Getting Started with Omeka: Classic, S, or Omeka.net?

Omeka is a museum. You do not write posts in Omeka. You describe things, group them, and tell a story with them.

In HT 930 we spent a whole week on this, and I opened with a line I will repeat here: a digital archive is not a folder of files on the web. It is a promise to keep. You promise that each item has context, that you have the right to show it, and that someone will still be caring for it next year. Omeka is a strong way to keep that promise for a small, interpretable collection.

The confusing part is that there are three Omekas. Let's sort them out.

The three Omekas #

Omeka Classic is the original. One installation, one public site. You add items, group them into collections, and build exhibits. It describes items with Dublin Core and extends through plugins for maps, user contributions, and more. It is also the home of Neatline, the plugin for map-and-timeline exhibits. To install it yourself, Omeka Classic 3.2 requires Linux, Apache with mod_rewrite, MySQL 5.5.5 or later, PHP 7.1 or later, and ImageMagick for resizing images.

Omeka S is the big sibling built for institutions. One installation can run many sites from a shared pool of items, each with its own theme, and it publishes linked open data. Instead of a fixed field list, it uses vocabularies. It comes preloaded with Dublin Core, Dublin Core Type, the Bibliographic Ontology, and Friend of a Friend, and Dublin Core Terms alone gives you 55 properties. Omeka S 4.0 and later requires PHP 7.4 or later.

Omeka.net is Omeka Classic that someone else hosts for you. No servers, no PHP, no tears. The free plan gives you one site, 500 MB of storage, two themes, and nine plugins including Exhibit Builder, Simple Pages, and CSV Import. Paid plans run from $35 a year (Plus, 2 GB, 2 sites) to $1,000 a year (Platinum, 50 GB, unlimited sites).

When do I use each one? #

Here is the honest decision tree:

• You are a student, a congregation, or a single scholar with a focused project. Use Omeka.net. Start on the free plan. Upgrade only if you run out of room.
• You need Neatline or another plugin your Omeka.net plan does not include, or full control of your files, and you have hosting (or a friendly IT person). Install Omeka Classic.
• Several departments or partner organizations need to share one pool of items across multiple public sites, and someone is paid to maintain it. Install Omeka S.

As I told my students, do not choose Omeka S because the letter S sounds more advanced. Complexity you cannot sustain is a future 404 page.

Walkthrough: a simple project on Omeka.net #

Let's build a small collection of three church newsletters. Swap in family photos or recipe cards if you like.

Step 1: Plan before you click #

Answer four questions first. What are your items? Who made them? What rights do you have to show them? What claim will your exhibit make? Five minutes here saves five hours later.

Step 2: Create your account and site #

Go to Omeka.net's signup page, choose the free plan, and create an account. Then add a new site and choose its address, something like stmark-newsletters.omeka.net. Short, lowercase, and descriptive.

Step 3: Turn on your plugins #

In your site's admin dashboard, open Plugins and activate Exhibit Builder and Simple Pages.

Step 4: Make a collection #

Go to Collections, then Add a Collection. Give it a specific title: "St. Mark Lutheran Church newsletters, 1968 to 1974" beats "Newsletters." Write a short description that tells a stranger what is in the group, who created it, and where the originals live. Check Public and save.

Step 5: Add your first item #

Go to Items, then Add an Item. You will see several tabs.

1. Dublin Core. This is the heart of it. Fill in at least Title, Creator, Date, Description, Subject, Rights, and Language. Do not guess. "Unknown photographer" is better than a confident wrong name, and "copyright status unknown" is a truthful rights statement. "Found online" is not.
2. Item Type Metadata. Pick a type, such as Text or Still Image, and fill in any extra fields that appear.
3. Files. Upload a reasonably sized access copy, not your 400 MB master scan. Your visitors have phones.
4. Tags. Add a few lowercase keywords.

Choose your collection from the dropdown, check Public, and click Add Item. Repeat for the other two.

Step 6: Check the public view #

Click View Public Page. Read it like a stranger. Does the title make sense out of context? Are acronyms expanded? Does it reveal more than the people in the record would want public?

Step 7: Build an exhibit #

Under Exhibits, click Add an Exhibit. Give it a title and a one-sentence argument, such as "These newsletters show how a parish organized food, rides, and childcare during neighborhood disinvestment." Add a page, then add content blocks that pair your items with your interpretation. Three items and a clear claim beat thirty items in a row.

Step 8: Write your About page #

In Simple Pages, add an About page explaining who made the site, where the materials came from, and how to request a correction. Pick a theme under Appearance. Nobody has ever failed a class over a theme.

Why this is digital humanities #

Omeka carries big questions. Who gets to describe a community's records? Who can ask for a takedown? What happens when the grant ends? The software will not answer those. You answer them, with the people whose lives are in the record.

Next week we go deeper into the Dublin Core fields you just filled out, because metadata is not busywork after the real work. It is how your public meets the object. Until then, build one item record on Omeka.net and send me the link. I want to see what you are keeping.