Twenty-seven libraries throughout Australia and New Zealand are part of the more than 2,500 libraries, archives, museums and other cultural heritage institutions around the world using OCLC’s CONTENTdm Digital Collection Management Software to manage their digital collections and make them available on the Web. Of the 27 libraries, 25 are part of the CONTENTdm software “quick start” program, which makes each Te Puna member, Amlib, VDX or OCLC WorldShare Management Services user eligible for its own CONTENTdm license hosted in the OCLC Sydney Data Center at no additional cost.

OCLC recently launched CONTENTdm hosting services for Australia/New Zealand, which enables libraries in the region to have their CONTENTdm collections hosted in the Sydney Data Center. Using the Sydney Data Center, these libraries can realize faster response times and better performance. In the past few years, more libraries have switched to CONTENTdm hosting services for operational support rather than allocating their own staff and hardware to run the software on their own servers.

CONTENTdm software makes it possible for libraries to make their digital collections available online quickly for viewing by the public. No matter the format—local history archives, newspapers, books, maps, slide libraries or audio/video—the digital collections are made available to all. One-of-a-kind documents are exposed to broader audiences and can be discovered using standard Web browsers.

For the Hornsby Shire Library in New South Wales, CONTENTdm “quick start” has allowed for copies of the famous Ginger Meggs cartoon series to be made available for online public viewing. Hosted on servers in the nearby OCLC Sydney Data Center, these unique materials are now reaching a global audience.

“CONTENTdm is a great informational tool,” said Neil Chippendale, Local Studies Coordinator, Hornsby Shire Council. “It has given an opportunity to highlight our diverse collection and spread the information to a wider community.”

In Western Australia, the City of Armadale has made hundreds of historical images accessible online through its customized CONTENTdm website, Picture Armadale. Picture Armadale allows patrons to discover events and to glimpse the faces of those who shaped the City of Armadale and the townships within. One such collection is the Armadale Womens Emergency Corps (AWEC). More than 50 female volunteers were involved in AWEC and trained to perform various support roles during World War II.

“Our Picture Armadale site was simple to build and customize and does everything we need it to do,” said Jeff Walker, Digital Services Librarian, City of Armadale. “It’s allowed people interstate and overseas to access the collection instantly. We find CONTENTdm to be versatile and detailed enough to accommodate everything the library needs regarding metadata, while being suitable for our volunteers to use.”

CONTENTdm is also enabling school libraries, such as Wesley College, in Melbourne, Victoria, to make archive collections searchable for current and past students. Wesley College’s class yearbooks from 1877 through today are available for digital viewing, for example.

In addition to hosting CONTENTdm services, more than a dozen libraries are operating OCLC WorldShare Management Services from the OCLC Sydney Data Center. The Sydney Data Center employs state-of-the-art technologies to ensure high levels of performance, reliability, scalability and cost-effectiveness. Key facilities features include high performance Internet services with multiple service providers to ensure efficient routing, fully redundant heating and cooling systems, continuous power from multiple sources, and best of breed security controls and practices.

The Data Center also enables OCLC to comply with access and data privacy requirements in Australia and New Zealand and adhere to technical standards that promote the cost-effective, worldwide sharing of information across platforms, scripts, languages and cultural materials.

More information about CONTENTdm is available on the OCLC website at www.oclc.org.