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

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.

Exhibbit | Multi-media, interactive exhibits in virtual rooms. Web-based, paid ($10-15/month).

CollectionBuilder | Metadata-driven digital collections and exhibits on static sites. Web-based, open-source, free.

Omeka | Web-published digital collections and online exhibits. Software for PC and Mac, open-source, free.

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.

Wax | Minimal digital exhibitions. Hosting varies, open-source, free.

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.

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.