CONTENTdm vs. Dalet Pyramid

CONTENTdm is well-suited for smaller organizations as a simple solution to present a digital collection on the web. If your need is complex and requires digital preservation as part of the workflow, it may not be the best solution.

Incentivized

When our library closed for Covid, we had to create systems that allowed for remote holds to be placed on items, which had never been utilized before. none of our staff was in the same area, so collaborating on the media storm we wanted to make took a lot of moving parts. We were able to work together to build a media blitz locally as well as create internal protocols with these tools.

Incentivized

• Constant URLs
• User interface is good
• Run by OCLC, not likely to disappear

Incentivized

• Web and mobile based functionality.
• Video editing in a web portal.
• Creating a platform for media management off-site.

Incentivized

• As a digital asset management system, one would expect the capability of managing preservation, which CONTENTdm lacks.
• Lack of batch updating and other advanced metadata management capabilities.
• The usage statistics does not work, and the company is not planning to fix it, at least based the interaction with tech support staff. Customers were referred to use Google Analytics.

Incentivized

• Video editing was difficult interface for some staff.
• AI indexing often got confused on multiple similar files.
• Less technically inclined staff members had to be helped quite a bit.

Incentivized

We selected CONTENTdm because it had a good reputation, was used by many institutions, provided a good product, and supplied feedback and monthly reports. We are wondering about DPLA and if that will be the next evolution or platform.

Incentivized

I love the deep functionality of Adobe's suite, but it suffers from being app-driven and localized. This has always hampered me even when I'm not dealing with covid problems. The web functionality of Dalet really set it apart from everything else we used in on-the-go abilities. If we didn't have this, I don't think our Covid policies would have worked and gotten buy-in from the community.

Incentivized

• It helped us to get started with our digital collections projects at a relatively low cost.
• As our needs grew, it became apparent that we needed something more powerful, and that provides better workflows and better statistics and is able to handle the whole life cycle of digitation projects.

Incentivized

• Community outreach was a breeze.
• Working with our team was easy despite distance.
• Allowed us to modernize practices.

Incentivized