The Dutch Haarlem public library, the Maastricht public library and Tresoar in Leeuwarden have decided to jointly acquire CONTENTdm software. With this package they can publish and manage digital collections online. The three institutes will use CONTENTdm to make heritage collections better accessible on the Internet.
The three regional academic support libraries will jointly use one license to publish their heritage collections online. Tresoar will act as hosting organisation for all three.
The libraries jointly closed a license agreement under which each can separately present its digital collection. This is one of the possibilities of CONTENTdm software. The libraries can offer all kinds of digital materials, photographs, audio files, streaming video, drawings, manuscripts and digitised books in one format. In addition to directly publishing and managing on the Internet they can also offer their digital collection through their local catalogue or national catalogues such as the Dutch National Catalogue NCC and PiCarta.
The Haarlem public library, the Maastricht public library and Tresoar in Leeuwarden opted for this package because it meets their needs and also matches the existing infrastructure of the institutions. Closing a consortium agreement enabled them to purchase the software and makes it possible to centrally organise its administration.
CONTENTdm was developed by Digital Media Management (DiMeMa, recently acquired by OCLC) in close cooperation with the University of Washington in Seattle. In Europe OCLC PICA is the distributor of this software.
Other organisations using CONTENTdm are the Veenendaal City Archives, Kings College in London and many organisations in the USA, see www.dimema.com.
