HOW TO Use CONTENTdm
Currently the UIUC Library uses a CONTENTdm as a digital collection management system.
This document is created to provides a ‘how to guide’ for the library staff when processing digital
resources using CONTENTdm.
How to Log In
There are two ways to log in CONTENTdm; through ‘Acquisition Station’ module or through the
Web Interface. In both cases you need to request the Systems Office for privileges to use the
system. Once your netID is cleared, you can log in to the system. When you log in, you have to
put uiuc\your netid in user name space. The password is same as your Active Directory
password.
Acquisition Station
In order to use Acquisition Station, you need to install a program in your desktop.
1. After you open the program you can see four options you can choose from: New, Open,
Tutorial, and Help.
 New – Select New when you want to create new collection in CONTENTdm.
Click New, and enter your collection name in the blank box.
 Open – Select Open when you want to add or edit from already existent
collection. You can select the collection name from here.
Web Interface
Go to http://images.library.uiuc.edu:8081/cgi-bin/admin/start.exe, and you can see the log in page.
Selecting Metadata Elements
CONTdm support Dublin Core, and allows to map Dublic Core to Qualified Dublin Core. That
means you can use the elements from both Dublin Core and Qualified Dublin Core. You can
even use elements which are not in Qualified Dublin Core, with drop down mapping option as
none. You can also use the fields’ names from Dublin Core Terms. We recommend that before
selecting metadata elements fields from CONTENTdm, choose the needed elements set that are
essential to describe your collection first. Once you decided the elements set, then you can
select the metadata fields from CONTENTdm.
When you are deciding metadata elements set, please refer following sites.

Dublin Core Metadata Elements Set: http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/

Using Dublin Core – Dublin Core Qualifiers:
http://dublincore.org/documents/usageguide/qualifiers.shtml

DCMI Metadata Terms: http://dublincore.org/documents/dcmi-terms/
Required Minimum Metadata Fields
For the sharable metadata creation, we recommend following metadata fields as a minimum
metadata fields set for each collection.
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dc:title
dc:description
dc:type
dc:format
dc:subject
dc:publisher
dcterms:IsPartOf (dc:relation)
dc:identifier
After selecting needed metadata fields, you can decide which fields can be displayed (Hide: No),
and which fields can be searchable (Search: Yes) in Field properties page.
You can also edit/delete the fields from here. The fields you choose to be displayed appear in
green in Acquisition Station.
You can also use controlled vocabularies in CONTENTdm. When you use controlled
vocabularies, simply choose Vocab: Yes in Field properties page.
The selected metadata fields are displayed whenever you want to add the new record into the
collection.
Add
Add the information into the fields according to the best practices for your collection. We
recommend that created the authority file for name fields (Personal name, place name, and
conference name, etc.) for the reference.
Edit
When you need to edit an item record, just click items, and edit, and browse collection in the
right corner. From there you can select the item you want to edit the field. After editing the record,
click save.
You can also edit from the ‘Across all fields’, or ‘Selected fields.’
When you edit from the Across all Fields, simply type the terms you wish to edit. The
CONTENTdm finds the words, and you can edit them.
When editing from the Selected Fields, you can select the field from drop down boxes. You can
also view the terms in that field from clicking show terms. It allows you to edit certain terms in a
field at once. Find and Replace allows you to Find and replace metadata within one field or all
fields, or change metadata content in fields. This function does not check controlled vocabulary
so if you make changes to fields with controlled vocabulary, update your controlled vocabulary list.
Index
Please Index after every time you made changes for your collection.
Import Images and Metadata Together
This instruction is for when you have to import images and metadata together. There are two
cases,
1. when you have NEW images and metadata, and
2. when you have to ADD images into the metadata already in CONTENTdm.
In batch process, Acquisition Station should be installed in your work station.
New Images and Metadata
You need to have metadata in .txt file and images in one folder. The first line of the .txt file should
be field names that you created for the collection. One field should be file name that should be
matched with image file names. Field name is *exactly* the same as the object you are importing.
(Make sure that the file name should have appropriate file extension.) System doesn’t take any
file that has slightest differences between metadata and image file name.
Open the Acquisition Station and open the collection. Click Import – Multiple files, then you will
see following screen.
Click Import using a tab-delimited text file and located the file name. Then Click Next. This
time you need to locate the image file folder.
When you click Next, the system shows you the field names that should be matched with your
collection filed names and ones in .txt file. Please remember that one field you should be
mapped to ‘Object File Name’.
If you click Next, the
Acquisition Station will bring metadata and image together.
Please Upload, then Approve and Index in Web Administration page.
When Adding Images into Metadata
Although there is a way to add images after all the metadata were added to system, we
recommend adding metadata and images at the same time.
1. Put all the image files into one folder.
2. For the metadata, go to Collection – Item – edit – browse collection.
3. Check all the items you want to add the images. If you cannot locate the item easily,
search the items by specific terms.
4. Click ‘export.’
5. Select ‘Tab-delimited’ and ‘next.’
When you click Next, you cam see following screen.
Save the file as ‘txt’ file format. If you have more than one file, copy the metadata part only and
add them into the txt file with field names. Add one more field for image file name. This field
should map to ‘Object file name.’
Please follow the same procedure as Import Images and Metadata Together - New Images
and Metadata from this point.
Created
by mj 09/17/2008