OmekaBuilding Collections and Exhibits Using omeka.net

iSkills Workshop31 October 2018

Leslie Barnes, DIgital Scholarship Librarian, UTL

Outline and Goals1. Overview of Omeka 2. Administration and Settings3. Creating Items and Collections

a. Metadata and Dublin Core

4. CSV Import5. Creating Exhibits6. Simple Pages7. Effective Exhibits

https://goo.gl/mDAhjQ

Omeka● Created by Center for History and New Media

(CHNM) at George Mason University● Same organization that developed Zotero● Open source● Strong community of use● Easy to use; designed for small institutions

omeka.net

● Web hosted ● Many core functions still intact● Free trial plan gives you 500MB of storage, 1 site, 8 plugins, and 2 themes● Fee options for more sites, plugins, and themes

A note on recent changes... ● Something is shifting at the CNMH● Corporation for Digital Scholarship formed in 2017 and it is providing hosted

services for Omeka and Zotero● Important to be aware of the challenges open source developers face but also

be aware of the possibility for change● Still open source for local hosting

Before You Begin● What is the purpose of your site? Catalogue or collection? Website? Outreach

website?● Who are your intended users?● What kind of materials do you have? ● What kind of metadata do you have?● Who will be creating the site? How many people will be involved?

Make Accounts or Login

omeka.net

Administration: Users● Super

○ Access to EVERYTHING, including security settings

● Admin○ Can edit all items and exhibits, make items public○ No access to settings

● Contributor○ Can create items, but cannot make them public○ Cannot edit other people’s exhibits○ Cannot edit other people’s items

● Researcher○ Can sign in to view private items○ Cannot create or edit items

Administration: Plugins● COinS: allows metadata to be embedded in HTML; facilitates use of online

bibliographic tools (eg. Zotero)● CSV Import: batch ingest metadata and files● LC Suggest: if you want to use the LC controlled vocabulary● OAI-PMH Harvester: automatically pull in metadata from an OAI repository● Exhibit Builder: this is where you can create exhibits● Simple Pages: allows you to make simple webpages

Administration: Appearance● Choose and configure theme● Edit navigation

○ Potentially really powerful○ Can help guide users and shape experience

● Settings○ Image size○ Pay particular attention to the two bottom buttons

■ Show Empty Elements■ Show Element Set Headings

Items: The Building Blocks Of Exhibits● Aggregation of metadata, files, and tags ● All of these are optional ● Recommend at least minimal metadata● Omeka accepts a lot of file types● SAVE OFTEN

Metadata: Dublin Core (DC)● Developed by OCLC to describe digital resources● Dublin, OH (not Ireland)● 15 “core” elements● Intended to be less medium-specific than other standards (e.g. “Creator” not

“Author”)● How you use metadata in Omeka depends on your use case

Item Types● Gives you greater flexibility with metadata

○ Especially useful if you are focused on creating a catalog

● Allows you to entirely do away with DC● You can create a setting in which DC elements that have nothing in them do

not appear

Creating Collections● Very similar to creating items● DC metadata● Items can only belong to one collection

Exhibits● Allow you to incorporate files and text to create lots of context● Basically web pages, but allow integration of exhibits● Think of the content blocks as modular pieces

○ When in doubt, make them small and “stack” them

Simple Pages● Create simple webpages● Doesn’t allow you to use templates the same way as Exhibit Builder● You can still reference images--and either using HTML or shortcodes● Simple Pages don’t “link up” with Exhibits seamlessly, but you can link to them

Example Exhibitshttp://bridgesnyc.com/postcards/

https://history.westhartfordlibrary.org

https://libex.smith.edu/omeka/exhibits

Creating an Item

Metadata: Item Type Metadata

Add File(s)

Item Types

Tags

Create a Collection

Create an Exhibit

Create Pages

Administration

Simple Pages

Shortcodes

Administration