CONTENTdm to Digital Commons: Considerations and Workflows

This case study details Seton Hall University (SHU) Libraries’ decision to end its subscription to CONTENTdm, the selection process for a replacement digital asset management system (Digital Commons), and the challenges and solutions associated with migration. It outlines workflows for migrating image collections from CONTENTdm to Digital Commons, which include the use of Python scripts to harvest and rename JPEG images from CONTENTdm via its API. This case study is useful for institutions that do not have access to master files or metadata for rebuilding collections and must therefore rely upon content stored in CONTENTdm as their only image sources.