Hands-On with OmekaBuilding a Narrative with Digital Objects

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Shawn Day Queen’s University Library - 9 December 2013

Upcoming Seminars and Workshops!

‣ January - Digital Project Management ‣ February - Survey of Digital Humanities Ecosystem ‣ February - Data Visualisation for Presentation ‣ March - Social Scholarship – Tools for Collaborative

Research ‣ April - Data Visualisation for Textual and Spatial Analysis

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‣ More to come: http://qubdh.co.uk

Objective‣ To understand through hands-on 'doing' whether Omeka

might be of use in your research programme !

‣ Omeka was developed at Center for History and New Media (CHNM) at George Mason University as a "next generation web publishing platform for museums, historical societies, scholars, enthusiasts, and educators." The feature-rich offering provides for the presentation, searching and browsing of digital collections along with a robust metadata management facility.

Who is CNMH?‣ Roy Rosenzweig Centre for New Media and History ‣ Founded 1994 ‣ George Mason University in Washington ‣ Collaborative Space Supporting 50+ Scholars ‣ To preserve and present history online ‣ Transform scholarship across the humanities ‣ Supported by grants from AHA, NEH, NHC, Library of

Congress, Meloon, Sloan, Rockefeller and Kellog Foundations amongst others

Products

Zotero !Zotero [zoh-TAIR-oh] is

a free, easy-to-use Firefox extension to help you collect, manage, and cite your research sources.

Omeka !

Designed for cultural institutions, enthusiasts, and educators, Omeka is a platform for publishing online collections and exhibitions.

Omeka.net !

Let Omeka.net host your collections, research, exhibits, and digital projects.

THATCamp !

Short for “The Humanities and Technology Camp," THATCamp is a BarCamp-style, user-generated “unconference” on digital humanities.

Scripto !

Scripto is a free, open source tool that enables community transcriptions of document and multimedia files.

PressForward !

PressForward is pioneering new methods to capture and highlight orphaned or underappreciated scholarship and share it with digital humanists across the web.

ScholarPress !

Manage your class, publish research, or collaborate on a conference presentation with this hub for scholarly & educational plugins.

Anthologize !

Anthologize is a free, open-source, plugin that transforms WordPress into a platform for publishing electronic texts.

Survey Builder !

Build online surveys that are especially applicable to oral histories.

Timeline Builder !

CHNM Labs: Easily create and manage a timeline of historical events for your website.

Serendip-o-matic !

Serendip-o-matic connects your sources to digital materials located in libraries, museums, and archives around the world.

Web Scrapbook !

Store all kinds of media items — URLs, images, text, and movies — & collaborate thru the CHNM online scrapbook.

What is an Omeka?

So What can you do with it? In Education‣ Example 2

So What can you do with it?‣ Example 1

So What can you do with it?‣ Example 1

OMEKA Core Features‣ Based on Open Source

Technology: Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP;

‣ Free to Use, Free to Change;

‣ Easy to Use; ‣ Change Design using

Themes;

‣ Add Functionality with Plug-Ins;

‣ Unqualified Dublin Core Metadata;

‣ Strong Support Community;

‣ Extensible, Scalable, Flexible;

‣ Interoperable

Steps in the Exercise1. Set Up an omeka.net Account 2. Set Up an Omeka Site 3. Add Items to the Site 4. Make a Collection of Items 5. Create an Exhibit

1. Create Sections 2. Create Pages

6. Customise

Step 1‣ Set Up an omeka.net Account

1. Click on the "Sign Up!" button and enter requested information;

2. Open your email account and find the confirmation email sent by Omeka;

3. Click the confirmation email to activate your account.

Sign Up Options

Success!

