A project to generate a free and simple digital collection site using GitHub Pages given:

• a CSV of collection metadata
• a folder of JPEG images or PDF documents

Gather your digital objects together and create your metadata using the CollectionBuilder-GH Metadata Template. Then click the green "use this template" button above to create your repository, add your metadata and configure the repository to fit your collection and settings.

See Getting Started Docs for detailed information.

View the demo site.

Note: Since collectionbuilder-gh uses GitHub Pages, it is only suitable for small collections, with lower resolution images. GitHub repositories are limited to 1GB.

If you'd like to demo CollectionBuilder, we've made a step-through tutorial using the following spreadsheet and zipped directory. (The tutorial uses items from our Psychiana Digital Collection, which is worth a visit!)

Metadata is drawn from the following Google Sheet:

• Psychiana Digital Collection Metadata

Objects are collected in this zip file:

• Psychiana Digital Collection Media Files (Includes image files, pdfs, and mp3s)

These files are stored in this CollectionBuilder-gh Google Drive Folder, along with some other metadata sheets and zipped object directories that can be used for other workshops and demonstrations.

collectionbuilder-gh is intended as a simple template for hands-on teaching about digital libraries. It can be used in a workshop setting to take participants through digitization and metadata creation, to having a live collection site hosted on GitHub.

collectionbuilder-gh aims to be well documented and easy to configure by following the example, with the potential to scaffold learning of a multitude of transferable digital and data skills. A project in "minimal computing", it provides a depth of learning opportunities, allowing users to take complete ownership over the project and make their work open to the world.

Learn about:

• Git and GitHub basics
• Markdown, plaintext writing and content creation
• HTML, CSS, and JS literacy
• commandline literacy
• GitHub collaboration and project management
• Jekyll basics
• working in the Open, open source and open data
• digital libraries concepts such as "collections as data", minimal computing, data-driven design

We prefer commonly understood formats (such as CSV spreadsheets over YAML), and convention over configuration (follow the example over learn all the options).

• Jekyll for GitHub Pages
• Layout using Bootstrap 5
• Mapping using Leaflet.js
• Tables using DataTables
• Galleries using spotlight
• Simple lunr search
• Rich markup using Schema.org and Open Graph protocol standards

Check out the CollectionBuilder docs for how to get started, or visit the CollectionBuilder home for more information.

If you are interested in using CollectionBuilder, or are already using it, please drop us a line (libstatic.uidaho@gmail.com) since we would love to learn more about it's use in the wild. There are also currently opportunities to collaborate on CollectionBuilder.

CollectionBuilder documentation and general web content is licensed Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International. This license does NOT include any objects or images used in digital collections, which may have individually applied licenses described by a "rights" field. CollectionBuilder code is licensed MIT. This license does not include external dependencies included in the assets/lib directory, which are covered by their individual licenses.