Version 2.1 is a legacy release, and these documents are no longer being maintained.

Upload digital objects

Digital objects objects are computer files that can be uploaded into and displayed by AtoM; they can include scanned images, digital photographs, sound and moving image files, and other scanned or born-digital items. AtoM allows the user to link a single digital object to an archival description, or import multiple digital objects to new lower levels of description. Every digital object must be associated with an archival description, typically at the file or item level (see level of description).

For every object uploaded, AtoM creates two derivative objects from the master, a thumbnail image and a reference display copy of the object. The master digital object is the unaltered version of a digital object that has been uploaded to AtoM. Note that only authenticated (i.e. logged-in) users may view master digital objects by default (though this can be changed by editing the permissions of unauthenticated users - for more information, see: Edit permissions).

A image of the carousel in AtoM

At higher levels of description, the view page of a parent record will include thumbnails of all digital objects registered at lower levels. The thumbnails are displayed using a carousel viewer so you can easily scroll through the set using your mouse or keyboard’s arrow keys. Clicking on a thumbnail will redirect you to the view page for the description associated with that digital object. If more than 10 digital objects appear at lower levels, AtoM will display the first 10 in the carousel and provide a link to a digital object browse page to explore the rest if desired. For more information, see the Carousel entry in Navigation in AtoM.

See below for more information on:

Upload multiple digital objects

In AtoM, there is a 1:1 relationship between archival descriptions and digital objects - that is, only one digital object may be associated with an archival description, and all digital objects require an associated description. However, to enable a rapid workflow where users can upload multiple digital objects without first having to create associated descriptions, AtoM includes an option to upload multiple digital objects at once, as children of a selected archival description. Users can choose what level of description is used when the placeholder descriptions are created; a title can also be added to each uploaded digital object, which will then be used as the title for the related description.

A image of the upload multiple images edit page

To upload multiple digital objects in AtoM:

  1. Navigate to the view page of an existing archival description in AtoM. You can do this by browsing or by searching for a specific archival description - see Access content for more information on navigation in AtoM.
  2. Click on the “More” button in the button block; from the menu that appears, select “Import digital objects”.
  3. Select a title for the objects - this will be used as the title for the associated archival description that will be created for each object uploaded. Each object will also have its own title field once selected, but if you do not wish to individually name each object, an automated title can be added to all objects using the title field at the top of the upload page. Currently the default is image 01, image 02, etc. (which will appear as a placeholder (i.e. image %dd%) in the “Title field”).
  4. Choose a level of description. Unlike the Link a single digital object to an archival description option, which attaches the digital object directly to the archival description at that level, the “Import multiple objects” option requires the user to designate a level of description (e.g.: Fonds, Subfonds, Collection, Series, Subseries, File, Item, Record group, Part, etc).

Tip

For users wishing to include multiple individual images as “views” of a single item, AtoM now includes “Part” as a level of description included at installation.

  1. Click the blue “Select files” link and select multiple files to upload.
  2. Once selected, the page will show previews of all the objects. If you like, you can edit the title for each object under to the preview. Remember, the title you enter here will be the title used for the associated archival description that will be created for each digital object uploaded.
  3. You can quit the upload process at any time by clicking the “Cancel” button in the button block; any digital objects already uploaded will not be saved. Note that simply navigating away from the page by any other means, without first clicking “Import” will also result in no new digital objects being uploaded.
  4. Click the “Import” button in the button block when you are satisfied with your changes. When you return to the view page, you will see that the objects have all been attached to the archival description as child records of that description.

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Upload PDF

A user can link a single PDF and import multiple PDFs into AtoM. A full-text search of the content of the PDF is available through the main search box. PDFs that have a text layer will work, including all OCR PDFs and born-digital PDFs that include a text layer (e.g., exported Word documents) will work. Search results will refer users to the PDF that contains the search term(s), but will not reveal the location of the term(s) within the PDF.

Currently, AtoM 2.0 truncates PDF text after the first 65,535 bytes.

As mentioned above, it is possible to upload multi-page TIFFs or PDF files to be displayed with a page viewer and to upload each page as a child object of the parent. To enable this feature, see settings.

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Edit digital objects

Any digital object that has been uploaded and linked to an archival description can be edited at any time by an authenticated (i.e. logged-in) user. To do this:

  1. Navigate to the view page of an existing archival description that has an existing digital object.
  2. Click on the “More” button in the button block; from the menu that appears, select “Edit digital object”.
  3. You will be redirected to the digital object’s edit page. On this page, all representations (i.e. master representation, reference representation and thumbnail representation) of the digital object will be listed, along with information on their Filename, Filesize and Media Type.

