Omeka

and

Digital Archives

Jim McGrathFebruary 20th, 2015

HASTAC ScholarsDigital Collections Webinar

Introductions

• Hi!• Doctoral candidate in English at Northeastern• Digital Scholarship Group Coordinator at NU• Project Director of Our Marathon (created with Omeka)

1. Slides are here: http://slidesha.re/1vlQSsj2. My Omeka Sandbox is here: http://jimmcgrath.us/omeka_sandbox/Official Omeka Sandbox: http://omeka.org/codex/Try_Omeka_Before_InstallingTwitter: @JimMc_Grath

Webinar Objectives

• Provide an introduction to Omeka• Show examples of Omeka in action• Look at an Omeka installation• Q&A / Brainstorming (last 15 minutes)

Omekaomeka.org

Dan Cohen on OmekaOmeka introduced in February 2008

by the Center for History and New Media (GMU)

“Projects such as the September 11 Digital Archive and associated work with institutions such as the Smithsonian and the Library of Congress made us realize how much work – and how much money –it takes for institutions (and individuals) to mount high-quality and flexible exhibits online, and to manage the underlying collections.”

“Omeka aims to simplify this entire process, save valuable resources, and create a free and open platform that the museum and librarycommunity, and anyone else, can enrich by developing themes andplugins.”

What is Omeka?

• “WordPress for museums”• web publishing platform for items, exhibits

and collections• designed with scholars, librarians,

educators and archivists in mind• aims to be easy to use & implement• emphasizes curation and metadata’s role

in archiving and curation• ability to contextualize items & bring them

in conversation with one another

Potential Uses of Omeka

• Classroom Instruction: collaborative or individualexhibit building work; intro to metadata / archive• Public humanities work: make content accessible• Collaborations between GLAM (Galleries LibrariesArchivists and Museum) communities• Can be used for short-term; ideal for longer projects• Can host content on your own server space• Can use Omeka.net versions (Omeka-hosted)

Advantages of Omeka

• Easy to create and update metadatausing Dublin Core standards

• Long-term aspirations: digital projects can have afterlives• Exhibit templates are useful in classrooms• Easy to geotag / use geotagging (creation of maps)• Flexible (can create new pages / code via “Simple Pages”)• Open Source• Lots of documentation of work (Omeka Forums)• Cheap (or free!)

Omeka.net

• No server or FTP required (hosted by Omeka)

• Basic (free) plan includes 500MB of storage, 1 site, 5 themes, and 13 plugins—including Exhibit Builder, CSV import, and Simple Pages

Omeka.org

• LAMP server required, FTP required, Hosted by you or institution

• Customize themes and plugins by editing server files• Unlimited number of plugins and themes (download

to server)

Omeka and Metadata

(Dublin Core)dublincore.org

• set of metadata standards• rejects “siloed cultural memory”• enables “radically open cultural heritage data”• interdisciplinary work• collaborative in nature and scope

Omeka is NOT just for Exhibit-building

• Simple Dublin Core fields are a key part of Omeka’s value• idea of creating “a love letter to the future” via metadata• Learn more about Dublin Core / metadata standards!• Essential that students have a sense of metadata’s value• Stylistic conventions also important• Documentation is online• Collaborate with local / institutional metadata specialists!

Exhibits are Cool, Though

• Exhibit Plugin: design templates for students-students / teachers don’t have to be web design gurus

• Neatline Plugin: Geospatial / temporal maps-more of a learning curve, but worth it!

• Simple Pages: HTML and PHP, embedded content-create your own pages / layouts / content

Exhibit Templates

Talking about Metadata with Students

• Important component of Omeka and its mission!• Metadata as adding to historical record• Metadata’s uses in surveillance / war• Metadata’s role in students’ daily lives• Metadata’s relationship to your particular class• Stylistic conventions: decision or discussion• Metadata can be more than just “data entry”

Neatline

Advantages of Neatline

• Narratives that attend to space and temporality• Demonstrate value of geotagged metadata• Dynamic and interactive• Map templates built in to plugin• Ability to georectify maps (historical projects)• Ability to “map” images• Learning curve, but documentation online

Questions to Consider

• What are students getting out of this work?• What are you getting out of this work?• What are your collaborators getting out of this work?• What happens to this work after the course?• What is the scope of the project / assignment?• Is Omeka the digital tool you need for this course?

Questions for Classroom Use

• How much can you do on your own?• How much time have you spent with Omeka (Sandbox)?• What work needs to happen before the class starts?• What are your short and long-term goals w/ Omeka?• Who might be useful collaborators on campus?• Who will have access to the site?• Who is doing the work? (you, undergrads, grad students,librarians, IT, etc.)

Questions to Answer (Classroom Use)

• Anyone already working with Omeka at your school?• Library / EdTech Resources?• Metadata specialists?• Do you need server access? How will you get it?• Do you want this hosted by your institution?• Questions related to intellectual property• Long-term preservation options (if relevant)

Lesson Plans with Omeka

• How much of a role will Omeka play in a particular class?• How does the use of Omeka help you achieve your courselearning goals?• How might assignments that are not tech-heavy / explicitly using Omeka benefit later work withOmeka?• Is this an “Omeka” unit, or a unit about a particular topic?• How much time will you spend introducing Omeka?• How are you grading work done in Omeka?• How might an assignment using Omeka lead to a largerresearch project / future collaborations?

Omeka and Our Marathon

• Why did we use Omeka?• How did we use Omeka?• What modifications did we make to Omeka?• How did we use Neatline?• Lessons from Using Omeka

Our Marathon

northeastern.edu/marathon

Why did we use Omeka?

• Our Marathon is a crowdsourced digital archiveof content related to the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings• We wanted robust metadata records for content• We wanted content to be accessible / live ASAP• We wanted a space for exhibits• We wanted to encourage educational uses of materials• We didn’t have lots of $$ for web design• We wanted the archive to go live shortly after the events

Our Marathon home page

sample crowdsourced content

How did we use Omeka?

• As a platform for crowdsourcing (“Share Your Story”)• As a space to feature special collections of material

(Boston City Archives, WBUR Oral History Project)• As a space for student collaborations• As a space for exhibits (created with Neatline)

“Share Your Story” contribution plugin

Sample Collection Page (Boston City Archives Collection

Sample Classroom Exhibit

Lessons from

Classroom Collaboration

• Value of occasions for student work that circulatesbeyond the classroom• Exhibits as way of documenting what was learnedabout technology AND content of course• Challenges of collaborative writing and design• “Failure” should be discussed / accepted• Setting clear goals for semester AND goals tied to momentum of larger project important• Discuss how you’re using tools and WHY you’reusing Omeka with your students

Modifications to Omeka

• Modified the Contribution Plugin-a need to make the contribution space engaging-a need to contextualize metadata requests• Cleaned up web design-improved layout of site sections-need to appease media / institutional partners

Our Marathon and Neatline

• Neatline is designed as a mapping tool• We became interested in “mapping” images• Desire to highlight various aspects of certainimages in our archive (Copley Square memorial)• Instead of a map layer, we layered photos• Undergraduates and volunteers created exhibits

“One Boston” Neatline Exhibit (created by Haverford College undergrad Nate Rehm-Daly)

Sample Neatline Exhibit(created by Claudia Faith Willett)

Other Examples of Omeka

http://omeka.org/showcase/http://neatline.org/demos/

Uses of OmekaIsaiah Thomas Broadside Ballads Project (AAS)

Uses of OmekaDigital Dos Passos (Amanda Visconti)

Uses of OmekaGulag: Many Days, Many Lives

Uses of NeatlineJeddah: Gateway to the Hajj (University of Virginia)

Uses of NeatlineBlack Liberation 1969 Archive (Swarthmore)

Let’s Look At Omeka!

• My personal sandbox with sample files can be foundhere: http://jimmcgrath.us/omeka_sandbox/To log in:Username: HASTACScholarPW: HASTACtest• This is a basic Omeka install via Reclaim Hosting• Neatline is not installed / other plugins not• More a chance to see back-end of a basic instance

Thanks!