About collection scoping

Learn how collection scoping lets you control which collections staff users can edit in CONTENTdm (new version).

Collection scoping allows you to limit the collections that a staff user can edit, publish, or manage. This feature is particularly useful when staff from different departments or member institutions share a single CONTENTdm (new version) site, ensuring that each group only works on its own collections.

How collection scoping works

Collection scoping combines two settings: the user's role and permissions. The role defines what actions a user can take, such as editing metadata or publishing items. Administrators manage these roles from the Users screen. A user with a scoped role can view all collections and items on your site. The user can act only on the collections assigned to them. In a collection that is not assigned to the user, the user has view-only access regardless of their role. Actions the user cannot perform are not available.

Collection lists are not filtered. A scoped user still has access to all of your collections, but options such as editing, adding items, or publishing are only available for the collections they have been assigned to. Roles that utilize collection scoping are defined.

Roles that use collection scoping

Collection scoping is utilized by the following roles:

Collection Manager: Edit the collection, including the cover image, collection metadata, and landing page. Delete the collection. Work with items, including publishing.
Collection Editor: Edit the collection and its items, publish items, and delete draft and published items. Editors cannot create collections. Collection Editors can view, but not change, metadata properties, controlled vocabularies, metadata templates, website appearance, site configuration, and users.
Collection Builder: Add and edit draft items. Builders cannot publish items. To change a published item, a Builder works on a draft copy. Builders cannot add, edit, or delete metadata templates or controlled vocabularies.

A user can hold more than one scoped role. For example, a user can be a Collection Manager for one collection and a Collection Editor for another, and the user has the rights of each role in the matching collection.

Note: Administrators and Website Administrators are not limited by collection scoping. Collection options do not appear for these roles on the Users screen.

For a complete list of what each role can do, refer to CONTENTdm (new version) roles.

What collection scoping applies to

Collections and their items: Items inherit their collection's permissions. You cannot limit a user to specific items within a collection.
Items in more than one collection: An item can belong to more than one collection. The permissions of the item's primary collection determine who can edit it.
Bulk actions: When a user runs a bulk action, such as publishing or adding items to a collection, the action applies only to items in the user's assigned collections. Items in other collections are skipped.
Reports: Collection managers, Collection editors, and Collection builders can view reports for all collections, not only those assigned to them.

New users

When you assign a user a scoped role, you choose which collections the role applies to: all collections, current or future collections, or specific collections. Refer to Assign collections to a user.

When collection scoping is enabled for your site, users who already have a Collection Manager or Collection Builder role retain access to all collections. To limit them, assign specific collections.