Web and DAMS - NC ECHO Dig Institute

Putting Your Digital Collections on the Web Emily Gore, NC ECHO Project Manager [email_address]

What We’re Going to Cover Defining websites, web design, content management systems and digital asset management systems Website basics – HTML and beyond Planning a web presence for your digital project/program Digital Asset Management Systems – what are they, what do they cost, why are they important? Web 2.0 and beyond – thinking differently about the web we know

What’s a Website? A collection of web pages, images, videos and other digital assets hosted on a particular domain on the World Wide Web. As of March 2007, there are over 110 million websites on the WWW. Website is hosted on a computer system known as a web server or an HTTP server. These servers run software that retrieves and delivers web pages in response to requests by users. Apache and IIS are the 2 most common web server software packages.

URL Anatomy URL = uniform resource locator AKA web address http:// https:// ftp:// = protocol DNS (domain name server) = www.ncecho.org

Website Basics Language of the web is largely HTML (hypertext markup language) - HTML is a defined set of tags i.e. <b>, <p>, <li></li> - HTML is a subset of SGML (standard generalized markup language) - SGML is the parent and HTML the child

Standard HTML Tags <html></html> <head></head> <body></body> <bgcolor> <font></font> <table></table> <tr> <td> <center> <align> <li>

Example of a Standard Static HTML Page State Library of North Carolina View the source in your browser window Do you see some of the tags referred to on the previous slide?

Dynamic Web Design HTML is often referred to as “static” Many websites are “dynamic” or database-driven There are 2 ways of delivering content dynamically – server-side or client-side scripting often called “includes”

Server-side a web server, running special software, constructs an HTML page on the fly according to a user’s request Examples of scripting languages include: ASP ASP.NET PHP JSP Cold Fusion (CFM) Ruby

Client-side Client-side scripting works in the user’s browser. It is more suited for decoration or ephermeral content because of browser dependence Most often achieved through Javascript Client-side DHTML can pose major problems for web accessibility and are normally not recommended unless alternative navigation is provided

Style Websites often have CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) to define their look, feel and position CSS is a simple mechanism for defining fonts, colors, spacing, etc. for your website CSS is often used to control and standardize a website for a consistent look and feel

CSS Example p {font-family: “Garamond”, serif; } h2 {font-size: 110%; color: red; background: white;} This is a simple CSS that defines the paragraph and h2 (level 2) heading elements. The paragraph will be rendered in Garamond font if available. If not, it will be rendered in another serif font. The level 2 heading will be rendered at 110% in red on a white background.

Transforming a website w/ CSS Example: http://www.csszengarden.com With the widespread use of CSS, the need use of <table> for layout purposes is much less

Hosting options Purchase, install and maintain your own web server Pay a hosting service to host your website on their web server Many services from $5/month+ depending on size of the website and the amount of website traffic

Purchasing Your Domain Use a domain name locator service Give it a try: http://www.register.com Does someone own the address you are interested in purchasing? Look up the WHOIS data to find out who owns the address you are interested in.

Already Own a Domain? If your library or museum already has a web presence, you could possibly start building your digital collections as part of that domain You may also want to create a subdomain on that server for your collections Subdomain example: http://digital.lib.ecu.edu/ Original Domain: http://www.lib.ecu.edu/ Subdomain vs. Folder: digital.lib.ecu.edu VS www.lib.ecu.edu/digital A subdomain allows for unique identity

Planning a Web Presence for Your Digital Project Web pages with metadata vs. Digital Asset Management Systems How web pages and DAMS work together ( UNC DeBry ) Your web presence is the way the world sees all the work you have put into your digital project What do you want to convey? Who is your audience?

Digital Asset Management Systems or Repositories Digital asset management systems are computer software and hardware systems that aid in ingesting, annotating, describing, storing and retrieving digital assets, such as digital photographs, videos, music, or text.

“Off the Shelf”, Open Source Custom or Build Your Own Pros and Cons for Each Consider: Time Staff Expertise Technical Infrastructure (or lack) Needs of your organization and user population

“Off the Shelf” “ Off the Shelf” Example*: ContentDM (OCLC) DigiTool (Ex Libris) - FSU Digital Collections Luna Insight (David Rumsey) - David Rumsey Map Collection DLXS (Michigan) - Michigan Museum of Modern Art Content webpages link to digital objects housed in the DAMS Takes expertise to customize and may still not meet your needs, as it is not designed for just your needs Customer support and maintanence Pricing starting at as little as $1,000 to more than $50,000 *NC ECHO in NO way endorses these products. These are common products used in digital libraries throughout the country that are being used here as examples only.

Open Source DAMS Open Source Custom Examples: Fedora (Cornell) - Tufts DSpace (MIT) - UMD Greenstone - Auburn MDID (JMU) - JMU Free (at least for the software) Community support instead of technical support Much development and customization is often necessary Often requires a large amount of time, resources and expertise to implement Often results in a customized, institution-specific solution if time, resources and expertise are available

Build Your Own Two Examples in NC: DocSouth – SQL/PHP custom-built solution East Carolina’s ENCore – ASP.NET/C# custom-built solution

Likely Options for digital project/program websites 1)Content webpages with thumbnails and larger access images/VR and appropriate metadata 2)Content webpages linking to a digital asset management system, where digital object and metadata are housed

Examples From Option #1 History of Forestry Project @ NCSU Photograph Collection from the Heritage Room, Monroe, NC (Union Cty PL) Meredith College Dolls

Examples from Option #2 Horace Kephart: Revealing an Enigma (WCU) Tobacco Bag Stringing (UNC) Green ’N’ Growing (NCSU)

Principles of Good Design No matter how you choose to go about building your web presence, good design principles are essential Consider your main audience and then the general public (if it is on the web, it’s open to the world) What do you want your site to convey?

Principles of Good Design Not only LOOKS good, but WORKS good Consistent Navigation – don’t make it confusing for your users Easy to Find Contact Information Metadata About Digital Objects and Collections (on-screen and embedded) Browser Independence Clarity Legible Fonts

Accessibility Section 508 defines guidelines for website accessibility for persons with disabilities Graphics and multimedia must have descriptive text labels Information conveyed by color must be available when color is missing Frames must have titles – Try to avoid when possible Provide alternatives to client-side javascripting or applet functions that can be used by assistive technologies

Bobby Think of a URL you want to test for accessibility or use one of the sites we have looked at today Type that URL in to Bobby to check compliance: http://webxact.watchfire.com How would you fix the problems if any are found?

Web 2.0 – Food For Thought Perceived as second-generation of web-based communities and hosted services – such as social networking sites (i.e. blogs ), wikis and folksonomies/ tag clouds – that facilitate collaboration and sharing between users.* Changing user expectations – are we meeting those expectations? How will this change the way we build digital projects/programs? *Wikipedia.com

Web and DAMS - NC ECHO Dig Institute

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