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Hang Hoang
LIS 7410
Spring 2014
Homework 1
University of Louisville Digital Collections
http://digital.library.louisville.edu/cdm/
1. Introduction to the system
The University of Louisville Digital Collections (ULDC) is a very large collection of
over 29,000 images, maintained by the University of Louisville Libraries. It is actually an
omnibus of thirty-eight separate digital collections, all related to the city of Louisville,
Kentucky, the University of Louisville, and the state of Kentucky. Each collection has its
own curator who works with the site administrator to facilitate access, preservation, and
other needs to make the digital surrogates available online. The ULDC as a whole,
according to its website, “is a growing resource which includes rare and unique images,
documents, and oral histories from our archives, special collections, and other campus
units.”
First, a brief history lesson: The University of Louisville (UL) was founded in 1846 by
the Kentucky Legislature by combining the Louisville Medical Institute, Louisville
College, and a new law school. It has been and is a vibrant part of the Louisville
community and currently enrolls about 22,000 students. The city of Louisville was
founded in 1778 by George Rogers Clark and named after King Louis XVI of France. Its
strategic location and access to steamboats in the early 1800s lead to its industrial
development. By the 1830’s it became the largest city in Kentucky and remains so today
with a population of approximately 556,000 (Louisville Convention & Visitors Bureau,
2013).
The ULDC’s thirty-eight collections all relate to the history, geography, and personal
accomplishments of the people and land in this area of Kentucky. It is a staggering
collection in size, organization, and detail. The University of Louisville Libraries Digital
Initiatives began in 2006 to make the ULDC a reality.
The best way to fully appreciate the ULDC is to peruse a list of its many collections
(listed here or see Appendix 1). They include diverse subject matters such as African
American oral histories, medieval illuminated manuscripts, Kentucky maps, 19th Century
woodblocks, political curios, and local historic photographs. Each collection has a
meticulously written “About the Collection” section detailing the contents and purpose of
that particular compilation.
Here are six interesting collections within the ULDC:
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Leonard Brecher Tobacco & Chewing Company Gum Card Collection
This collection is a group of 154 digital images of baseball cards, dating from 1909 to
1911. Some of the cards came from the Colgam Gum Company, based in Louisville,
Kentucky. There is an inventory finding aid that lists player names.
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Ghost Signs of Louisville
This collection includes photographic images of decades-old advertising on
Louisville buildings. Some of the ads are legible but others have been washed off.
There is also a virtual tour of the city that highlights where the extant buildings and
ads are located.
College of Arts & Sciences Senior Honors Theses
A relatively new collection, this holds the undergraduate honors projects of summa
cum laude and magna cum laude students, starting from December 2012. There are
only 3 papers in the collection at the moment. They are in pdf format, making them
available to the entire internet.
Andre Jeunet Collection
Andre Jeunet was a French soldier who fought for France in WWI and WWII. His
daughter married a Louisville native, and subsequently the Jeunet family immigrated
there. This collection contains over 210 photographs taken by Jeunet while he
served in northeastern France (1915-1917) and the Balkans (1917-1918).
Louisville Leadership Collection
The Louisville Leadership was a black community newspaper that ran from 19171950. The UL Archives and Records Center had the papers on seven rolls of
microfilm and started digitizing them for this collection.
University of Louisville Images
This is a collection detailing the history of the University of Louisville itself. It has a
“Building Book” database of current and historic architectural structures on campus,
as well as images of intramural sports and historic campus maps.
2. System Infrastructure
According to the ULDC’s website, the project uses CONTENTdm Digital Collection
Management Software Suite by DiMeMa. This software allows for the uploading of
digital files, adding of metadata, and creating the search/browse functions. Terri Holtze
is the Web Services Librarian who customized the software using HTML and
CONTENTdm PHP code. The collection’s metadata is based on the Dublin Core
Metadata Set. CONTENTdm provided a metadata template that was then customized.
