone has been used to build everything from small
image  
collections to large complex newspaper collections. For some
examples  
of collections built with Greenstone take a look at http://www.dlconsulting.com/greenstone-services/projects
 
  and http://www.greens
tone.org/examples.

Kind regards,

Stefan Boddie
DL Consulting Ltd.
http://www.dlconsulting.c
om


On Apr 25, 2008, at 5:47 AM, Nancy Miller wrote:

> I'm from a small college library in Wyoming.  We are
considering a CMS
> to manage our archival collection of WWII Heart
Mountain Relocation  
> Camp
> images, plus other collections.  OCLC's ContentDM has
been suggested  
> as
> a potential product.  How does this compare to other
products that are
> being used?  Thumbnails and larger jpegs of our images
are currently
> viewable on our web site.  We need a good way to search
our  
> collections,
> thus a CMS system.  Thank you for all suggestions and
words of wisdom.
>
>
>
> Nancy Miller
>
> Northwest College, Hinckley Library
>
> Powell, WY
>
> http://www.n
orthwestcollege.edu/library/
>
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Web4lib mailing list
> Web4libwebjunction.org
> http://lists.we
bjunction.org/web4lib/
>



_______________________________________________
Web4lib mailing list
Web4libwebjunction.org
http://lists.we
bjunction.org/web4lib/