Using Omeka at Berea
Omeka is a simple web publishing system ideal for archives, historical societies, libraries, and museums for making searchable digital collections of primary source material. Considering this, the organization of Omeka.net and Omeka Classic makes the most sense when thinking about physical archives and cultural heritage institutions. Omeka is organized through Items, Collections, and Exhibits. Users interact with items by collections or exhibits on your site and learn more about the project through simple pages.
There are three versions of Omeka, each slightly differing in functionality and purpose. This guide is focused on getting started with Omeka.net which satisfies the needs of the average student or library user.
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Omeka.net: If you’re new to Omeka, we recommend that you use Omeka.net. Here, you can build an Omeka website hosted for free on the Omeka.net servers. Omeka.net works well for classroom instruction, allowing each student to manage their own site independently. For more storage space and access to a wider variety of plugins, the institutional Omeka.net account is available to Berea College faculty, staff, students, and project collaborators. Contact houstonl@berea.edu to discuss options. Review the Omeka.net Use Guidelines below to determine if the institutional account is right for you.
- Omeka S: Omeka S is a next-generation version of Omeka Classic. Designed for universities, galleries, libraries, archives and museums, users can collaborate and create exhibits from a shared pool of items, media, and metadata.
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Omeka Classic: Best for those who run an independent website on their own servers, Omeka Classic offers a full installation of Omeka on your own website with software available online for free.
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Hutchins Library is happy to host Omeka.net sites for Berea College faculty, staff, students, and their project collaborators on the institutional account. This subscription provides more storage space for your site as well as additional plug-ins to make your site more dynamic and interactive.
If you are interested in teaching with Omeka, please follow the steps below:
- Complete this online proposal and agreement form. The Digital Initiatives Librarian, Abby Houston, will contact you to set up an initial consultation after this form has been submitted.
- Your site will then be created within one week of the consultation.
- You must supply the Digital Initiatives Librarian with a full class list to create roles for your students in your Omeka site.
- Book an Omeka working session for the Digital Initiatives Librarian to demonstrate using Omeka. This is highly recommended but not required.
- After your Omeka teaching session, your students may book one-on-one consultations with the Digital Initiatives Librarian to troubleshoot issues as they come up.
If you are interested in using Omeka for research and scholarship purposes, please refer to step one above and wait to be contacted regarding an initial consultation.