What is 'an Omeka'‣ An Omeka 'instance' contains: ‣ Items (digital Objects of various types) ‣ Collections (of objects) ‣ Sites (set of collections) ‣ Exhibits (curated subsets of site collections)

Step 2 - Setup an Omeka Site

Step 2.1 Define the Site‣ Subdomain: Machine

Friendly ‣ Site Title: People Friendly ‣ Site Description:

Searchable but for your own good practice

The Omeka Dashboard

Step 2.2 Good Practice : Define the Site

Step 2.2 Site Settings

Step 2.3 Site Settings

Step 3 : Upload Items‣ Items can be no larger than 32Mb ‣ Free instance of Omeka limited to 500Mb in total ‣ Need to manage storage and file size ‣ Upgrade for more

Supported Item Types‣ Document ‣ Still Image ‣ Moving Image ‣ Sound ‣ Oral History ‣ Email ‣ Lesson Plan ‣ Website ‣ HyperLink

‣ Event (Time-Based Occurrence)

‣ Person (Biographic) ‣ Interactive Resource

Sidenote: Buying Server Space‣ Simpler then you may think ‣ $12/yr on reclaimhosting.com for example ‣ $4-6 gets you as much as you may need for personal or

project usage ‣ Hostgator, Bluehost, DreamHost, Site5 are good examples ‣ Domain Name + Shared server space ‣ Software Installs are automated ‣ Mailserver etc. standard

Step 3.1 Upoad an Item‣ Return to the Dashboard ‣ Choose 'Add an Item' ‣ Dublin Core? ‣ More Info: http://dublincore.org ‣ 15 Metadata Elements of a generic and wide-ranging number

of digital resources; ‣ Each Dublin Core element is optional and may be repeated; ‣ Other schemes: MARC, ‣ How can we semantically define an object’s context?

A Rock Quick Look at the 15 Elements‣ Title ‣ <dc:title></dc:title> ‣ What the formal name of this resource - how would a user

know it? ‣ Examples: title of a painting, photo, document; the name of a

person when using the "person" item type; the name of a lesson plan.

A Rock Quick Look at the 15 Elements‣ Subject ‣ <dc:subject></dc:subject> ‣ What is the domain area/topic (non-spatial or temporal) that

the object is part of? ‣ Controlled vocabularies such as the Getty can help here. ‣ Typically keywords, key phrases, or classification codes. ‣ Examples: Library of Congress subject headings; subject-

specific nomenclature.

A Rock Quick Look at the 15 Elements‣ Description ‣ <dc:description></dc:description> ‣ What sort of short narrative will help a user to know whether

this resource is relevant to their needs? ‣ This is often an abstract, a table of contents or even a

graphical representation of the object ‣ Examples: a photo caption; descriptive information of an

artifact/museum object; summary of a lesson plan; abstract or summary of a long document;

A Rock Quick Look at the 15 Elements‣ Creator ‣ <dc:creator></dc:creator> ‣ Who is responsible for making this digital resource - digtiser,

digital author? ‣ The original author or the digitising institution? ‣ Examples: Author/authors; artists; photographers; institutional

authors or producers, such as university or federal agency.

A Rock Quick Look at the 15 Elements‣ Source ‣ <dc:source></dc:source> ‣ From what resource did the derived digital resource come

from? ‣ This can be a type, a descriptor but best practice recommends

a string conforming to a formal identifier system ‣ Examples: Accession number; Collection of objects; Division of

an archive or library.

A Rock Quick Look at the 15 Elements‣ Publisher ‣ <dc:publisher></dc:publisher> ‣ Who (what institution is making this resource available? ‣ If there is a license or copyright involved helps to determine

this one ‣ Examples: actual publisher, if there is one; entity or

consortium publishing digital materials.

A Rock Quick Look at the 15 Elements‣ Date ‣ <dc:date></dc:date> ‣ A point or period in the lifecycle of the digital object ‣ When was this scanned? When was it published? ‣ Consistency - decided by project management - documented ‣ Consider in relation to the coverage of the object ‣ Date is one of the trickiest fields to fill. You will want to decide how best

to use it for your project for consistency. There is an open text field for date so that you can reflect the type of date information you have whether it is a very specific date MM/DD/YYYY or if it is "circa 1940".

