Off-the-shelf archive solution / publishing platform for media-rich digital collections
Getting Started
Use https://www.omeka.net/signup to create a new account while utilizing the Trial Plan. It also displays info upgrading plan tiers
Dashboard -where a user can manage their personal account like updating passwords, personal information, upgrading the account plan, and deactivating their account, additionally, this dashboard allows you to access all the sites that you can manage, including sites that you have been invited to manage
- Plugins –commonly utilized plugins that are associated with archives and research
- Appearance -adjust overall appearance of the site
- Themes –configure a new theme and color scheme for the site
- Navigation –set order and title of links on menu bar of site
- Settings –Adjust appearance settings like results per page, shape of thumbnails etc.
- Users –manage all users of the site, including their roles and emails, as well as ability to invite a new user to manage the site.
- Settings –site level settings
- General –change admin email, site title, description etc.
- Search –adjust how the search functions within the site
- Element Set –adjust the metadata type and how it appears for an item
- Item Type Elements –adjust specific information about the metadata types
- API –allow your site information to be utilized by external products/software
Adding a page
Simple Pages-allows you to easily create web pages for your public site using a simple form. It requires no programming knowledge, and optionally allows users to add basic HTML markup. This is how the each tab was made on the homepage.
Add Hyperlink in Page
The Hyperlink that is attached onto the Muslim Voices Page is a page that will take the user to browse all interviews under the Muslim Voices Collection. The HTML editor also allows to embed an image and html source code (by clicking <>).
Add item (interview)
- Dublin Core –common metadata options for the item, such as Title
- Item Type Metadata –metadata option for more specific items such as Oral History
- Files –add a file from your computer, with a maximum size of 128 MB
- Tags –add specific tags for the item
- Add an Item, can select for the item to be Pubic and/or Featured on the site
- Drop down menu to add Item to aparticular Collection
Entering Interview Metadata
Data entry- interview information will be entered under the Dublin Core and “Oral History” item. Audio files can be appended under Files and tagged under the “Tags section” for search. The Dublin Core is important because it is what displays the title of each individual interview on the page. It is a type of metadata applied auto to all Omeka items, general consistent way to documenting types
If the user is ready to publish the interview onto the site, then the “Public” check box must be checked. Unchecking public will allow to store the metadata/files on the site without public access.
The drop-down arrow under collection will be able to allow the user to select which collection to group the interview with. (For ex. Muslim Voices).
Add/Edit Item Type
In order to change the metadata labels that are displayed in the individual interview, the item type elements must be changed. This can be done by going to “Item Type” and then select “Oral History”. At the bottom of the page the user will be able to add a “new” element and delete an existing element by selecting “X”. Make sure to save changes afterwards.
Modify search/meta display
The User has access to control what metadata types are searchable through the “Hide Elements” plugin under “Plugins”. The search and form columns are there to hide the data types that aren’t necessary by checking the box.
Share Stories Contact Form
The contact form to share stories was added through the “SimpleContactForm” plugin and was hyperlinked to the Contact Us page (under SimplePages).
Social Media Function
The social media function at the bottom of each interview was added via the Social Bookmarking plugin.
Add Collection
Collections are Omeka’s method of grouping multiple interviews. So, this allows for the user to group multiple interviews into a collection such as Muslim Voices. Check the public check box to show the collection on the site.
Feature an Interview
Featuring an interview would allow to display the interview on the front of the homepage. Only one interview can be featured at a time, as well as one collection. To include a featured interview, select configure themes under “Appearance” and select the checkbox
“Display Featured Item”
To select an individual interview to be featured checkmark the “Featured” textbox, while editing the interview under “Items”
Linking the IDCL website
The IDCL website was linked through the “navigation” tab under “Appearance”.
Linking transcript under interview
Use Wordpress to host transcripts of otter.ai interviews. Take the URL from it and hyperlink it under “transcript” metadata of oral history.
Exporting Metadata onto Excel
- Access this link https://github.com/omeka/PythonOmekaApiToCsv/tree/py3
- Download the zip file from the link and follow the instructions
- When asked for your Omeka endpoint enter: https://religionstx.omeka.net/api
- If this doesn’t work, click the link and copy the URL from the browser
- When prompted for your Omeka API key, press Enter
- You should see “Exporting items” and the CSV files will be generated where you downloaded the zip file
Additional Resources:
Omeka has various ready-made documentation guides available at:
https://info.omeka.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/user_guide_for_enthusiasts.pdf
https://info.omeka.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/user_guide_for_educators.pdf
https://omeka.org/classic/docs/
Check out Omeka’s forum or Contact them through their “Contact Us” Page to see if others have the same question
https://info.omeka.net/contact/
