Getting Started with CONTENTdm in the CARLI Environment

Where to find documentation and how to carry out tasks related to your CONTENTdm collections

Documentation

CARLI Digital Collections

An overview of CARLI CONTENTdm

CARLI CONTENTdm Documentation page includes requirements, best practices and procedures for using CARLI’s installation of CONTENTdm, and training information.

OCLC-supplied CONTENTdm documentation is also available from the CONTENTdm Web Site.

CONTENTdm Email Discussion Lists

CONTENTdm hosts forums as part of the User Support Center. Subscribe to receive updates from the forums once you have created an account in the User Support Center.

CARLI hosts the Digitial Collections Interest Group open email list.

CARLI CONTENTdm Web Administration

CONTENTdm Web Administration log-in.
Note: The login is the same for both the Project Client and the CONTENTdm Web Administration.

Institutional Primary CONTENTdm Contact

In order to coordinate requests for new collections and collection customizations, each institution must designate a CONTENTdm primary contact. This person will also be subscribed to a CARLI email list specifically for CONTENTdm primary contacts. Please contact  support@carli.illinois.edu to name or change the contact for your institution. A back-up, secondary contact can also be named and added to the CONTENTdm contacts email list if you wish. Primary contacts should contact the CARLI Office to name a secondary contact.

Requesting New Collections

Please use the Request a New Collection form to request a new collection be created for you. Collection names must include your institution's full name in parentheses and cannot be more than 80 characters, including spaces. The collection name cannot include any of the following characters: \ / : * ? " < > |

This request should be submitted by your institution's CARLI Primary CONTENTdm Contact.

Collections remain unpublished on CARLI Digital Collections until you institution’s primary contact requests that the collection be published. See the web page Prerequisites for Publishing a Collection in CARLI Digital Collections for more information. See below for directions on how to view collections while they are unpublished.

The CARLI Office will let you know when the collection is ready, as well as the collection alias (also known as the CISOROOT).

User Logins for Web Administration and Project Clients

Institutions must create their own user accounts through OCLC. New accounts can be created on the OCLC website. Once created there, the institution should send only the user names (do not send passwords) and the collections those user names may access to CARLI Support via the CONTENTdm New User Names Form.

• CONTENTdm user names must not contain the ampersand (&) or percent (%) characters.
• If you already have an existing WorldCat.org username, you may use it with hosted CONTENTdm if you wish.
• For students or temporary staff, a library may create a generic WorldCat.org account with a library-managed email address.

Viewing Unpublished Collections

You must log in to the website using your user name and password to view unpublished collections. There is a log in link in the footer of all CARLI Digital Collections pages:

There is also a feature in the CONTENTdm Web Administration whereby collections can be published to a restricted range of IP addresses or username through the collections tab. This can be used to view unpublished collections or to share the collection with staff prior to publishing it more widely. (This option should be used for temporary testing and demonstration purposes only. If your institution has a collection with access restrictions ready to publish, please contact CARLI to discuss publishing options.)

Publishing your Collections on the CARLI Digital Collections Website

Customizing Your Collections

The look and feel of a collection can be customized to reflect the institution or the specific collection. Permitted customizations include:

• Colors
• Banner
• Logo
• Homepage text
• Homepage images

To submit customization requests, an institution’s CONTENTdm primary contact should complete the “Collection Customization Form” located on the CARLI CONTENTdm website. Customizations can be requested at any time, even before the collection is published.

Publishing Your Collections

Once a collection is ready to be published on the CARLI Digital Collections website, the institution’s CONTENTdm primary contact should submit the “Collection Publishing Request or Information Update Form.” CARLI Staff will add the collection to the CARLI Digital Collections website.

Updating Your Collection Home Page

At any point that you wish to update the information on a collection home page, the institution’s CONTENTdm primary contact should request changes by re-submitting the “Collection Publishing Request or Information Update Form” and indicating the requested change(s) on the form. CARLI Staff will update the collection.

Test Collections

CARLI maintains three general-use collections that all CARLI CONTENTdm users may access for testing and experimentation [Test Collection 1 (CARLI), Test Collection 2 (CARLI), Test Collection 3 (CARLI)]. Please note that these collections are open to everyone to use, which means that the testing you do in them is not static. The Test Collections are for testing and experimentation purposes only. Please request that CARLI create a new collection for any materials that you want to eventually publish; please do not upload items that you will want to publish into any Test Collection as items cannot easily be moved between collections. If you do upload such items into a Test Collection, you will need to recreate them and re-upload them into a new collection.

Questions Regarding the Saskia Collection

Your institution may request a full copy of all the images and metadata that comprise the Saskia Art Images collection for loading into your own digital asset management system or for other use. Contact the CARLI Office with any questions about the acquisition of the Saskia collection images and metadata and for general questions regarding the collection.

Revised: 8/23/21