Presenter: Elias Tzoc, Miami University of Ohio

Given the constant changes and improvements in web usability, digital collection websites often need new options for enhancing the user experience and increasing the discoverability of unique and special collections.

This presentation will focus on four examples that can help users search, browse, and share CONTENTdm digital collections:

1. AutoSuggest, a feature that suggests possible search results as users start typing.
2. TagCloud, a quick browsing option for popular items or subject terms in a given collection.
3. A-Z List, an alphabetical list of words/phrases that can work as a collection index.
4. Share-It, a copy/paste option for embedding images in blogs or websites.

This session will demonstrate the overall workflow for:

• Exporting/editing custom CONTENTdm metadata
• Using a free web-tutorial to create any (all) of the four examples
• Adding examples to existing CONTENTdm collections
• Editing selected CONTENTdm pages, e.g., global_menu.php and pan_view.php

A first phase of this work was presented at the MidWest CONTENTdm regional conference in 2009 and participants provided positive feedback. Best of all, these features can work for either version 4.3 or 5.