Edit digital object rights

A image of the permission rights of digital objects
  1. The rights permissions for all versions can be edited. Actions can be permitted or restrictted (i.e. added or removed) as needed. To do this, select the “Add new” button that appears at the end of each representation section, below the “Rights records” table:
    • Select the Act (i.e. Delete, Discover, Display, Disseminate, Migrate, Modify, or Replicate).
    • Set the Restriction (i.e. Allow or Disallow).
    • Select a timeline by including a Start date and End designate.
    • Include a Rights holder. A drop-down menu will appear as you begin to type.
    • Include Rights note(s) as needed.
    • Select a Basis for the permission (i.e. Copyright, License, Statute, Policy or Donor)
  2. When the permission has been created and all fields filled, click “Submit”. The new entry will appear in the Rights records table.
  3. Permissions can be edited by clicking the pencil pencil at the end of the entry. They can be deleted by clicking the “X” next to the pencil.

Edit reference and thumbnail representations

  1. If you wish to use a different image as the thumbnail or reference version this is also performed from the Edit digital object screen. First click delete in Reference representation or Thumbnail area.
Deleting a thumbnail or reference image
  1. AtoM will ask the user to confirm that they would like to delete the thumbnail/reference image. After confirming, the Edit digital object screen will allow the user to upload a new reference representation by clicking Browse and selecting a file from their computer, or auto-generate a new representation from the master image.
Upload or create a new thumbnail or reference image.

Save changes

  1. You can quit the edit process at any time by clicking the “Cancel” button in the button block; any edits made to digital objects will not be saved. Note that simply navigating away from the page by any other means, without first clicking “Save” will also result in no new digital objects being uploaded.
  2. Once all your changes have been made, click the “Save” button in the button block. You will be redirected back to the archival description’s view page.

All changes made can be edited once again, at any time, by following the steps outlined above.

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Delete digital objects

To delete a digital object that has been uploaded and linked to an archival description:

  1. Navigate to the view page of an existing archival description that has an existing digital object.
  2. Click on the “More” button in the button block; from the menu that appears, select “Edit digital object”. You will be redirected to the digital object’s edit page.
  3. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click “Delete”. You will be prompted to confirm that you wish to “Delete” the digital object; click “Delete” once again. You will be redirected to the archival institution’s view page.

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Digital object storage

In AtoM, administrators can track digital object storage per repository. Storage limits may be placed on individual repositories by in-house server capacity or on hosted server agreements.

If you are utilizing a multi-institutional / portal instance of AtoM, you will need to check with the site administrator to learn the digital object storage limitations.

For more information, see Managing digital object storage.

Files formats

A number of file formats are supported as digital objects in AtoM. Files in other formats can still be uploaded to AtoM; they just cannot be directly accessed or streamed within AtoM itself. In these cases the user must download the file from AtoM to his or her desktop and (assuming the user has the requisite software) access the content there.

The table below shows image, audio and video formats which can be viewed in AtoM:

Image Audio Video
PDF 8SVX AVS
BMP AC-3 BFI
GIF Apple Lossless CamStudio CSCD
PNG ATRAC3 Cinepak
JPEG Cook Codec Creative YUV (CYUV)
V.Flash PTX EA ADPCM DNxHD
SGI FLAC Flash Screen Video
Sun Rasterfile Intel Music Coder FFV1
FLIC Monkey’s Audio H.261
TIFF MP2 H.263
PNM MP3 H.264/MPEG-4 AVC
  Nellymoser Asao Codec in Flash Huffyuv
  QDM2 id Software RoQ Video
  RealAudio 1.0 Intel Indeo 2
  RealAudio 2.0 Intel Indeo 3
  Shorten LOCO
  Truespeech Mimic[3]
  TTA MJPEG
  TXD MPEG-4 Part 2
  Vorbis Apple Computer QuickDraw
  WavPack Quicktime Graphisc SMC
  Windows Media Audio 1 RealVideo RV10
  Windows Media Audio 2 RL2
    Smacker video
    Snow
    Sorenson SVQ1
    Sorenson SVQ3
    Theora
    Asus V1
    Asus V2
    VMware VMnc
    On2 VP3
    On2 VP5
    On2 VP6
    Westwood Studios VQA
    Microsoft WMV v 7, 8 and 9
    Wing Commander/Xan Video

Note

AtoM uses FFmpeg to handle audio-visual files. The table above shows the file formats supported by FFmpeg.

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