2019 Pacific Northwest Library Association Conference

Bring your laptop to build your own digital collection during this session.

CollectionBuilder is an open source project for building library digital collection and exhibit websites driven by metadata and hosted on lightweight infrastructure. After providing well-structured metadata and a directory of digital files, CollectionBuilder utilizes Jekyll static web generator to create a website for visualizing, browsing, and accessing the collection. Developed by the University of Idaho Library to provide a viable alternative to bloated infrastructure systems, CollectionBuilder is “Librar* Optimized,” enabling librarians to take greater ownership over their projects and lowering barriers to development.
This workshop will introduce the three main use cases of CollectionBuilder:
1) the creation of stand-alone library digital collections and exhibits
2) the creation of “skins” to apply on top of the data/metadata from current digital collection management systems such as CONTENTdm
3) a pedagogical tool for learning about digital libraries concepts, web skills, and digital literacy via hands-on, project-based learning
To demonstrate the project, the workshop will walk through creating a new website using CollectionBuilder-GH, a version designed for learning experiences with simple deployment on GitHub Pages free hosting service. This project provides a depth of learning opportunities and development possibilities, lowering barriers for users to make their work open to the world. Participants will be introduced to the development tools and workflows used in the project, and learn about how to use the tool in their own teaching or to create new exhibits.

Understand the CollectionBuilder project and use cases, in particular for hands on teaching about digital library foundations.
Learn the basics of working with plain text files, CSV data, Markdown, and Jekyll projects.
Learn the basics of Git, GitHub, and GitHub Pages to deploy a new website.