A Rock Quick Look at the 15 Elements‣ Contributor ‣ <dc:contributor></dc:contributor> ‣ Who (individual, institution, organisation - entity) is making

this object available/responsible for its digitisation? ‣ Examples: person who contributed a story or file for an Omeka

collecting project; owner or donor of collected objects.

A Rock Quick Look at the 15 Elements‣ Rights ‣ <dc:rights></dc:rights> ‣ What restrictions are held in and over this resource? ‣ This is typically a statement relation to the intellectual and

usage rights relating to this digital object ‣ Examples: spell out conditions of use for specific items here;

Creative Commons type; Public Domain.

A Rock Quick Look at the 15 Elements‣ Relation ‣ <dc:relation></dc:relation> ‣ What resources are related to this digitised object? ‣ Best practice is to refer to a <dc:identifier> ‣ Examples: a still image of a person entered as a "person" type.

A Rock Quick Look at the 15 Elements‣ Format ‣ <dc:format></dc:format> ‣ What is the file format of this digital resource? ‣ Examples include size and duration. Recommended best

practice is to use a controlled vocabulary such as the Internet Media Types (MIME).

A Rock Quick Look at the 15 Elements‣ Language ‣ <dc:language></dc:language> ‣ What is the language(s) of the digital resource? ‣ Again best practice is to use a controlled vocabulary such as

RFC4646 ‣ Examples: English; Russian; Spanish, et al.

A Rock Quick Look at the 15 Elements‣ Type ‣ <dc:type></dc:type> ‣ What defined type best represents the object you are

referencing? ‣ Best practice to use the DCMI Type controlled vocabulary ‣ http://dublincore.org/documents/2010/10/11/dcmi-type-

vocabulary/ ‣ Examples: For consistency, use item type controlled vocabulary

provided by Omeka: Document, Moving Image, Oral History, Sound, Still Image, Website, Event, Email, Lesson Plan, Hyperlink, Person, or Interactive Resource.

A Rock Quick Look at the 15 Elements‣ Identifier ‣ <dc:identifier></dc:identifier> ‣ Where will a user find this resource via the web? ‣ A direct and unambiguous identification of the resource -

unique and persistent - handle?

A Rock Quick Look at the 15 Elements‣ Coverage ‣ <dc:coverage></dc:coverage> ‣ To what defining place or time is this item relevant (spatial or

temporal)? ‣ Typically relies on a controlled vocabulary relevant to the

domain, ie. The Getty Museum / Research Institute ‣ Where appropriate, named places or time periods can be

used in preference to numeric identifiers such as sets of coordinates or date ranges.

Spend time thinking about your metadata in advance‣ This is 'simple' Dublin Core ‣ You need to qualify to describe more fully ‣ How will people find what they are looking for? ‣ How will they differentiate from one 'thing' over another? ‣ How will your information architecture refer to the digital

objects? !

‣ Useful for Straight Dublin Core: Dublin Core Generator

Spend time thinking about your metadata in advance

‣ It’s really about best practice which means although you can touch and feel an object, you must define it properly first

Step 3.1 … Add an Item‣ Enter data to the best of your ability for the Dublin Core

info - bearing in mind not all fields are mandatory; ‣ Title, Description and Subject important. ‣ Title: ‣ Description: ‣ Subject:

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‣ I suggest using an existing site for this example and scraping data from it.

Step 3.2 … Specify Item Type‣ You can select from the default ypes supported by Omeka. ‣ These can correspond to the dc:type but not tied directly

Step 3.3 … Add a File to the Item‣ You can have one or multiple files; ‣ Depends on type of item.

Step 3.4 … Add Tags to the Item‣ Why Tags with all the DC metadata?

