CollectionBuilder-Sheets

a template for creating simple digital exhibits

CollectionBuilder-Sheets

a template for creating simple digital exhibits

About CollectionBuilder-Sheets

This site is generated using CollectionBuilder-Sheets, a template for creating simple digital exhibit websites by loading collection metadata directly from a CSV, designed for teaching digital library skills and easy hosting on GitHub Pages.

Using CB-Sheets, it is possible to use a live Google Sheets spreadsheet for your collection metadata, allowing you to see the outcome of metadata edits update immediately. This enables active collaboration to prototype collections with minimal set up.

Create your own Metadata

To create metadata compatible with this CollectionBuilder-Sheets instance the best way to get started is to make of copy of our template in Google Drive:

CollectionBuilder Metadata Template

Alternatively, you can download the template CSV and work on your local machine. We suggest editing your CSV using LibreOffice Calc, OpenRefine, or Google Sheets (and do not suggest using Excel, since Excel’s CSV output is not correctly formatted).

Describe your items in your copy of the template, following the Metadata Guidelines.

Once you have items added you can test your metadata by clicking the “Change the Metadata” button above.

Learn More

For full details of creating your own collection site, visit CollectionBuilder Documentation!

The template repository features four objects from the University of Idaho Library’s Digital Collections. Featured image by JJ Ying on Unsplash.

Technical Credits - CollectionBuilder

This digital collection is built with CollectionBuilder, an open source framework for creating digital collection and exhibit websites that is developed by faculty librarians at the University of Idaho Library following the Lib-Static methodology.

The site started from the CollectionBuilder-Sheets template which utilizes the static website generator Jekyll and GitHub Pages to build and host digital collections and exhibits.

More Information Available

Technical Specifications
IMLS Support

Welcome to CollectionBuilder-Sheets!

Using the options below you can select demo metadata to explore a pre-built collection, or load your own metadata from the web or your local computer. The configurations are temporarily stored in your browser's session storage, so will remain only until you close this window!

Select one of our example collections

Paste in the full url for a CSV hosted online, such as a published Google Sheet (see below for instructions!)

Select a CSV file from your computer

Metadata Tips

Set up your metadata carefully following the template guidelines. Be especially careful with column names in the first row–they need to exactly match the template, with no spaces and no extra white space at the end of the value. Records without an “objectid” will be skipped.

Note: no information is sent to the server, the metadata and configuration change is only on your computer.

How to Publish Your Google Sheet

In your Google Sheet, ensure that your metadata is the first sheet in the spreadsheet (by default named "Sheet1"). The tabs can be dragged to reorder if necessary.
Click “File”, “Share”, and select “Publish to the Web”.
On the popup modal, use the dropdowns in “Link” tab to select “Entire Document” and “Comma-separated values (.csv)” options, then click “Publish” button.
Copy the link that is provided.
In the "Use Metadata CSV Link" form above, paste the link and click "Submit".

For example, a published link looks like:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vSn7AA-cbsXT3_nNUGftc1ab-CKXOJHMQCIENeR9NHElbyI9_qA99o0-HNZdG04v-M2_N21bUe_krQQ/pub?output=csv

How to Download Your Google Sheet as CSV

On your Google Sheet, switch to the sheet tab that contains your metadata (by default "Sheet1").
Click “File”, “Download”, and select as "Comma Separated Values (.csv)”
The file should download to your computer’s Downloads folder
In the "Use Metadata CSV from your Computer" form above, click “Choose file” and navigate in your file explorer to select the downloaded CSV, then click "Submit".

Other Web CSV

If you have a CSV available anywhere on the web, you can use it by referencing the full URL. However, depending on where your CSV is hosted, you may encounter CORS errors.

For example, to use a CSV hosted in a GitHub repository, use the “raw” link:

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/CollectionBuilder/collectionbuilder-sample-data/main/psychiana_cbdemo_gh.csv

Paste the link into the "Use Metadata CSV Link" form above and click Submit.

To share your work with others, the default template can also load web CSV metadata specified as a parameter in the URL. Add your full metadata link to the end of the CB-Sheets instance’s URL as the “csv” option, like:

https://collectionbuilder.github.io/collectionbuilder-sheets/?csv=<your metadata url here>

For example:

https://collectionbuilder.github.io/collectionbuilder-sheets/?csv=https://raw.githubusercontent.com/CollectionBuilder/collectionbuilder-sample-data/main/psychiana_cbdemo_gh.csv

or

https://collectionbuilder.github.io/collectionbuilder-sheets/?csv=https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vSn7AA-cbsXT3_nNUGftc1ab-CKXOJHMQCIENeR9NHElbyI9_qA99o0-HNZdG04v-M2_N21bUe_krQQ/pub?output=csv

Note: the metadata URL can not have any & (i.e. additional query string parameters). Having a & in the URL will cause the parsing to fail.