Cornell University Library

Digital Scholarship Guides

Collections platforms & tools

Welcome to the collection platforms & tools page! Discover your new favourite way to make an engaging digital collection, database, visualization, map, and other public-facing piece of digital scholarship through the list of tools available below. This list is by no means exhaustive, and prioritizes open-source, free tools when available. If you notice that your favourite tool is missing, email Kiran at kam535@cornell.edu.

Collections & exhibits

CollectionBuilder | Metadata-driven digital collections and exhibits on static sites. Web-based, open-source, free.
Wax | Minimal digital exhibitions. Hosting varies, open-source, free.
Omeka | Web-published digital collections and online exhibits. Software for PC and Mac, open-source, free.
Exhibbit | Multi-media, interactive exhibits in virtual rooms. Web-based, paid ($10-15/month).
WordPress | Website hosting and content management. Web-based, open-source, freemium.
Exhibit.so | Shareable multi-media slide-based exhibits using IIIF manifests. Web-based, free, no account needed.
Scalar | Digital book publishing and authoring. Web-based, open-source, free.
Juncture | Interactive digital essays. Web-based, open-source, free.
Quire | Plain text digital books. Software for PC and Mac, open-source, free.
Shorthand | Media-rich digital stories, exhibits, etc. Web-based, paid.
Collective Access | Cataloguing and publishing digital/digitized collections. Software for PC and Mac, open-source, free.
Open exhibits | Community of practice and guides for creating interactive, sensory-engaging (touch-based) digital exhibits.
Twine | Interactive stories and text-based games. Web-based, open-source, free.
ScrollyTeller | Multi-media scrolling exhibits, stories, and narrative presentations. Web-based, open-source, free.
Google Sites | Basic HTML websites hosted by Google. Web-based, free.
Adno | Shareable, image-based narratives and journeys. Web-based, free.
Canopy IIIF | Open-source static site generator for IIIF manifests. Open-source, web-based, free.
Micrio | Virtual showcases, spaces, and tours. Paid, web-based.
Panel Truck | Interactive storylines. Web-based, open-source, free.
Storiiies | Online storytelling and scrollytelling. Free, web-based.
Booksnake | AR viewer for digitized cultural heritage materials. Free beta.
WaxBuilder | Free, open source, web-based. Made by CoLab librarian Kiran.
Oral History (as) Data | Free, open-source, web-based.
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Data visualization

ChartBlocks | Charts of all shapes and sizes. Web-based, free.
Datawrapper | Charts, maps, tables, etc. Web-based, free.
Flourish | Charts, data mapping, etc. Web-based, freemium.
Kumu | Knowledge trees and mind maps. Web-based, freemium (student and public projects free, private projects $9+/month).
Tableau Public | Various, multi-media visualizations. Web-based, free.
Superset | Data visualization, mainly charts. Web-based, open-source, free.
Google Charts | Basic charts, maps, and diagrams. Web-based, free.
Infogram | Interactive charts, maps, infographics, reports, etc. Web-based, freemium.
Jupyter Notebook | Web-based development environment. Open-source, free.
Knight Lab (timeline.js, juxtapose.js, storyline.js, storymap.js) | Timelines, image sliders, storylines, and multi-media story maps. Web-based, free, open-source.
Power BI | Data analytics and visualization powered by Microsoft. Freemium.
RAWGraphs | Heatmaps, charts, tables, etc. Web-based, open-source, free.
SankeyMATIC | Sankey diagrams. Web-based, open-source, free.
Shiny | Web apps, including custom visualizations, in Python or R. Open-source, free.
Network Navigator | Auto-populating network data visualizations from a CSV file. Web browser tool.
Chroma.js | Interactive JavaScript color space explorer.
Vega | Language for creating, saving, and sharing interactive a wide range of visualization designs.
Arbor.js | A JavaScript library of force-directed visualizations.
Carto | Web app for mapping and analyzing with data.
Circos | Circular data visualizations.
Cola.js | JavaScript library for networks visualizations.
Color Brewer | Web tool for testing colors for maps.
Cubism.js | Interactive time series and horizon graphs based on D3.js.
Cytoscape | Complex networks diagrams.
D3 | A JavaScript library to create and manipulate interactive documents and visualizations.
Dance.js | Data-driven visualization framework.
Data Wrangler | Interactive web application for data cleaning and transformation.
Envision.js | Interactive time series visualizations
Flare | Software for creating unique interactive visualizations.
Gephi | Complex network diagrams and hierarchical graphs.
JavaScript InfoVis Toolkit | JavaScript library for creating interactive data visualizations for the web.
Peity | jQuery plugin that converts an element's content into an in-line mini pie, line, or bar chart.
Prefuse | Software tools for creating rich interactive data visualizations in Java.
Quadrigram | Visual drag and drop data editor and data viz maker.
Raphaël | JavaScript library for working with SVGs for graphic designers and artists.
Recline.js | JavaScript library for building data applications in pure Javascript and HTML
Rickshaw | JavaScript toolkit for creating interactive time series graphs
Tabula | Tool for extracting data tables from PDF files.
Vega | Language for creating, saving, and sharing interactive a wide range of visualization designs.
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Mapping tools

Note: If you’re looking for advanced mapping tools or GIS tools, please reach out to our geospatial data librarians:

  • Keith Jenkins, kgj2@cornell.edu
  • Jo Klein, jo.klein@cornell.edu
ArcGIS Online | Interactive web maps. Web-based, free.
StoryMaps | Multi-media interactive exhibits based around maps/location. Web-based, free.
Storymap.js (Knight Lab) | Multi-media interactive exhibits based around maps/location. Web-based, open-source, free.
Allmaps | Georeferencing and mapping with IIIF manifests. Web-based, free.
Modest Maps | Minimal library for tile-based maps in JavaScript and Python.
Kartograph | Framework for building interactive map applications.
Mapbox | Custom maps for web, mobile, automotive and AR.
uMap | Custom maps with OpenStreetMap.
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Web-building tools

Publii | Visual static site editor and headless CMS software. Free, open-source.
SiteLeaf | A static site CMS that can be connected to GitHub. Free on basic Developer plan.
WordPress | Website hosting and content management. Open-source, freemium.
Mobirise | Visual static site CMS with AI integration. Free.
Webstudio | Custom static site builder. Free, open source.
Lektor | Static site CMS for building websites from flat files. Free, open-source.
Tina CMS | Open-source, headless CMS that supports Git, with built-in version control. Free to make two sites. GitHub required.
Prismic | Headless page builder for Next.js, Nuxt, and SvelteKit sites. One site free on free plan.
Primo | Visual CMS for static sites. Free, open-source, but has freemium dependencies.
Pages CMS | CMS for static site generators, including Next.js, Astro, Hugo, and Nuxt.
Jimdo | Business-oriented visual website builder. Freemium.
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Audio, oral history, and transcription tools

Gladia.io | A text to speech API for diarised transcriptions from audio files. Freemium.
bigWav.app | A free audio transcription tool. Web-based, free, open-source.
Oral History (as) Data | Free, open-source, web-based.
Otter.ai | AI audio transcription tool. Paid, web-based.
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Databases

DataTables | Interactive tables for organising and presenting data.
Datasette | Tool for exploring and publishing data. Open-source, free, web-based.
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Other Tools

Mr. Data Converter | Data converter from Excel to web-friendly formats (HTML, JSON, etc.)
Data Wrangler | Interactive web application for data cleaning and transformation.
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Resources

Tool Lists

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