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Past Events » 2008 Upper Midwest CONTENTdm User Group Meeting
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2008 Upper Midwest CONTENTdm User Group Meeting—October 16–17, 2008
DeWitt Wallace Library, Macalester College
The first Upper Midwest CONTENTdm User Group Meeting was held on the campus of
Macalester College, St. Paul, Minnesota, October 16-17, 2008, sponsored by Minitex and WiLS
(Wisconsin Library Services). There are over 40 institutions in the region (Minnesota, South Dakota,
North Dakota, Wisconsin) currently using CONTENTdm to build their digital collections. This first meeting
provided the opportunity for networking and sharing of CONTENTdm best practices among colleagues, as well
as a CONTENTdm product update and preconference. Below are links to the presentations from each session.
Meeting Agenda
Thursday, October 16
9:00 AM – 12:00 PM
Preconference: Working with Text Collections in CONTENTdm
This hands-on preconference will focus on working with digital objects that contain text. Attendees will
learn how to build a document, a postcard, and a book (monograph) using CONTENTdm version 4.3. This
latest version includes a number of PDF enhancements and users will learn how to put these latest
features into practice. If you are new to working with compound objects in CONTENTdm, this session will
give you a basic introduction and also describe a few best practices for working with text.
—Sara Ring, Minitex
• View Sara Ring's presentation
(PDF; 4.06 MB)
12:45 PM – 1:00 PM
Registration
1:00 PM – 1:15 PM
Welcome
1:25 PM – 2:25 PM
CONTENTdm Meets Excel and Digital Content Meets Web 2.0 All In One Exciting Session
Come learn how St. Olaf College uses Excel to generate metadata from encoded file names for use in a
digitization project in CONTENTdm. This is especially helpful when digitizing newspapers and other serials
where there are multiple facets to use for search and/or browse purposes, or when the order of pages and
issues is paramount in the digital display.
—Jill Strass, St. Olaf College
• View Jill Strass's presentation
(PDF; 34 KB)
The University of Wisconsin Digital Collections Center uses several Web-based tools and applications to
enhance digital materials and create new marketing opportunities. We'll discuss how we decided which Web
2.0 tools were best for us, and share some of our favorite success stories.
—Melissa McLimans and Leah Ujda, University of Wisconsin–Madison
Digital Collections Center
Working within Consortia
Part one of this session is entitled "Accomplishing the Impossible: Consortia, Digitization, and
a Small Liberal Arts College."
This presentation will focus on the creation of a collaborative partnership including its formation,
logistical ramifications, and advantages
—Lisa Sjoberg, Concordia College, Moorhead;
• View Lisa Sjoberg's presentation
(PDF; 354 KB)
Part two of this session is entitled "The who, why, and how of consortia wide CONTENTdm collections."
This presentation will examine why the CLIC libraries consortia pursued a digitization consortium,
why Northwestern College chose to participate, the collaborative development of the consortia
internet site, and the issues the consortia encountered.
—Dora Wagner, Northwestern College
• View Dora Wagner's presentation
(PDF; 468 KB)
2:30 PM — 3:45 PM
CONTENTdm Best Practices Open Discussion
Join us for a panel discussion on building digital collections using CONTENTdm. Topics could include,
but are not limited to, workflow, digitization, controlled vocabulary and subject heading/local subject
headings. Take part in the discussion and share your ideas, experiences and tips.
—Shannon Shi, University of Minnesota, Morris; Josh Hickman, Beloit College; Jonathan Cooper,
Wisconsin Historical Society
• View Wisconsin Heritage Online
Best Practices for Metadata
• View CDP Best Practices for
Imaging, Metadata, and Audio
• View Federal Agencies Digitization
Guidelines
Metadata and the Big Picture
Part one of this session is entitled "FAST: UND's application of authorized headings."
The presentation will describe Faceted Application of Subject Terminology (FAST), why UND chose to
use it, and some issues implementing it.
—Shelby Harken, University of North Dakota
• View Shelby Harken's presentation
(PDF; 110 KB)
Part two of this session is entitled "Go Forth & Create Metadata!"
The presentation will give attendees a look at how the Digital Horizons consortium members worked
through the process of developing its metadata schema to meet a diverse group of users, including both
consortia members and public users. Attendees will also get a look at the application of the schema
currently available online.
—John Bye, North Dakota State University
• View John Bye's presentation
(PDF; 748 KB)
3:45 PM – 4:00 PM
Break
4:00 PM – 5:00 PM
Editing Web Templates in CONTENTdm
Three presenters from two different institutions will go over design aspects and the two
different methods of editing the CONTENTdm web templates. Included are tips and tricks for the beginner
and the more advanced user.
—Katie Sanders and Amelia Klem Osterud, Carroll University; Deborah Kloiber, St. Catherine University
• View the Editing Web Templates presentation
(PDF; 3.36 MB)
The Little Archives That Could: One Archive's Success Story
The Curt Teich Postcard Archives at the Lake County Discovery Museum will share ideas for marketing its
collections available online through the Digital Past Web site and other commercial Web sites. The presentation
will begin with a brief overview of the Teich Archives, and the changes in research expectations due to new
technologies. The discussion will include changes in the research process, negotiating usage fees, and using
Flickr and blogs to increase awareness and interest.
—Debra Gust, Image and Licensing Specialist, Lake County Discovery Museum; Christine Pyle, Manager of
Historical Resources, Lake County Discovery Museum
• View Debra Gust and Christine Pyle's
presentation
(PDF; 1.73 MB)
Friday, October 17
8:00 AM – 9:15 AM
Breakfast Round Table
9:20 AM – 10:50 AM
Using CONTENTdm to manage Visual Materials: art slides, yearbooks, posters and 3-D
Carleton College's digital collections contain both their Archival Collections and their Teaching Collections.
