Banana Slug (Summer 2014) Release Notes

1. Digital asset management system (DAMS) "open for business"

As of this release, the Nuxeo DAMS is now available for the UC Libraries to use for creating and managing digital objects. The most essential requirements for uploading files, creating and editing metadata, and building and managing digital objects have been met. We have additionally tailored the user interface to support UC Libraries workflows.

We have prepared a user guide to support the use of the DAMS. The guide includes a set of walkthroughs for this release that will help UC Libraries staff familiarize themselves with the DAMS model and get a feel for the interface. We request that libraries ready to move beyond testing and build new digital collections in the DAMS contact us before getting started.

Both the DAMS and the user guide will continue to evolve in subsequent releases as we add new features (most notably, mechanisms for "publishing" objects to the public interface and sending them for preservation in Merritt).

Quick links:

• Nuxeo DAMS
• Request an account
• DAMS user guide

Watch a video about the DAMS:

2. Twelve more existing collections loaded into the DAMS

One of the objectives of the UCLDC project is to "seed" the DAMS with a selection of existing collections identified in the UCLDC planning phase. We have continued to make progress on this front. As of the date of this release, we have loaded collections from all six campuses that will be using the DAMS: Davis, Irvine, Merced, Riverside, San Francisco, and Santa Cruz. A "snapshot" list of the collections in the pipeline is available on the page "DAMS collections in process."

3. Public interface user experience design completed

During this release cycle, we made extensive progress on the user experience design for the public interface (the website where all publicly accessible UCLDC collections will be aggregated and exposed to end-users). We created a series of wireframes that lays out what users will be able to do and how they will navigate the site. Some of the more exciting and forward-looking features include:

• Responsive design, meaning the site will be optimized for desktop, mobile and tablet users
• Robust institution landing pages for campus libraries to showcase their digital collections
  
• Robust collection pages so users can browse and search all of the items in a given collection
• Filters for key facets (decade, institution, and collection) within search results
• A "carousel" of related content on every item's page, so users who arrive from external search engines can find more items of interest on the site
  

We also determined an overall direction that sets us up next to work on the sit's visual design (look and feel). We determined that the new site will take on the name and logo of Calisphere. The Calisphere brand has enjoyed great success and popularity among end users, and will continue to be an apt descriptor for the UCLDC. The new public interface will accordingly eventually replace the current Calisphere website, and all of the current content (both digital objects and curated collections, like JARDA) will continue to be accessible.

Sneak peek of the mobile design: