Understanding Omeka

Xavier University, October 17, 2016

Follow along: https://slides.com/jdauteri/deck-15/live

Speaker: Jessica Dauterive

PhD Student, George Mason University

jdauteri@gmu.edu

http://jessicadoeshistory.com/

Digital humanities is people, places, and ideas.

What is Omeka?

Free and Open-source

Content Management System (CMS)

for displaying digitized collections

and building exhibits on the web.

Omeka

[oh-meh-kah]

• First proposed in 2007, launched February 2008
   
• Solved a problem: the internet provided few options for museums, libraries, or archives to easily set up in-depth websites for their collections
   
• Funded by eight public and private grant organizations and independent donations
   
• Downloaded over 150,000 times and has become the standard for cultural heritage institutions 

https://omeka.org/about/project/

Omeka Classic

Omeka-S

Omeka.net

Original version of Omeka

Free to use with purchase of domain name

Most popular options for scholars, archives, museums

Free version hosted by Omeka itself (no domain needed)

45K users and runs nearly 30K sites

Limited functionality; great for students, small institutions

Newest version of Omeka 

Used by larger institutions who need to run multiple sites

More flexibility and control

What is Omeka?

Free and Open-source

Content Management System (CMS)

for displaying digitized collections

and building exhibits.

Anatomy of an Omeka Site

Items: most basic unit in the site; described by Dublin Core and Item Type metadata and usually containing at least one media file

• Metadata: data about data
• Dublin Core: A particular set of metadata standards used to describe digital and physical resources across the web.
  

Collections: groups of items based on provenance, type, person, theme, or other project-specific unit; an item can only exist in one collection

Exhibit Builder: a plugin that allows you to display items with narrative/explanatory text, other plugins like maps or annotations, and a pathway through; items can belong to an unlimited amount of exhibits (unlike collections)

Developing an Omeka Project

• Mission/Collections/Argument

• Audience

• Information Architecture

• Project Management

Project Examples:

Wearing Gay History: http://wearinggayhistory.com/

Histories of the National Mall: http://mallhistory.org/

Appalachian Trail Histories: http://appalachiantrailhistory.org/

9/11 Digital Archive (original): https://web.archive.org/web/20020329071837/http://911digitalarchive.org:80/

9/11 Digital Archive (Omeka): https://web.archive.org/web/20190506031325/http://911digitalarchive.org/

Hurricane Digital Memory Bank: http://hurricanearchive.org/

Baltimore Uprising: https://baltimoreuprising2015.org/