1. Omeka Web-Publishing Platform
I added our OFE title and our contact information
Omeka Web-Publishing Platform
Laurie Godwin,
Jeanne Hoover,

2. Digital Projects Things to think about:
What story do you want to tell?
Who is your audience?
How will the site be used?
What kinds of items will be included in your project
What types of features do you want?
Who will be contributing to the project?
Is the project sustainable?
Develop a plan for your project:
Building Histories of the National Mall:

3. Digital Projects
Hurricane Digital Memory Bank (2005): This is one of the fist examples of a project in Omeka. It contains stories and records related to Hurricane Katrina and Rita.
Civil War Era NC: This site was produced by history students at NC State.
New Roots/Nuevas Raices: This project features oral history of Latin American migrants in NC. UNC students had an active role in producing the project.
I will add some information about digital project planning--what if this went right after "how do I access Omeka"?  It could be a good lead into creating collections etc.

4. What is Omeka?
Omeka is a free, flexible, and open source web- publishing platform for the display of library, museum, archives, and scholarly collections and exhibitions.
Omeka was developed by Roy Rosenzweig at the Center for History and New Media, George Mason University.
Omeka allows for the creation of complex narratives and the sharing of rich collections, adhering to Dublin Core standards.
Website — Omeka.org or Omeka.net
Showcase —
**Find one to two examples from the showcase to show to the group.  Perhaps as part of the digital planning slide?  Or at the end with final products?

5. Who Uses Omeka?
Scholars — publish an essay or digital dissertation, share primary source collections, and collaborate with others in the creation of digital scholarship.
Museum Professionals — share collections and build online exhibits with objects you cannot display in the museum
Librarians — complement an online catalog or launch a digital exhibit.
Educators — build inquiry-based tasks for students, to create lesson plans with accompanying primary sources, or build learning modules.
Enthusiasts — share you personal research or collections with the world, build exhibits and write essays that showcase your expertise.

6. How do I Access ECU’s Omeka?
Submit a Help Request on the ITCS website at t.aspx. Select “Educational Technologies”
Your password will NOT be your Pirate Passphrase. You will create a unique password.
You will login to Omeka at ECU at
Check and update links

7. Differences between ECU’s Omeka and Omeka.net
ECU maintains the account and installs updates for you
Limitations on themes
Great choice for basic projects
More flexibility on what you can do (ex. Themes)
Free version—limits on file sizes and plugins
Basically, ECU’s omeka is more powerful, but there are limitations to it at this time to make it easier and more sustainable for omeka projects. If all are the same, and update won’t disturb them that much. For that reason, if you are doing an assignment or a basic collection, go with that one. One share account across campus. Omeka.net, has various payment option, but you can choose your theme, etc. with the free version. There are a variety of plugins (some only work with certain “paid” levels.) While not seen as having more flexibility perse, you kinda do have it versus the ecu one at this time.

8. Key Terms Used in Omeka
Items: This is an individual piece or unit, like a photo, that you add to your site.
Metadata: Information about your item.
Collections: This a group of items and they are often grouped together in similar topics or themes.
Exhibits: This is a final product created using your items and collections to build a specific narrative on your topic.
Archive: All of the items in your omeka account.
Tags: Terms your create to group items together. This is different from a collection as the tags are chosen by you and can be used across collections.
Collections are like file folders on your computer…grouped together in some way. Exhibits are a way of arranging your collection for a specific topic. Think museum exhibits…while you have have hundreds of items, an exhibit focuses on one topic, often times getting items from various collections to build it. You can just arrange it as a collection, but the exhibits tell the stories.

9. How do I Add Content?
Create a Collection and add an item to your archive
Items are the foundation of Omeka
Items are described with Dublin Core metadata
Items can contain files: images, audio, video, text, artifact, and more
Items may be tagged and georeferenced
Can be public or private

10. Dublin Core Overview Metadata is used to make your items discoverable
Metadata is used to standardize information (data about data). Dublin Core is used to describe digital objects
Widely used and accepted around the world
Basic and allows for flexibility and consistency
Includes 15 different fields: title, subject, description, creator, publisher, date, rights, format, type, etc.
Omeka provides a basic and advanced search option for your project. This is were your metadata comes in!
Why Dublin Core?
information about using dublin core, controlled vocabulary (project planning), and add illustration of metadata and where to search to pull up items.  Check out a faux collection (ex. Quilts) that we can work off of.

12. How can I Extend Omeka?
A plugin extends the basic functionality of Omeka beyond building a digital collection/archive.
Omeka comes with default plugins
Create webpages
Build digital exhibits
Connect with social networks
Neatline is an added plugin that makes it possible to create maps and connect them with timelines. Neatline facilitates the communication of any space and/or time- based narratives.
Neatline examples —

13. Helpful Guides and Videos
There are some excellent help guides on Omeka:
Documentation —
Videos:
Add links to the documentation and to the you tube video series.