Using Omeka for a digital edition

Hi all,

I am looking for a system to allow the creation of a digital edition with the ability to create user-generated transcriptions.

Omeka comes with a plugin for transcription, but is it also suitable for digital editions? Has anyone used it for this?

The digital edition I am looking at should also provide functionality for indexes for names and places, commentary on the text and navigation by dates (timeline plugin?!).

Thanks for your help

I briefly looked into Omeka for digital editions (while preparing for of a presentation I gave last year at the SUB Göttingen) but concluded that without a side-by-side view in Exhibit Builder it was going to be of limited utility for text editions. Perhaps someone has added such a feature since then. The other serious issue is that one couldn't search content in Exhibits. Maybe that's since changed as well. Omeka is much better suited for image (only) based exhibits. Of course you can use it for other content as well (and people do) but it seems to me at least that this is where it shines.

For information on user generated/crowdsourced text transcription options, generally, see:

http://manuscripttranscription.blogspot.de/2012/04/crowdsourced-transcription-tool-list.html

Yes, the Scripto plugin should do the job for transcriptions. With some thought into the organization of an Omeka site, it should be able to handle a digital edition okay, depending on the size and nature of the work you are editing. Maybe items in collections will work, or perhaps an exhibit would work.

The Dublin Core metadata fields should be able to handle storing the names and dates and places, but it might take a little coding to make that info into true indexes. However, the Neatline plugins from Scholar's Lab also do some amazing work with places and dates.