Using Omeka as a Gateway
to Digital Projects
Digital Frontiers
September 18, 2015
Jeff Downing, Lynn Johnson, Rafia Mirza and Derek Reece
University of Texas at Arlington
Presenters
• Jeff Downing and Lynn Johnson
• Digital Projects Librarians
• Project management
• Derek Reece
• Digital Projects Librarian
• Challenges of embracing open source software
• Rafia Mirza, Digital Humanities Librarian
• Building on these projects to offer Digital Humanities outreach in the
classroom
Introduction
• As part of UT Arlington Libraries 2013 reorganization, new focus
is on digital projects and open source software.
• Decision to use Omeka as both a display platform and learning
opportunity for our staff and community.
• Using Omeka as our primary exhibit and outreach tool has led
to collaboration with our Special Collections, Digital Creation
and Outreach & Scholarship departments.
• Our Digital Creation department is learning how to adapt to
both the benefits and challenges of Omeka and open source
software:
• Jeff Downing and Lynn Johnson: Project management and building
relationships
• Derek Reece: Challenges of embracing open source software
• Rafia Mirza: Building on these projects to offer Digital Humanities
outreach in the classroom
Presenter
• Jeff Downing and Lynn Johnson
• Digital Projects Librarians
• Project management and building relationships
Omeka
• Omeka:
• “. . . a free, flexible, and open source web-publishing
platform for the display of library, museum, archives,
and scholarly collections and exhibitions” and
adheres to Dublin Core standards.
• www.omeka.org
What are the differences between the version you download and install yourself
< omeka.org/download>, and getting a hosted account on Omeka.net?
For a more comprehensive comparison, see http://bitly.com/compareomekas.
Omeka.org/downloadable
Omeka.net
LAMP server required
No server required
FTP client required
No FTP client required
Web-based administrative interface
Web-based administrative interface
Add, edit, delete Items, Item Types, Collections,
Exhibits
Add, edit, delete Items, Item Types, Collections,
Exhibits
Customize themes and plugins by editing server files
Configurable themes and plugins through admin
interface
Storage space determined by your server and/or
server administrator
Storage space according to the plan you choose.
Unlimited number of plugins and themes
Plugins and themes determined by the plan you
chose
File size limitations, determined by your server
administrator
File size limitations: 64mb
One site per installation
Multiple sites, depending on your plan, per user
account
Free
Free basic plan always available w/other options for
small fee
Omeka.org vs Omeka.net
Berachah Home: Proof of Concept
• Berachah Industrial Home for the Redemption of Erring
Girls, Arlington, Texas http://library.uta.edu/berachahhome/
• 18 item records
• Images, documents, line drawings, journal pages
• Added each item/image from scratch
• Enhanced by adding metadata
• Learned a lot about Omeka that we were able to put to
use in our next phases
• Project gave us confident to pursue a full-scale endeavor
Berachah Home: Proof of Concept
The UTA Libraries Digital Gallery:
Using Omeka for Large-Scale Hosting
• The “500” => The “10,000” => WD Smith (1940s + 1950s) => Digital Gallery
http://library.uta.edu/digitalgallery/
• April 2015: 1,100 previously-scanned items were loaded into
Omeka/Digital Gallery
• May 2015: Record count increased to over 10,700 in Digital Gallery
• Summer 2015: 9 students were hired to scan and make TIF and JPG
derivatives from our W.D. Smith Commercial Photography Collection.
Approximately 7,000 items from the 1940s were scanned and put onto the
Gallery. Additional scanning equipment was purchased
• Currently:
• 15,890 item records
• 142 Collections
• Images, negatives
• Basic information downloaded to Omeka using Special Collections data
• Metadata staff are enhancing basic metadata
The UTA Libraries Digital Gallery:
Using Omeka for Large-Scale Hosting
• Project team included members from Digital Creation, Special Collections, Access & Discovery,
Marketing
• DC staff developed site and managed content additions
• Marketing worked with DC on site design
• SPCO chose images and shared basic metadata
• A&D is engaged in metadata enhancement (adhering to Dublin Core)
• Meetings and Communication
• Weekly meetings of the entire group – important for info sharing and team building
• As-needed meetings of subgroups
• SharePoint site to store minutes, procedures, etc.
• At least two articles in Library’s internal newsletter to educate Library staff on the project
• Thoughts
• Management support critical to success
• Loading images and metadata fairly quick and easy; plug-ins are essential
• Lack of a Reports writer is problematic
• Delays, though inevitable, were frustrating!
• Knowledge gained with be helpful when designing/implementing new sites
• Omeka is Open-Source, but needs lots of customization
The UTA Libraries Digital Gallery:
Building Partnerships
Presenter
• Derek Reece
• Digital Projects Librarian
• Challenges of embracing open source software
Out of the box
Omeka.org=hosted on a local server
Benefits-variety of themes, professional site without
customization or programming skills
Technical skills
• HTML, FTP client, Web Server, MySQL database
Custom
Benefits-customization, not limited to an Omeka theme
Technical skills
• HTML, CSS, PHP, JavaScript, Web Server, MySQL
• Zend Framework
• Responsive design=Bootstrap
Challenges
• Small development community
• Omeka forums
• Omeka Developer Google Group
• Omeka website documentation is thorough and up-to-date
• Flexibility in customization-web designer wasn’t limited by the
product, so the technical staff had to adapt to the design
• UTA-new web team, not much background in the technical
skills required for customization
Presenter
• Rafia Mirza, Digital Humanities Librarian
• Building on these projects to offer Digital Humanities outreach in the
classroom
Outreach
Ideal Project vs. Current Resources
What is Omeka?
• Led to discussion of
What are Databases?
• Databases:
• Used to organize
information in such a
way that it is easily
• Accessed
• Managed
• Updated
• http://www.faculty.umb.edu/william_holmes/databasedefinitions.htm
• http://wiki.gis.com/wiki/index.php/Database
What is Dublin Core?
• What are Databases? led to discussion of What is Dublin Core?
• Dublin Core is a metadata standard used by libraries and archives for digital items that consists of 15
basic fields that can be used to describe any digital object, no matter what it is
Metadata in everyday life
•
“What is Dublin Core?” led to discussion of “What is metadata?”
Outreach
• Discussions of
• How to enter Items and their related metadata also led to
conversations around
•
•
What could they use?
What do they need permission to use?
•
Led to conversations about Copyright and Permissions
• Discussions about
• Ideal projects/end goal lead to conversations about grants
• Eventually lead to digital preservations/archiving issues
Questions?
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons AttributionNonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Contact Information
• Jeff Downing
• downing@uta.edu
• Lynn Johnson
• lynnfj@uta.edu
• Rafia Mirza
• rafia@uta.edu
• @librarianrafia
• Derek Reece
• dreece@uta.edu