Post on 18-Oct-2020
Building Digital Exhibits !Using Omeka !
Franky Abbott, DPLA Project Manager franky@dp.la
October 2, 2014 Mountain West Digital Library Fall Webinar Series
Why build digital exhibits?!
Use valuable digital content to tell important stories
Exhibits are stories told by marrying writing and items in a narrative structure
“Hudson Park, Story hour.” Courtesy the New York Public Library.
What’s in it for cultural heritage orgs?!
² Content in context
² New audiences
² Increase visibility
² Opportunities for collaboration
What’s in it for others?!
² Tell stories with primary sources
² Build curation skills
² Take advantage of the visual emphasis of web publishing
² Collaborate!
As you plan exhibits, think about: ! Audience? Scope? Maintenance?
“A construction site,” 1981. Department of Defense. National Archives and Records Administration.
Why in Omeka?!Can choose between hosted and self-hosted Offers a searchable database integrated with online exhibits; built for web display* Easy to use “out of the box” Active development and open source community
To host or not to host?!Omeka.org – self-hosted (owning) Omeka.net – hosted (renting) You can do more with .org but it involves more work See: http://bitly.com/compareomekas
Courtesy Georgia State University.
omeka.org !
Your institution may be able to host…
or you can buy commercial web hosting and do it yourself. ��� See: http://omeka.org/codex/Hosting_Suggestions
omeka.net/plans
Basic Components in Omeka!Item: content “building block”
Collection: subset of your items
Exhibit: curated selection of your items
Website: controlled with themes and plugins
Courtesy University of Southern California Libraries.
Themes – Look and Feel !
Plugins - Functionality !
● COins
● CSV Import
● Docs Viewer
● Exhibit Builder
● Google Analytics
● Library of Congress Suggest
● OAI-PMH Harvester
● Shared Shelf Link
● Simple Pages
● Social Bookmarking
Users!Can add as many as you want with any Omeka plan/instance. Four roles:
– Super – Admin
– Contributor – Researcher
StructureExhibit
Section
Page Page
Section
SectionSectionSection
Page
Page
Page
Writing + Items
Pages
Supporting Omeka!
Open Source " "!
Means source code is available online (so others can modify and adapt it) Benefit: encourages community participation
Active development !
development team at CHNM
• write new releases, updates, and fixes • develop new plug-ins • monitor and participate in forums • respond to users’ development requests
Omeka documentation!Guides and directions Screencast videos Different directions for different releases - make sure you’re using the right one!
omeka.org/forums/ !
Active community of
users and developers
Search for your questions first
Post your own questions
Additional resources!Omeka.net showcase of sample sites Omeka.org showcase of sample sites Omeka documentation
UCLA DH101 tutorial (Anthony Bushong & David Kim)
The Programming Historian tutorial (Miriam Posner)
UIUC guide (Harriet Green)
Introduction to Omeka Lesson Plan (Amanda French)