What makes this digital collection outstanding is the amount of metadata and
description applied to the images. Each image comes with a Description Set that
includes the standard fields of title, contributor, and location. There are also fields for
Object Type, Source, Format, Location Depicted, and Digital Publisher. In all there are
thirty-one possible fields. The Subject Headings use controlled vocabulary from the
Library of Congress Thesaurus for Graphic Material and the Library of Congress
Subject Headings and Name Authorities. Perhaps the most interesting field is the
Description, which are free text sentences about the image. These sentences give
pertinent historical context to the images and are added manually, not generated by
automation.
For technical information about the images, the website explains that images are
scanned in-house as uncompressed PC TIFF files in 24-bit RGB Color or 8-bit
Grayscale. The typical resolution is 600ppi. For the website, the TIFFs are converted to
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JPEG or JPEG2000 with Adobe Photoshop, IrfanView, or CONTENTdm software. The
images have a spatial resolution of 600 pixels in vertical dimension with adjustments for
horizontal dimensions.
3. Interface Design
For such a mammoth site, the ULDC does an excellent job organizing its content and
presenting it in a friendly interface design. The homepage is dominated by a single
striking image from the collection (Figure 1). The image changes every five seconds,
replaced by another striking photo, map, or manuscript. Strategically, there is no
information presented about the dominating image. Curious viewers will have to click on
the image to find out who it is, what it is, and when it took place. This may by intentional
design to induce viewers to interact with the site immediately.
Figure 1: A dominating image on the Homepage
The homepage also has nine tabs that run across the top of the page under the
ever-present UofL University Libraries Digital Collections banner. The nine tabs are
Home, Collections, Browse, Search, About, Ordering Reproductions, Citing Sources,
RSS Feed, and Help. The banner and tabs are always present on every page of this
collection. This design feature, simple and not unique, makes navigating the entire
ULDC easy, intuitive and comfortable. A viewer may have clicked deep into a distinct
collection, unearthing remarkable images and descriptions. However, she is able to
easily connect back to the homepage, list of other collections, and the search functions
with one click. She does not have to backtrack the pages to remember where she
started. With so many images and links to other data available, it would be easy for any
curious viewer to unintentionally meander and click deeper into a collection. Whether
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they are the historic photos of Kentucky or part of the bookplate collection, each item
invites the viewer to learn more, linking more information. It is an excellent design
feature to make the tabs available at all times, giving viewers access to everything in a
single click.
Inside the individual collections, the interfaces are well done. As mentioned, there is
the consistency that each of the collection’s initial screens has an “About the
Collection” link (Figures 2 and 3) and a “Browse the Collection” link. Even though the
collections and subjects are disparate, the gateways to all thirty-eight look similar which
unifies entire the ULDC omnibus.
Figure 2: Has "About this Collection" link
Figure 3: Has "About the Collection" link
Another consistent design feature is the browse presentation of each collection. After
clicking “Browse the Collection” of any initial screen, the viewer sees a vertical list of
thumbnails of the images with information on title, subject, description, and specific
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collection. The webpage gives other pertinent information such as the number of
results (i.e. images) in the collection, and that the viewer is looking at
page_X_of_Y_pages. This design allows the viewer to scroll the collection and briefly
skim the images, all the while knowing the number of total images and where she is
within the collection.
Clicking on any thumbnail leads to more information about that particular image,
including the image itself much larger with full description and metadata. There are also
Share functions at the top of the page. In this age of social networking, this design
feature is quite ingenious, allowing viewers to share their experiences of that particular
image or the ULDC. The Share functions include a reference URL (persistent link to the
image), a Share button for many services (Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Pinterest, LinkIn,
etc.), Add Tags, Comments, and actually rate the image on a five star scale.
To keep a personal copy of the image, viewers can download it or print it. Images
can be downloaded as a small object (250x250 pixels) or a medium object (500x500
pixels). The print button makes the image printer friendly as a lone object. These
keeping features are very convenient for educational or personal purposes.
