Digital collections managers in my position often make the case for digitizing materials like maps, newspapers, architectural drawings, and detailed images by highlighting that digitization is not only a great way to make the items globally accessible online, but it is also one way to actually transform the usage of the item.
What makes a digitized image transformative is the enhanced way that users can zoom into details that may not be easily seen with the naked eye, but become visible through high resolution images and the ability to zoom into small details of the image.
CONTENTdm users have had this ability for some time for JPEG2000 images / high resolutions JPEG's in their collections. The problem is that getting into the details requires enough clicking to cause carpal tunnel syndrome. This repeated clicking turns off all but the most determined users. Until now....
Recently, the Libraries' Web and Multimedia Designer has been working to improve the viewing experience for our users and has developed an open source application called dmMonocle to share with the CONTENTdm community.
It was only announced this week and already several libraries have implemented the code for their collections.
Download the code from Google Code and access screencasts to help get it installed and running on your collections.
Read more about web projects at UNLV at the Webbin Rebels blog
The digital collections team encourages your feedback, comments and suggestions. Please let us know what you think!
Leave a comment