Digital Collection Projects
What is Omeka?
"Omeka" (pronounced oh-MEH-ka) is a Swahili word meaning "to display or lay out wares."
Omeka was developed by the Roy Rosezweig Center for History and New Media beginning in 2006; Omeka 1.0 was officially released for public use in June 2009. Omeka is a non-profit project; its funding comes from a variety of US agencies and foundations.
Introduction to Omeka - Lesson Plan. (2013, December 11). In amandafrench.net. Retrieved January 5, 2017, from http://amandafrench.net/2013/11/12/introduction-to-omeka-lesson-plan/
Hosted or self-hosted?
There are two ways of using Omeka: the self-hosted software that can be downloaded at omeka.org, and the hosted version that is available at omeka.net.
Self-Hosted (omeka.org)
- Free, open source software that can be installed on a web hosting server
- University of Calgary Library hosts an instance of Omeka for class projects
- For other projects, the Omeka team has a number of suggestions for selecting an external host
- Allows you to fully customize the look and feel of the site as and to create as many different sites as you wish
- Requires a fair bit of knowledge and time
Hosted (omeka.net)
- Graduated pricing model based on space requirements
- Trial option available
- Requires much less technical knowledge, infrastructure, and labour
- Limits of space and functionality
Basic Omeka features and definitions
This video outlines the various components of an "item" within Omeka. Run time 3:29.
This video describes the function of collections and exhibits in an Omeka site. Run time 3:04.
This video describes some of the site-level components of Omeka, such as featured items and advanced search. Run time 2:24.
Working with Omeka
Themes
- Control the look and feel of your Omeka site: the colour, the font, and the layout
- There are four themes included with the free basic plan for hosted omeka.net sites
- Themes can be customized to some extent with banner images, logos and preset colours and fonts
- There are more than a dozen themes for self-hosted omeka.org sites
- If you have web design skills you can design your own theme for self-hosted sites
Plugins
- "Add ons" to Omeka that add functionality to an Omeka site
- There are currently 21 plugins and 8 themes packaged with the Plus plan on omeka.net, but there are more than 80 plugins for the self hosted Omeka
- For more information about omeka.net plugins, go here: http://info.omeka.net/build-a-website/manage-plugins/
- For more information about self-hosted Omeka plugins, go here: http://omeka.org/add-ons/plugins/
Users
You can add users in four categories:
- Super: can do everything.
- Admin: can do everything with items and exhibits etc., but can't access Settings.
- Contributor: can add items and create exhibits, but can't publish them, and can't modify items added by other Contributors.
- Researcher: can only see items, including private items that aren't published to the web. Note that items you add to Omeka are private by default; you must deliberately check a checkbox in order to publish an item to the web. This is useful when you want to include an item in your archive but don't want to publish it to the web, as for instance when the copyright status of an item is unclear. Users who are logged in can see both private and public items in Omeka, so the "researcher" role allows you to let selected individuals see but not edit your items.
Resources
If you have additional questions about Omeka at the University of Calgary, please feel free to contact Kathryn Ruddock or Christie Hurrell.