The Visual Resources digital image collection is one of the Teaching Collections. Created and administered by
Heidi Eyestone, Visual Resources Curator, Art and Art History, the collection contains over 30,000 images used in
Art History courses as well as in other courses across the campus. It was created from scanned slides using CONTENTdm.
—Heidi Eyestone, Carleton College
• View Heidi Eyestone's presentation
(PDF; 2.02 MB)
Carleton's Zoobooks Collection and Alumni Magazine Collection are two of the college's digital Archival Collections.
Published since 1955, The Zoobook is an annual fall publication of names, photographs and hometown information of the College's incoming
class of new students. The Alumni Magazine collection includes images of each issue, from 1910 on,
with searchable text. Hsianghui Liu-Spencer, Cataloging/Metadata Librarian at Carleton, is a member of the Team in
Gould Library that coordinates digitization effort on campus.
—Hsianghui Liu Spencer, Carleton College
• View Hsianghui Liu Spencer's presentation
(PDF; 5.95 MB)
The Lawrence University Digital Image Collections are hosting the scanned images for the Art of the Poster collection
in collaboration with the Visual Resources Library at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design where the images were
scanned and cataloged. Colette Lunday Brautigam, Visual Resources Librarian, will discuss this collection.
—Colette Lunday Brautigam, Lawrence University
• View Lawrence
University's Art of the Poster Web page
• View Lawrence
University's Video Tutorials for CONTENTdm Web page
The Wisconsin Decorative Arts Database is a new resource hosted by the Wisconsin Historical Society and sponsored
by the Chipstone Foundation. This online archive brings together examples of furniture, ceramics, textiles, and other
19th and early 20th century material culture artifacts from the collections of museums and historic sites across Wisconsin.
Emily Pfotenhauer, Project Coordinator, will discuss the creation of a 3-D collection in CONTENTdm.
—Emily Pfotenhauer, Wisconsin Historical Society
• View Emily Pfotenhauer's handout
(PDF; 20.3 KB)
• View the Wisconsin
Decorative Arts Collection
Working with Audio
Bill Fliss (Marquette University) will discuss the incorporation of audio into CONTENTdm, based on his experiences
publishing a collection of excerpts from controversial Wisconsin Senator Joe McCarthy. Topics and considerations
he will touch upon include copyright, conversion of analog to digital, metadata best practices, workflow, and methods
of delivery in CONTENTdm.
—Bill Fliss, Marquette University
• View Bill Fliss's presentation
(PDF; 525 KB)
Denise Tyburski and Ellen Holt-Werle of Macalester College will discuss their experiences in creating an audio oral
history collection in CONTENTdm. They will specifically focus on their use of iMovie, Audacity, and compound objects
to create the collection. In addition, Denise and Ellen will give an overview of their processes for selecting equipment,
creating metadata, and implementing future enhancements to the collection.
—Ellen Holt-Werle and Denise Tyburski, Macalester College
• View Ellen Holt-Werle and Denise
Tyburski's presentation
(PDF; 84 KB)
11:00 AM – 12:00 PM
Beyond Anecdotal: CONTENTdm and the User Experience
This session will discuss the goals, issues and outcomes raised during a formal usability study
conducted by the Minnesota Digital Library in May 2007. Presenters will share their own insights
into the process and encourage others to look at ways of improving the user experience. Attendees
will learn about the formal usability process, including various issues raised by the study.
This presentation is ideally suited for those interested in learning more about how CONTENTdm
can best meet the needs of its audience.
—Jason Roy and Jen Tantzen, University of Minnesota Libraries
• View Jason Roy and Jen Tantzen's presentation
(PDF; 222 KB)
• View Jason Roy's Handout
(PDF; 12.1 KB)
Advanced Data Wrangling: Tips, tricks and software for creating perfect tab-delimited metadata files
for batch loading into CONTENTdm
Many users of CONTENTdm import their collection items in batches using tab-delimited text files containing
metadata. In many cases, existing metadata from other database systems (legacy data) needs to be re-purposed
for CONTENTdm. These tab-delimited files need to be perfectly structured to work properly. They also must
contain all the necessary metadata, which can involve lots of tedious typing and repetitive data entry work.
This can lead to wasted time and data errors which frustrate the import process.
This session will demonstrate the use of several simple software tools that can eliminate repetitive data
entry and troubleshoot metadata spreadsheets for upload errors before the user imports them. Tips and trick
in Microsoft Excel will also be demonstrated that allow the user to quickly accomplish what would often be
time-consuming and tedious data entry tasks. Finally, ways to create perfect tab-delimited, free from
conversion errors and "data fracturing" will be demonstrated. These tips, tricks and tools will be made
available on the Web for users.
—Wayne Torborg, The Hill Museum & Manuscript Library, Saint John's University
• View Wayne Torborg's
Resources Web page
12:15 PM – 1:15 PM
Luncheon CONTENTdm Update with Ron Gardner, OCLC
Ron Gardner, OCLC Digital Collection Services Consultant, will be giving a brief update on current CONTENTdm
changes that have taken place in the last 2-3 months. Plus, a few projects from CONTENTdm users will be shown
to illustrate some exciting projects that will help you see your colleagues' works 'in action.'
CONTENTdm 5 will be described highlighting the key user enhancements that have been suggested and those that
will be implemented with the Fall 2008 release. There will be some brief descriptions and screen captures to
illustrate the latest enhancements to CONTENTdm 5.
1:15 PM
End of conference