It is worth mentioning that the experience of the user is quite different for audio, video and large PDF text files in our collections when compared with objects loaded as single JPEG files, compound objects or small PDFs. Whereas those files provide a display image immediately upon opening the record, the other file formats all depend upon software programs external to CONTENTdm (e.g. Adobe Acrobat or Quicktime) to open the file. In the case of large media files or PDFs the process can be relatively slow. The record display is also marked by the rather unimaginative default message of “Access this Item,” which is not far removed from the archaic “click here” message of early web pages. We hope to find a partial solution to this problem through embedded media players.
video and large PDF text files in our collections when compared with objects loaded as single JPEG files