Difference between revisions of "Collex"
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== What is Collex? == | == What is Collex? == | ||
| − | Collex is designed to be | + | COLLEX is an open-source COLLections- and EXhibits-builder designed to aid humanities scholars working in digital collections or within federated research environments like NINES. It is a Ruby-On-Rails application using SOLR for its main search functions and a MySQL database to manage user activity and accounts. |
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| + | Collex is designed to be a generalizable toolset targeted at humanities scholars working with large digital archives. Users of such resources are often stymied by the sheer quantity of information available to them in top-level tables of contents or sitemaps. They may also find established organizational schemes and interfaces to digital archives inappropriate to their research and teaching needs. | ||
Collex addresses these problems by allowing end-users of humanities archives: | Collex addresses these problems by allowing end-users of humanities archives: | ||
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* and, without any special technical training, to produce interlinked online and print "exhibits" using a set of design templates. | * and, without any special technical training, to produce interlinked online and print "exhibits" using a set of design templates. | ||
| − | By integrating Collex with existing, standards-compliant digital collections, archivists can enable the expression of alternate interpretive visions within an editorially organized electronic resource. An archive’s users become its curators, offering guided tours based on their own research and pedagogical interests. | + | By integrating Collex with existing, standards-compliant digital collections, archivists can enable the expression of alternate interpretive visions within an editorially organized electronic resource. An archive’s users become its curators, offering guided tours based on their own research and pedagogical interests. |
== System Design == | == System Design == | ||
Revision as of 19:10, 15 April 2013
What is Collex?
COLLEX is an open-source COLLections- and EXhibits-builder designed to aid humanities scholars working in digital collections or within federated research environments like NINES. It is a Ruby-On-Rails application using SOLR for its main search functions and a MySQL database to manage user activity and accounts.
Collex is designed to be a generalizable toolset targeted at humanities scholars working with large digital archives. Users of such resources are often stymied by the sheer quantity of information available to them in top-level tables of contents or sitemaps. They may also find established organizational schemes and interfaces to digital archives inappropriate to their research and teaching needs.
Collex addresses these problems by allowing end-users of humanities archives:
- to collect and annotate trusted objects (digital texts and images vetted for scholarly accuracy);
- to analyze, organize, and re-order collected objects into relevant subsets;
- to share their collections, in a variety of output formats, with students and colleagues;
- and, without any special technical training, to produce interlinked online and print "exhibits" using a set of design templates.
By integrating Collex with existing, standards-compliant digital collections, archivists can enable the expression of alternate interpretive visions within an editorially organized electronic resource. An archive’s users become its curators, offering guided tours based on their own research and pedagogical interests.
System Design
Users collect "objects" from digital archives into a Collex system. Exhibits of collected objects are built using the Collex interface. Published exhibits display from the Collex system. Users communicate with each other using discussion forums and by tagging objects.
Interface Design
The Collex user interface consists of:
- a faceted search engine for peer-reviewed resources
- social features: tags, discussion forums
- personal organization features: collect objects, annotation
- personal publishing system: exhibit builder
Demo Milestones
- NINES workshop - July 11-15, 2005
- NINES advisory board meeting - September 2005
- meeting of NINES pilot contributors - June 2006
- NASSR/NAVSA conference - September 2006
- MLA conference - December 2006
