METS Toolkit

This "toolkit” of freeware, commercial, and CDL-developed resources is provided for contributing members to assist in the creation of METS digital objects that are compliant with the CDL Guidelines for Digital Objects, Version 2.0 (CDL GDO).

For additional methods, tools, and other resources used by repositories to generate METS objects, consult the METS website.

See sections below:

• Digital Asset Management/Creation Tools
• Transformation Tools
• Additional Resources

 

Digital Asset Management/Creation Tools

Archivists' Toolkit
An open-source archival data management system developed by UC San Diego, New York University, and the Five Colleges, Inc. The toolkit can generate EAD finding aids and METS digital objects.

CONTENTdm
A commercial digital asset management product developed by DiMeMa, Inc. CONTENTdm Standard XML exports can be used in conjunction with the 7Train tool to generate METS files.

DigiTool
A commercial digital asset management product developed by Ex Libris Ltd. DigiTool can export METS digital objects.

MOAC Digital Asset Management Database (DAMD)
An open-source, FileMaker-based museum collection data management system developed by the Museums and the Online Archive of California (MOAC) consortium. The toolkit can generate METS digital objects.

WebGenDB
A METS creation tool maintained by the UC Berkeley Digital Publishing Group (UCB DPG), primarily for use by the UC Berkeley libraries.

Transformation Tools

7train
An XSLT 2.0-based tool for generating METS files from standardized XML inputs (e.g., CONTENTdm Standard XML exports, OAI records, etc.).

 

Additional Resources

The following documents were prepared by the CDL Digital Special Collections program, and seek to identify content management and creation systems that UC special collections and archives departments can leverage to locally manage and create digital assets. It is primarily aimed towards UC repositories that either do not have a strategy in place -- or are seeking to replace what they currently use with a more robust solution. The systems that are profiled include both commercial and open-source applications. In particular, it also highlights whether the application can generate EAD- and METS-based outputs, which may be submitted to CDL for preservation and access services:

• Collection Management and Creation Strategies: Summary and Features Matrix [PDF]
• Appendices [XLS]

See also the METS website for additional METS creation tools.