Hi,
I am completely new to Omeka and wish to use it to create a simple digital archive. In this archive, I was to display an image of each page of a notebook and ideally would like the transcription of each page to appear alongside each image. I also have supplementary documents (eg: photos of pictures from a photograph album) which reference the content of the notebook and need to include these in some fashion, perhaps accessible via links in the transcription, annotations of words in the image of the notebook and through a gallery of their own.
I currently have a blank canvas and am looking for an explanation of the 1, 2, 3 type of steps which will allow me to create a space/a template where I can then easily upload the various images, transcription and metadata.
It would also be great if it was possible for users to search each page in some sort of database?
Are there other useful ways to present this image? Perhaps a "flipbook" type of scenario? I was going to use Neatline but am not sure if it would suit this particular archive.
Lastly, I am encoding the transcription in very light TEI and hope to also place this on the website.
The main aims of the digital archive will be to allow public access to this part of the archive and also to allow digital preservation and scholarly research.
As I am a novice, any suggestions on any element of the above would be much appreciated!
Hi,
So what you're describing is not simple, but can be done if you're willing to do a bit of customization to the theme. I can't give you a step-by-step on how to accomplish exactly what you want to do.
The pages from the notebook can be the item, and you can create an custom item type, http://omeka.org/codex/Managing_Item_Types_2.0, that has metadata fields that extend beyond the standard unqualified Dublin Core that are available for each item. That means you can have a field for a transcription displayed on the same page as the image itself.
You can add multiple files for each item so that all of the supporting materials are in one place.
All metadata fields and webpages are searchable within Omeka.
As for TEI, you can check in with this user who was exploring using TEI Boilerplate with Omeka, http://omeka.org/forums/topic/tei-boilerplate-omeka, but there isn't a current plugin for displaying TEI with Omeka.
Good luck with your project.
Many thanks for this advice, which is extremely useful to someone who is both a non-programmer and new to Omeka.
Also, to avoid the Zoomify/slider challenge outlined in a separate query in the forums, I am considering placing the image and transcription on separate pages, as outlined above.
As there will be many images, I wish to avoid the user having access each page of the notebook via individual links on the left hand bar of the page or individual links on the body of one page. Instead, I wish to facilitate access via perhaps a calendar (each page of the notebook has a date) or a customised search option. Are there plugins which are commonly used for similar functions?
The only way you could manage that without building something yourself is to create an exhibit, and each day could be an exhibit page containing items related to that day in the notebook.