About Digital Grinnell

Digital Grinnell contributes to “free inquiry and the open exchange of ideas” through the preservation and publication of scholarship created by Grinnell College students, faculty, and staff, as well as selected material that illuminates the College’s history and other activities.

About Grinnell College Libraries

The 11 faculty librarians and 19 staff of the Grinnell College Libraries — Burling Library, the Kistle Science Library, and the Curriculum Library — are dedicated to helping Grinnell students, faculty, and staff succeed in learning, teaching, and research. Our services emphasize working closely with students to develop fluency in the use and evaluation of information sources as they conduct research and other intellectual investigations, through individualized research appointments, classroom instruction, and drop-in research assistance. Each academic department and concentration has a professional librarian assigned as its liaison, and we work closely with our campus colleagues to integrate writing, reading, data analysis, academic advising, and other services. The Libraries’ book, journal, data, and media collections — in analog and digital formats — are wide-ranging and intellectually challenging, representing multiple viewpoints, languages, and cultures, and we are part of a worldwide network of libraries that can bring you information from all parts of the globe. We offer a variety of spaces for quiet and collaborative study, practicing presentations, and relaxing, and we sponsor readings, lectures, and musical performances throughout the year. We’re also part of the Grinnell town community; residents are welcome to borrow from our collection, use our facilities, and enjoy our events.

As the world of information grows more complex — available in more formats, from more sources, with confusing questions about copyright and reliability — libraries are more central to learning than ever before. We look forward to working with you!

About CollectionBuilder CSV

This demo collection features items from the University of Idaho Library’s Digital Collections, and is build using CollectionBuilder-CSV.

CollectionBuilder-CSV is a “Stand Alone” template for creating digital collection and exhibit websites using Jekyll, given:

• a CSV of collection metadata
• a folder of images, PDFs, audio, or video files

Driven by your collection metadata, the template generates engaging visualizations to browse and explore your objects. The resulting static site can be hosted on any basic web server.

CollectionBuilder is an set of open source tools for creating digital collection and exhibit websites that are driven by metadata and powered by modern static web technology. See CB Docs for detailed information.

About the About Page

We want to make engaging interpretive pages easier to create, so CollectionBuilder gives you tools to write with your collection content!

The template comes with a customizable “About” page layout designed for long form content with rich media embeds. Content is written in Markdown and enhanced using “includes” that pull in collection content, external media, and Bootstrap features like cards and modals. We hope this makes it easier for site builders to develop the collection AND add interesting and engaging contextual information.

Each “include” file has several options, which are documented in the files themselves–copy the examples to see how it works with your content! In the demo below, we’ve given display widths of 25% and 50% to save space, but you can feature the entire image or document.

You can also see a page featuring a bonanza of feature includes options on our CollectionBuilder-GH demo site.

Feature *Includes* Bonanza page

Include Collection Items

The template provides includes to pull your collection objects and metadata into your interpretive page, allowing you to write with your materials directly embedded in the content.

Include an Image

• Image –> {% include feature/image.html objectid="demo_001" width="75" %}

Include a PDF

• PDF – > {% include feature/pdf.html objectid="demo_002" width="50" %}

Include a Video

• Video: {% include feature/video.html objectid="demo_004" %}

Include an Audio File

• Audio: {% include feature/audio.html objectid="demo_003" %}

Include Bootstrap Features

The template also provides includes to make it easier to add Bootstrap components to your Markdown writing. These features allow you to better organize and highlight your content.

Include a Card

• Card – > {% include feature/card.html header="This is a Card" text="The card features an image from the collection as a cap" objectid="demo004" width="25" centered=true %}

Include a Button

• Buttons – > {% include feature/button.html text="Button Link to Somewhere" link="https://collectionbuilder.github.io/" color="success" %}

Button Link to Somewhere

Include an Alert

• Alerts – > {% include feature/alert.html text="this is an *alert* that 'warns' a user" color="warning" align="center" %}

Include a Modal

• Modals – > {% include feature/modal.html button="This is a modal using a 'primary' colored button to invite clicking" title="when clicked:" text="A Modal will pop out a box with some more information" color="primary" %}

This is a modal using a 'primary' colored button to invite clicking