The Added Item

Step 4 Make a Collection‣ Collections contain Items

Step 4.1 Add Items to a Collection

Step 4.1 Add Items to a Collection

Let’s Take a Look at What We Have

Step 5 Create an Exhibit‣ What is an Exhibit?

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A carefully composed and curated digital showcase that organizes the images, texts, video, audio, and other uploaded items on your Omeka site into a coherent narrative for people to browse.

Harriet Green, Librarian, University of Illinois Scholarly Commons

Step 5 Create an Exhibit‣ Exhibits consist of Sections and Pages and Group

Collections and Items !

‣ The first step is to plan your exhibit as items cannot be spontaneously organised.

Step 5 Create an Exhibit‣ Time spent at this stage is essential - define the display

architecture

Step 5.1 Create an Exhibit‣ Enable the Exhibit Plug-In

Step 5.2 Create an Exhibit‣ Success

Step 5.3 Create an Exhibit‣ Add an Exhibit

Step 5.4 Create an Exhibit

Step 6 Create a Section

Step 7 Create a Page

So, Where are we Now?

Step 8 Add a Home Page‣ Use the Simple Page Plug-In to Add A Static Page

Step 8 Cleaning Up‣ Remove Unused Components

Planning an Omeka Site1. What are the primary goals of the website? 2. Who is the primary audience of this website?

1. Secondary audiences? 3. What sections will this website include?

1. Items: (renamed however you would like Archive/Sources/Objects) links to a browseable list of items, sortable by type of item and tags.

2. Collections (renamed however you would like): groups of items, public can dig through collection to find items.

3. Exhibits: (renamed however you would like) Exhibits contain interpretative text and rely on items/sources/objects as their building blocks.

4. About-- a simple page good for publishing project descriptions, credits, rights, et al

What About Items in this Website?1. The item is the building block of your site.

1. Add the objects and materials you want to display in your site.

2. Add descriptions using some or all of the standard Dublin Core fields.

3. Once you have items in the Omeka archive, then you can build an exhibit with them or display categories of items organized by collections or tags.

2. Determine the types of items/sources/objects you plan to use in this site: (ie, Document, Still Image, Moving Image, Audio, et al),

3. Do you want to modify any of the item type fields or types? See Item_Types for additional types and explanations.

4. Do you need additional core fields? —> Install the Dublin Core Extended plugin.

5. It is wise to determine before you start building the item archive what type of consistencies you desire in your metadata--this may be especially true for fields such as date, publisher, creator, et al.

6. Would you like to establish your own Controlled Vocabulary for specific metadata fields, to make it easier for your team to enter consistent data? —> Install Simple Vocab plugin.

7. Do you need Library of Congress subject headings? —> Install Library of Congress Subject Headings plugin.

What About Items in this Website?1. Do you want to establish a controlled tagging

schema? You may add tags to individual items and exhibits. Before building your archive you may want to devise this schema to help control vocab and spelling. Tags can help you pull together different items for the purpose of arranging them on a map or creating navigational links to browse items with a specific tag.

2. Do you have materials in other databases or repositories? You may be able to batch add them into your Omeka site. Can items be exported in a Comma Separated Value format? —> CSV Import plugin.

3. Is there an OAI-PMH harvestable set? —> OAI-PMH Harvester plugin.

4. Do you have hundreds of files, or large media files? —> Dropbox plugin.

5. Do you want to display items on a map? —> the Geolocation plugin, you must geolocate each item individually.

6. Are you interested in collecting materials from your visitors through a web form, such as a story or textual reflection, photos, videos, et al. —> Contribution plugin to facilitate collecting.

7. Do you want to build an exhibit with your items? —> the Exhibit Builder plugin.

Thinking About Displaying Items1. Do you want to add social bookmarking icons to the bottom of items/

show to allow users to share links to that item w/their social networks?