4. Search Functions
There are different ways to search the ULDC. The most obvious way is to use the
search functions found at the bottom of the homepage (Figure 4). There is a single
textbox that allows keyword searching of either the entire ULDC or one of the thirtyeight collections. This search has no field specifications, making the results high
content/low specification. The homepage also has a browse function that allows users
to “Browse Items by Type, Location, Etc.” This pull-down menu offers narrowing by
Collection, Object Type, People Pictured, Subjects, University of Louisville, Louisville
Streets, and Kentucky. This browse function takes advantage of the detailed metadata
and fields of each image. It is a capable and powerful tool. There is also a “Browse
Collection by Subject” function. Its pull-down menu includes Art, Architecture, Business,
Education, Everyday Life, etc. The results from this browse are collections rather than
individual images.
Figure 4: Search/Browse Functions at bottom of the Homepage
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Located at the top of every page, the Search Tab links to more focused search
opportunities. Under this tab there is a Basic Search, which is one textbox allowing
keyword searches and the ability to include/exclude collections. The Advanced Search
is superlative. It is presented at first as one search box that allows searching by 31
different fields (such as Title, Subject, Description, Languages, etc). But users can add
up to three additional search boxes, each able to search by different fields. Also, users
can add or remove collections to the search by further narrowing by Type, Coverage,
Subject, Contributors, and Creator.
Hence, the Advanced Search can accommodate four search boxes, each with the
ability to narrow by 31 specific fields, as well as the ability to narrow within search
results. For the searching aficionado, each search box offers the choice of ALL
WORDS, ANY WORD, EXACT PHRASE, or, NONE OF WORDS. For a test search, the
words “women” “education” and “African American” were placed in three search boxes,
each set to Subject. This produced 12 results presented as vertical thumbnails with
summary information. It is a very convenient presentation for the viewer to quickly
peruse the results and decide if further searching is needed. As a bonus, at the top of
the page, the words “women” “education” and “African American” appear with X’s next
to them. If the viewer wishes to remove a term and broaden the search, click an X and a
new search automatically begins (Figure 5).
Figure 5: Search results of three terms
Users can also search within each of the thirty-eight collections, while looking in it.
Some of the collections have sub-browsing features. An example is the Caufield and
Shook Collection of Louisville photographs, which has sub-browsing by Building,
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People, and Transportation. The meticulously detailed metadata added to the images
allow for robust searching and browsing.
5. Strengths and Weaknesses
It has been mentioned many time that the ULDC is large, with thirty-eight separate
collections. The major strengths of this website are the organization structures that
make its size comfortable and navigable. With many subjects and images, viewers can
easily be overwhelmed by information. By making each collection distinct, yet giving
them all the similar design styles and search functions, the enormous collection
becomes like a physical library that can be perused, deeply researched, or just a space
to look at one thing.
Another strength is the breadth of the collections. Many digital collections boast
access to historical information, and the ULDC has plenty of those, such as the Arthur
Younger Ford (1861-1926) Photograph Albums and the Newton Owen Postcard
Collection (1900-1940). But it also has compilations of current images such as the
August 2009 Flood Collection which documents a recent Louisville natural disaster. The
ULDC has the previously mentioned College of Arts and Sciences Senior Theses that
starts from December 2012. This collection of papers by recently graduated students
gives the website a sense of currency and future possibilities. There will be more papers
to add for decades to come, and this website will document each one of them now and
forever. The ULDC is a growing collection, not a stagnant database of museum objects.
Another great characteristic that makes the entire collection a success is the high
quality of images. The images are the whole purpose of the website, and the UL
Libraries took great care to produce the best resolution possible. The project used
flatbed and overhead scanners along with advanced compression methods (JPEG or
JPEG2000) and archival software to present astounding images on computer screens.
The photographic, maps, manuscript images are worth looking at because these
surrogates do so much justice to the original (or perhaps even surpass them in detail).
As for weaknesses in the omnibus collection, one has to do with the Homepage. A
large rotating image dominates the screen that also includes a banner, nine tabs, and
basic search functions. There is no obvious introduction to the ULDC on its Homepage.
