CONTENTdm vs. MediaValet

CONTENTdm is well-suited for smaller organizations as a simple solution to present a digital collection on the web. If your need is complex and requires digital preservation as part of the workflow, it may not be the best solution.

Incentivized

MediaValet is an exceptional tool for our end users. We upload the images and they find them. Most often with great ease. Had we known how many images we would be adding, and our different audiences from the start, we might have set up our file structure a little differently.

Incentivized

• Constant URLs
• User interface is good
• Run by OCLC, not likely to disappear

Incentivized

• I love that we can add keywords. It makes finding assets very easy.
• I love the fact we can make lightboxes. It makes sending assets to different people easy.
• They are always adding more features to MediaValet to make it better.
• I love that we're not limited to which types of files we can upload to MediaValet.

Incentivized

• As a digital asset management system, one would expect the capability of managing preservation, which CONTENTdm lacks.
• Lack of batch updating and other advanced metadata management capabilities.
• The usage statistics does not work, and the company is not planning to fix it, at least based the interaction with tech support staff. Customers were referred to use Google Analytics.

Incentivized

• More flexibility/features when using Lightboxes
• Replace an old version of an asset with a newer one without having to check-out, then check-in
• Sharing an asset or a set of assets via a share link -- would be great to generate shorter, dynamic URLs for sharing as opposed to the longer string URLs it currently generates

Incentivized

It is not only likely, but we have been doing it for more than 6 years. We have even had the service since before I joined the company. The service works well for me and I hope that this service will continue to be renewed next year, as not having it would make my job more complicated.

Incentivized

New staff is able to use our DAM with an hour of training.

The team is very responsive to requests and makes a point to provide feedback or status updates before confirming solutions.

Incentivized

I mainly use MediValet to send special medical images to our partners. Collaboration with other companies is very simplified through MediaValet. The qualitatively uploaded images can be excactly assigned and organised through various filters. It is much clearer and easier for our partners to understand when the images have been accurately labelled and assigned beforehand.

Incentivized

We selected CONTENTdm because it had a good reputation, was used by many institutions, provided a good product, and supplied feedback and monthly reports. We are wondering about DPLA and if that will be the next evolution or platform.

Incentivized

Asset sharing and organization is better, more user friendly, and more appealing within MediaValet. The layout and flexibility give these portals a much more professional look and feel. Both internally and externally we have appreciated the output of these specific portals much more than what we had been attempting to share with these other programs.

Incentivized

• It helped us to get started with our digital collections projects at a relatively low cost.
• As our needs grew, it became apparent that we needed something more powerful, and that provides better workflows and better statistics and is able to handle the whole life cycle of digitation projects.

Incentivized

• While we have had MediaValet only for a short period, we are already seeing improvements in how quickly certain projects can be completed.
• I recently created an Annual Report which had a lot of big image files and data tables and using a Lightbox with our design agency to share these files saved us a huge amount of time.
• As we roll out MediaValet to the teams, staff are becoming more aware of the quality, amount, and value of our best assets.

Incentivized