What are you using to build a CollectionBuilder site?

CollectionBuilder uses 4 main components:

1. Jekyll - a static website builder (i.e. NO SERVERS!!!) that builds websites from data files using the Liquid templating language (which you don’t need to know, but which is easily readable and usable) and Markdown files for content
2. Git/GitHub - a way to collaborate, track changes, and import pre-built services
3. Bootstrap - a CSS/Javascript Package for easier development
4. Data Files - We use Comma Separated Values (CSV) files that are just simple version of a spreadsheet and text files written in YAML (.yml), which are basically lists formatted in a specific fashion.

What are you using to build the visualizations and display features?

Our visualizations and features are built using a combination of our own designs with a variety of open source libraries (all of which are contained within each repository to promote site sustainability). All code is available for customization.

The open source libraries include:

• DataTables - for an automatically generated Table on our data pages.
• Leaflet js - for our maps.
• Spotlight gallery - for images on our item pages.
• TimelineJS - for an optional timeline visualization.
• lazysizes - for efficient image loading.
• Lunr.js - for client-side search.

What is your Design Philosophy?

Well, I don’t know if we’d call it a philosophy …

CollectionBuilder builds digital collection and exhibit sites that encourage investigation and discovery. Our item and visualization pages are built with connections between them so that a user can follow their own interests when exploring a digital collection.

Our intention is to embed users in the contents and context of a collection in order for them to experience the accretive magic of the “special collections” that archivists and librarians have labored for years to preserve and make accessible.

How does that work in practice?

For example, if a user were interested in seeing all the images in our Barnard Stockbridge Photography Collection pertaining to the 1910 “Big Burn” forest fire, they could browse the collection by searching for “fire” on the browse page.

An illustrative diagram of the ways collection items are connected to the larger context of the digital collections in which they are presented

Then, when looking at individual item pages, they could link out to the year 1910 on the timeline page and see the wide variety of images collected during that year by the studio.

And perhaps that would lead them to investigate some other subject terms or to focus on a particular town via the map.

As one examines these collections more closely, one can get a larger sense of the collection and the era, as well as its connection to one’s own area and time frame.

In short: CollectionBuilder rewards high quality metadata and description by allowing users to interactively explore it.

What is your methodology?

We call the methodology we use to build CollectionBuilder Lib-Static.

Do you really need a “methodology”?

Not really. No. But as we built CollectionBuilder and other static tools like Oral History as Data, we noticed that our approach was increasingly divergent from most academic library web development practice. Basically, we brainstormed some principles we were following, thought of a catchy name, and Lib-Static was born.

So what is Lib-Static?

Lib-Static argues that the systems libraries have been locked into, particularly concerning digital collections, serve neither the librarians/GLAM professionals that maintain them and prepare their content nor the collections we are trying to promote using them.

CollectionBuilder, like other Lib-Static frameworks and projects, prioritizes pragmatic, sustainable, and simplified approaches to web development infrastructure, with a focus on leveraging the particular skills of digital knowledge workers in libraries and museums, empowering them to take control of their web systems.

I’m interested. How can I get involved?

If you, or some institution you know, might be interested in adopting this tool more seriously, we can help. Please get in touch and help us guide the future of CollectionBuilder.

• Feedback! - If you have thoughts on the documentation, tool, visualizations, user interactions, or any other features in the tool, please please please provide us with feedback. Our intention in doing workshops and presentations is to gather feedback on the tool so that CollectionBuilder can continue to grow, becoming more useable and useful.
• Ask Questions - Get in contact on the CollectionBuilder GitHub Discussion Forum to ask any technical questions or bring up issues you encounter.
• Contribute - If you take to the static web development model and would like to provide contributions of your own to our tool, we would LOVE to work with you and incorporate any contributions you might make. We have a project code of conduct and Contributing doc with tips and conventions.

Our highest hope for this project is to enable a small army of librarians to develop the type of tools and sites that keep the GLAM professionals in control and not subservient to bloated infrastructures and/or third-party contracts. We hope you will feel drawn to help us build that community.

Where is your support coming from?

CollectionBuilder receives ongoing support in the form of staff support, development time, and funding from the University of Idaho Library.

We are currently supported by a National Leadership Grants for Libraries from the Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS), titled “Growing CollectionBuilder, A Sustainable Digital Exhibit Framework and Static Web Development Model”, 2022 - 2024.

We are also currently working with colleagues from the University of Oregon on a Digital Humanities Advancement grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) to develop digital humanities instructional modules for static web based projects and learning outcomes. More can be found about our NEH project via it’s GitHub Organization, Learn-Static.

From 2019 to 2021, we were supported by a National Leadership Grants for Libraries from the Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS) that helped us to build, document, and promote CollectionBuilder.

See a condensed version of our final report below for more details.

How are others using CollectionBuilder?

CollectionBuilder sites continue to proliferate around the world. Below is a list of sites we’ve noticed “in the wild.”

Where can I learn more?

We’ve presented and written a lot about CollectionBuilder. Below is a list of our publications, workshops, and presentations.

Who Runs This Ship?

Core team:

Olivia Wikle

Communications Director
Digital Initiatives Librarian, University of Idaho Library

Evan Williamson

Technical Director
Head, Digital Scholarship and Open Strategies, University of Idaho Library

Devin Becker

Project Director
Associate Dean for Research & Instruction, University of Idaho Library

Julia Stone

Community Liaison
Digital Scholarship Librarian, University of Idaho Library

Collaborators:

• Jylisa Doney, Social Sciences Librarian, University of Idaho
• Marco Seiferle Valencia, Open Education Librarian, University of Idaho
• Derek Enos, Developer

Advisors:

• Kim Christen, Washington State University
• Alex Merrill, Washington State University
• Alex Gil, Columbia University
• Marii Nyrop, New York University
• Laura Bucholtz, Reed College
• Ammon Shepherd, University of Virginia

Former Graduate Assistants:

• Chelsea Codling, MA Archaeology ‘20, University of Idaho
• Michael Decker, MA English ‘21, University of Idaho

Partners

• North Carolina Digital Collections (State Library of North Carolina and State Archives of North Carolina)
• New College Digital Collections (New College of Florida)
• Latah County Historical Society
• US Latino Digital Humanities (USLDH)

Contact & Help

Our documentation contains detailed walk through information for starting CollectionBuilder projects and our Tutorials page provides our latest videos – but we want your questions!

CollectionBuilder is building a learning community, so one of the best ways to get help, and help others in the process, is to ask questions on the CollectionBuilder Discussion Forum. Always provide a link to your repository as it makes understanding and debugging the issue much easier!

How To Get in Touch

Have questions, comments, or concerns for CollectionBuilder developers? You’re welcome to contact any or all of us:

• CollectionBuilder Discussion Forum (informal space to ask questions, provide feedback, debug, share and connect!)
• Evan Williamson (ewilliamson@uidaho.edu)
• Devin Becker (dbecker@uidaho.edu)
• Olivia Wikle (omwikle@uidaho.edu)

Other Resources

• Contributing (tips and conventions)
• Project Code of Conduct