UC Davis Digital Collections

The number of collections has increased significantly

When the system was originally launched in 2017, there were only 3 collections included in the Digital Collections. Now there are 20. The current site uses a dropdown to select collections for browsing and incorporates information about the collection into the sidebar, allowing you to toggle between search filters and collection information. The number of items in the dropdown is now too many, creating a subpar user experience.

To resolve this, the upcoming new design makes collections their own experience, with dedicated collection pages that better highlight the visual nature of collections and makes collection background and metadata easier and more pleasing to explore. The planned layout considers both the casual browser and the serious researcher.

Sometimes you just want browse

The current Digital Collections site is very search driven. Users have expressed a desire to also be able to browse lists of key content information: collections, creators, subjects, and formats. I am planning to pull these out into their own pages, including sorting options.

More specific searching

Some collection items are multi-page and text based. Researchers sometimes want to be able to search within a specific item for specific information. Currently, Digital Collections primarily displays image-based versions of the items that do not allow for in-depth searching of OCRed materials. We are exploring PDF-based item display to help address this issue, among other possibilities.

Better metadata = better search results

There is only so much I can do in this regard since I do not directly manage collection metadata, but I am encouraging our librarians to provide more in-depth metadata to improve the results of the system. We also want to make better use of some existing metadata that is not being handled as well as it could be within the Digital Collections system.

Cleaner, more modern experience

Five years later, the current site feels a bit dated and reflects the old UC Davis brand. The new version will be more colorful, less boxy, and lean heavily into the watercolor aesthetic of the current UC Davis brand.