Using Omeka.net for digital exhibits: Omeka.net

Why Omeka?

Omeka is a content management system (CMS) specifically built for digital exhibits, it is widely used by the GLAM (Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museums) Community. It also has great documentation and projects to draw upon for inspiration.

Particulars about Omeka

• Can be used in a variety of ways
  • Omeka Classic can be installed on your own server space for full access to plugins and themes.
  • Omeka.net is a hosted service for Omeka Classic. It can be used to build your own digital exhibits for free, but themes and plugins are limited for free accounts.
  • OmekaS is a next generation version of the software, needs to be installed on a server. Used for Marriott Library Digital Exhibits at exhibits.lib.utah.edu.

Building Blocks of Omeka.net exhibit

Items, Pages, Collections, and Exhibits

• Items: Building blocks for exhibits, can be used in or referenced anywhere in your site.
• Collections: useful for grouping items together, with a particular theme or characteristics.
• Pages: Useful for orienting readers to your website, describing your project, providing long form narration about your findings.
• Exhibits: Provide information to the people visiting your site, with a more structured visual orientation. Exhibits can have multiple pages with different layouts depending on your content. Useful when you want your readers to see groups of your items in a particular, more linear context.

Exhibit Elements

How you arrange your exhibit elements is up to you, the narrative you wish to tell, and the materials you wish to showcase. Some possible exhibit layouts:

• Exhibit with introductory page, and sequence of 4 pages, with 1-2 paragraphs of text, linking to 4 items on each page.
• Exhibit with long-form essay, introducing collection of a dozen primary source materials that users are encouraged to explore on their own.
• Exhibit with embedded map containing geographic locations for collection of primary source materials, with accompanying mini-essays attached to collection items.
• Timeline arranging collection of primary source materials.
• Exhibit of oral histories, with photos and an essay to provide context for the reader.