1. —> the Social Bookmarking plugin. 2. Do you want to open commenting on items (only available at item

level, and for all items or none)? 1. —> the Commenting plugin.

3. Do you want to create and print QR Codes that link visitors in a physical place to individual items in your Omeka site?

1. —> the Bar Code and Reports plugin. 4. Do you have documents that you wish users to read through on the

screen rather than downloading them? 1. —> the DocsViewer plugin. 

Extending Omeka Even Further‣ Do you want to allow users to be notified of changes to

your items, collections, or exhibits? ‣ —> Adam Output (Atom Syndication Format) ‣ Do you want users to be able to harvest objects to their

own bibliographic managers (such as Zotero)? ‣ —> COinS metadata ‣ Do you want to track user demographics? ‣ —> Google Analytics ‣ Do you want to generate derivative images? ‣ —> Derivatives plug-in

Extending Omeka‣ Would you rather user PBCore (VRCore being spoken of)? ‣ —> PBCore for AV

‣ Are you working with Audio material? ‣ Send it directly to SOundCloud with the SC Plugin

‣ Do you use Library of Congress Terms? ‣ —> LOC augosuggest

‣ Would you like to crowdsource transcription of materials in your collection?

‣ —> Scripto Transcription plugin

Omeka.net in a NutshellPros ‣ Simple ‣ Lightweight ‣ Standards-Based ‣ Extensible ‣ Embeddable in other

systems !

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Cons ‣ Scalability ‣ Some cross-browser

issues ‣ Restrictions on Look and

Feel ‣ Extensive customisation

means getting into code ‣ Mobile on the way

Comparing omeka.net and omeka.orgFeatures omeka.org omeka.net

Server LAMP server required no server required

FTP client Required for file uploads and modifying Omeka not required

Web-based administrative interface for adding, editing, deleting items, collections, exhibits Yes Yes

Storage Space Determined by your server admin Determined by your plan: 500 mb; 1 gb; 5 gb; 10 gb; or 25gb

File size limitations Determined by your server admin, with ability to use Dropbox plugin for files that exceed that limit. 32 mb maximum

Sites per Installation One website for one Omeka installation Depending on plan, multiple sites available managed by one user.

Custom Domain Redirects You may point any Omeka installation to any domain name.

No redirects available. All sites are subdomains of Omeka.net (yoursite.omeka.net)

Plugins and Themes Any and all available in Add-ons directory (see more on other pages)

Not all Omeka plugins are available for use on .Net. And availability of those plugins depends on the plan chosen (see more on other pages).

Pricing Free: all versions of Omeka, and all of its plugins and themes are free and will be always.

Free basic plan will always be available, with other options available for small fee: http://www.omeka.net/signup

Support User Forums: http://omeka.org/forums Help section with detailed instructions: http://info.omeka.net

Developers' Google Group: https://groups.google.com/group/omeka-dev/ Troubleshooting help form: http://info.omeka.net/contact

Advanced development: GitHub: http://github.org/omeka

Alternatives‣ WordPress ‣ Drupal ‣ Exhibit? ‣ ContentDM ‣ Duraspace (DSpace and Fedora)

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‣ Noting that Omeka and these all can co-exist

Where to Go —> Neatline‣ From the Scholar’s Lab at UVa

Where to Go Next‣ Links ‣ Examples ‣ See the Support Page for this workshop:

http://wp.me/P40OB7-38

Upcoming Seminars and Workshops!

‣ January - Digital Project Management ‣ February - Survey of Digital Humanities Ecosystem ‣ February - Data Visualisation for Presentation ‣ March - Social Scholarship – Tools for Collaborative

Research ‣ April - Data Visualisation for Textual and Spatial Analysis

!

‣ More to come: http://qubdh.co.uk

Thank YouShawn Day - s.day@qub.co.uk - @iridium

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The Library/Institute for Collaborative Research in the Humanities

18 University Square - Ground Floor http://qubdh.co.uk