There is an unobtrusive explanation in small letters at the bottom left hand corner: “The
University of Louisville Digital Collections include rare and unique images, documents,
and oral histories from our archives, special collections, and other campus units. Learn
more.” The viewer who stumbles on this page needs more information to immediately
grasp what this site is about. It’s a “digital collection” of course, but that is like saying
“library.” What kind of digital collection? What is interesting about this collection? These
questions should be broadcast on the Homepage right away, at least in creative
summary. Even the striking rotating image does not give enough clues about this
enormous, wonderful compilation of images related to UL, Louisville, and Kentucky. It is
ironic that so much detail is given to the presentation of individual collections and
images, but the Homepage lacks basic information and introduction.
Another weakness concerns the presentation of text. The font size is too small for
comfortable reading. Throughout the site, the font size used for describing collections,
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images, metadata, descriptions, and all the fields are miniscule. This may have more to
do with the CONTENTdm software, but the end results are that readers have to lean
into the screen, adjust their screen’s zoom, or squint in order to read the pertinent
information.
Lastly, as what happens very often with large image files on the internet, it takes a
while for pages to load. This is a weakness not entirely of the ULDC’s making. Viewers
who click on thumbnails sometimes have to wait a few seconds for the full view,
depending on the viewer’s internet connection or the ULDC server. This lull is a tradeoff
for having high quality resolution images, but viewers may not be understanding as
seconds pass for a completed webpage. The upside is that the images are so
interesting that the viewer cares enough to want to see them immediately.
6. Conclusion
The University of Louisville Digital Collection is an exciting website and an excellent
model for organizations looking to build their own digital library. Using their own local
history, community, businesses, and school as subjects, they have created many
dynamic and interesting collections, putting them on the internet for the whole world to
view. They have been rolling out the individual collections since 2006 and are still
updating extant collections with new images. Using CONTENTdm, the collection is able
to include newly scanned material as well as previous electronic resources, such the
UL’s existing Electronic Theses Dissertation (Howard & Goldberg, 2011).
CONTENTdm also allows for a streamlined design and interface that makes the ULDC
site attractive and navigable. The search features, especially the Advanced Search, are
well done. Altogether, the content, design structure and the UL staff’s laborious work of
adding metadata/description make this digital library a great web destination.
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Appendix 1.
Full listing of the 38 collections in the University of Louisville Digital Collections:
African American Oral History Collection
Dwight Anderson Music Library Collection
August 2009 Flood Collection
Leonard Brecher Tobacco & Chewing Gum Card Collection
Caufield & Shook Collection
College of Arts & Sciences Senior Honors Theses
Arthur Younger Ford (1861-1926) Photograph Albums
Furnas Family Album Collection
Ghost Signs of Louisville
The Herald-Post Collection
Ainslie Hewett Bookplate Collection
Hite Institute Exhibition Catalogs
Howard Steamboat Museum Collection
Illuminating the Manuscript Leaves
Images of Kentucky and Environs
André Jeunet Collection
Kentucky Maps
Kornhauser Health Sciences Library History Collections
Law Library Collection
Louisville Leader Collection
Louisville Storefronts & Saloons Album (ca. 1912)
Macauley's Theatre Collection
Claude C. Matlack Collection
Kate Matthews Collection
Romano L. Mazzoli Oral History Collection
Metropolitan Sewer District Collection
John P. Morton & Co. Woodblock Collection
Newton Owen Postcard Collection
General Orlando M. Poe Collection, 1836 - ca. 1890
R. G. Potter Collection
Royal Photo Company Collection
Simmons College of Kentucky Collection
Stereographic Views of Louisville and Beyond, 1850s - 1930
Jean Thomas, The Traipsin' Woman, Collection
University of Louisville Electronic Theses and Dissertations
University of Louisville Images
University of Louisville Yearbooks
Visual Resources Center Digital Image Collection
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References
Howard, R. I., & Goldberg, T. (2011). Facilitating greater access to ETDs through
CONTENTdm. OCLC Systems & Services, 27(2), 113.
doi:10.1108/10650751111135418
Louisville Convention & Visitors Bureau (2013). Louisville, Kentucky History. Retrieved
on February 2, 2014 at http://www.gotolouisville.com/explore-louisville/louisvillehistory/index.aspx