Access to Memory (AtoM)

This new minor feature is a usability enhancement, allowing users to explore the contents of a large fonds in more ways. Both options previously existed, but were only accessible through the user interface in very specific conditions. This feature will make them more readily accessible.

In the right-hand context menu, two new links will be added:

• Browse as list
• Browse digital objects

Browse as list

This option will take the user to a browse page limited to the current top-level description. Users can then use the facets and filters available to sort through the descendants. This can be useful for large trees, especially given that the current treeview does not afford a lot of real-estate for browsing.

Browse digital objects

This option will take the user to the tile-based digital object browse page, but limited to the current top-level description. Users can further limit the results by media type using the existing filter buttons. Useful for a media-rich collection.

Notes

These features are currently very basic. They will be present regardless of if there are children or digital objects. This means that there is the chance that a user will click one of the links when there are no resources to display that match the criteria, producing either a browse page limited to the parent description with 0 results, or a digital object browse page with 0 results, etc.

They will also appear on all levels of description in a hierarchy, but will behave the same at all levels - they are not context aware (e.g. showing just the children of the current series, for example) - they will always lead to browse pages limited to the root - e.g. the top-level description.

These behaviors could be fine tuned in the future, but already they bring options that were difficult to access in the user interface to the forefront, making it easier for users to explore hierarchical data.