Benefits¶
The Digital Archive provides a number of benefits, many of which are not available in other collection managements systems. This section lists some of the most important benefits.
- PDF file searching
- Keyword searches include the text of PDF files. For archives having a large number of textual PDFs, it vastly increases the likelihood of finding what you are looking for. Without it, a search only finds text in an item's metadata fields. Requires the AvantElasticsearch plugin.
- Shared searching across collections
- Multiple organizations can share their collection so that a user can search one site or all sites. Requires the AvantElasticsearch plugin.
- Facet searching
- Facet searching quickly narrows down search results, or narrows all items in a collection to just those of interest. Requires the AvantSearch and AvantElasticsearch plugins.
- Index View
- Index View shows search results as a compact, alphabetized list of unique values indexed by a specific field. Requires the AvantSearch plugin.
- Relationships
- Relationships show how two or more people, places, or things are connected to each other in the real world. Requires the AvantRelationships plugin.
- Support for archival assets using Amazon S3
- You can access your S3 archival assets (full-size, high resolution files) with a single click. Requires the AvantS3 plugin.
- Common Vocabulary
- The Common Vocabulary is a set of vocabulary terms that multiple organizations can share to provide consistency among their collections. Requires the AvantVocabulary plugin.
- Zoomable images
- A zoomable image is a very high resolution image that you can zoom in on to see more detail. Requires the AvantZoom plugin.
- Open Source
- The Digital Archive is open source software (free and non-proprietary) that an organization can modify or extend based on its own needs.