We recently launched a responsive web design for RJ Haney museum in Salmon Arm. This is a great place to visit if you are in the BC interior and makes a great stop if you are driving Highway 1 to or from Calgary. As they say, there are "So many things to do and see!" This site makes great use of the SiteCM Directory Component for a searchable database of their archives which is what I want to highlight here.
What is SiteCM Directory?
Directory is essentially a flexible database managed through SiteCM that can be configured in an almost unlimited number of ways. As a component of SiteCM CMS it comes with the same support, training, reliability, and security that our customers have come to expect. Our clients have used Directory for all sorts of things including Recipes, Document Libraries, and even custom extranets.
Photo Web Archives
What I like about the solution on the Salmon Arm Museum web site is that it provides a simple solution for a common issue with smaller museums and institutions that have archives they want to share on a limited budget.
Photos are loaded into the directory and labelled with several fields:
- Descriptive Title
- Approximate Date
- Unique Catalog Number
- Photographer
- Description
All images are searchable or visitors can grab using a navigation generated based on the classification of the image.
The great thing about this is that it is scalable depending on your institutions budget and time. Getting the system started like this is relatively inexpensive. It can be enhanced in the future in many ways.
- add meta-data: a summer student (grants!) could tag the images providing better usability and more ways for users to find the images they want.
- advanced search: RJ Haney uses a simple text search in addition to the major classifications, but once there was meta-data added it could be enhanced to search on meta-tags, photographer, date or date range and whatever else you choose to tag.
- e-commerce: Photos can be requested with a simple email link on this site and payments are processed over the phone but this could also be connected to PayPal or other gateways for ease of ordering.
Contact us to find out more about SiteCM CMS and our Directory Component
Visit www.salmonarmmuseum.org
Tags: museum, salmon arm, archive, directory, cms, website, bc, web design, responsive