CollectionBuilder templates — CSV, Sheets, GH — all do the same fundamental thing: give you a foundation for building a digital collection. A Built On takes that same metadata-driven, static web infrastructure and applies it to a different kind of project.

Under the hood, Built Ons are all built on CollectionBuilder-CSV. That means they share the same infrastructure, benefit from upstream CollectionBuilder updates, and feel familiar if you've worked with CB before — but each one has its own features, folder structure, and workflow designed around a specific project type.

CB-Essay grew out of multimodal thesis projects at CDIL. Oral History as Data (OHD) has been around since 2018 and has powered projects like Voices of Gay Rodeo. A third Built On, Digital Dramaturgy, is currently in development.

Like all CollectionBuilder projects, Built Ons are free, open source, and fully yours to customize. Read our announcement post to learn more about how Built Ons came to be.