Latest news from the Revs Institute...Revs Institute Content to Move to New Platform
Stanford, CA - August 31, 2017 -- This message is sent on behalf of The Revs Institute (Revs) to users registered with the Revs Digital Library (RDL) -
http://revslib.stanford.edu. It is to inform you of a major change taking place in The Revs Institute Library. In 2017, Revs undertook an extensive internal review of all its financial, physical, staffing, and technical resources for all its operations.
Following that review, Revs decided to move its content currently hosted in the Revs Digital Library (RDL) from Stanford University to a new platform called CONTENTdm (CDM).
Background: In 2012, The Revs Institute decided to make its images available through a mass digitization project with an ambitious goal to add about 100,000 images per year to a digital library. The Stanford University Libraries hosted the Revs Digital Library on its systems. The Stanford team spent about a year building a complete infrastructure and workflow, and was instrumental in training and advising Revs Library staff in Naples on proper metadata protocols, adoption of standards, and vetting a third-party digital contractor. Everyone at Revs thanks the Stanford University Library (SUL) team for all their work in establishing the RDL, their support, collegiality, and collaboration.
Moving Forward: The new platform is hosted by OCLC, a non–profit consortium with 17,000 member libraries in 120 countries. The name Revs Digital Library will remain, and the current Stanford Library site will be renamed. CDM will make Revs images available to a wider audience, build a storefront, directly connect to the Library’s catalog, and reduce labor and server costs. The new platform will include audio, posters, text, and video, as well as images.
Where to Find the New Revs Digital Library: The new Revs Digital Library will become active in November 2017. The existing RDL at Stanford will remain active and accessible until CDM is fully functional. Once the new RDL is available, the images at Stanford will no longer be accessible, but the Stanford webpages will direct you to the new RDL. Information on the specific date the new RDL is live will be posted on both the Stanford and new RDL websites.
Changes for Users: Current users of the RDL need to be aware of two significant changes due to user accounts. The accounts were made through Stanford University, and for privacy and security reasons, the user accounts cannot be imported into the new RDL. Your accounts on the Stanford website will remain unchanged and can still be used with the Road and Track archive (which remains at Stanford).
The second important change concerns user galleries. Because these were made by establishing user accounts with Stanford, these cannot be imported into the new RDL. Users should keep track of the Image ID for each image (such as 2010-030BRES-1972-b1_14.0_0008) to find them in the new RDL. The weblink (starting with
https://purl.stanford.edu) will not work on the new RDL. User galleries will be available until Stanford turns off the existing site. No special gallery features will be on the new RDL, but the platform will support many social media features, enhancing your use and sharing of watermarked images from the collections. We apologize for any inconvenience to those who’ve had their own user galleries, but the use of social media tools means you can share your images and interests more easily with others.
Flagging and Editing: Stanford will turn off the flagging feature and metadata editing on September 5 so the migration of data can begin. Unresolved flags will not be lost during the migration, and will be exported from the current system and reviewed on an ongoing basis. We do not have a specific timeline as to when they will be finished, but we will continue to work on the remaining flags. The priority in the new Revs Digital Library is to make the collections available as soon as possible and verify a smooth transition, and Revs will post information on when flagging can recommence. We will continue to need your support and very much want to thank all who have helped make the RDL what it is today through your generous contributions. We look forward to the next phase of our digital library and to creating an even better website and searchable archive.
Exciting Changes: Watch for amazing new collections on the RDL as well as stunning video, audio, posters, and text. For example, you will see clips of the rarest racing footage available at Revs. Each image will be watermarked and you can connect to your favorites pages and images using a large variety of social media services, such as Facebook, Pinterest, Tumblr, and many more. In addition, the new RDL will make it easier to buy images if you like, and coming soon, you’ll even be able to purchase not just digital images, but prints, canvas art, and many more products. The new RDL will also be linked into the new Revs library catalog, where you will quickly and easily be able to search for books, artifacts, and much, much more
The new Digital Library will make our unprecedented and amazing image archive even better. Please watch for further emails as we get closer to November and the unveiling of the new Revs Digital Library.
For questions about the upcoming new website, please contact The Revs Institute:
https://revsinstitute.org/
