The Visual Resources Association
gratefully acknowledges support for the
MDID Special Interest Group Meeting from

MDID
USERS
GROUP
VRA 2015
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 11

MDID TEAM: NEW
FACES
Jon Short
• 2 years in Center for Instructional Technology
(CIT)
• Infrastructure + LMS, transitioning to MDID
Leighton Shank
• Hired to CIT in September 2014
• Focus on MDID application development

MDID TEAM: OLD
FACES
Grace Barth
• Visual Resources Librarian, @ JMU since 2009
Andreas Knab
• Former JMU employee and owner of vrcHost
• Has been with MDID since the beginning
Peter Hanley
• MDID developer
• Instructional Support Center Manager at Temple
University

PROJECTS IN THE
PAST YEAR AT JMU
4-VA mini-grant to build MDID + Omeka
connector
Article in Journal of Digital Media
Management, vol. 3, no. 2
• “Innovating art history: The story of an open
source project that transformed teaching with
images in higher education”, Grace Barth and
Kevin Hegg

MOST WANTED
FEATURES
• Advanced search
• Metadata field management
• Mobile support
• Configurable “browse” options
• Easier duplication of presentations

MORE MOST WANTED
FEATURES
• Search facets by term
• Packaged presentations with
MediaViewer
• Thumbnail refresh when image is
replaced/removed
• User-added tags
• Shared collections easier to use

PLANNED MAJOR
ENHANCEMENTS +
CLEAN UP
• Make it easy to install
• Upgrade underlying technology
• Make it extensible
• Clean user interface
• Mobile-friendly

WHAT’S IN IT FOR END
USERS
• Clean interface
• Mobile compatibility
• Flashcard app?
• Intuitive to use

WHAT’S IN IT FOR
CURATORS
• Easier in-browser cataloging
• Simplified administrative tasks
• Add features via plug-ins
• Installation that doesn’t require IT

WHAT’S IN IT FOR
DEVELOPERS
• Better development documentation
• Allow customization
• De-coupled dependencies
• Foster community development
• API-driven core

Custom Plugin:
Ensemble Viewer
 Developed for Colgate University
 Integrates content from Ensemble Video
platform into MDID
 When special metadata fields are
available for a record, viewer is added to
the page

User Authentication
 Added support for new protocols
 Central Authentication Service (CAS)
 Shibboleth
 New restriction possibilities
 Only allow logins for members of specific
Shibboleth groups

Work/Image Records
 Using Dublin Core to connect images to
works
 Relation.IsPartOf

Work/Image Records
 Example
 Record 1 (Work)
○ Identifier “ABC001”
 Record 2 (Image)
○ Identifier “ABC002”
○ Relation.IsPartOf “ABC001”
 Work record still has an image file
attached – “Primary Image”

“Explore Works” interface
 Experimental new user interface
 Very early stages
 “Responsive”
 Support for desktops, tablets, mobile devices,
etc.
 Installable as an add-on to MDID3

“Explore Works” interface
 Development supported by Archivision
 Planned rollout stages
1. Separate demo installation at vrcHost
2. Archivision clients
○ Test with known content
3. All vrcHost hosted installations
○ Test with known environment
4. Contribution back to Open Source

Miscellaneous
 New restriction to control to which
collections users can add personal images

Still in the works
 Documentation project
 Copying metadata between records
 Getty Vocabulary integration

QUESTIONS?

THE END

THANK YOU!
Jon: shortjw@jmu.edu
Leighton: shanklt@jmu.edu
Grace: barthgl@jmu.edu
Andreas: info@vrchost.com
Peter: peter@temple.edu

The Visual Resources Association
gratefully acknowledges support for the
MDID Special Interest Group Meeting from