"We begin with wonder, because it is often a student’s first response to a densely annotated manuscript, a stunning comic book from a digital collection, or an early edition of a beloved novel. Such wonder is powerful, and can catalyze pedagogical engagements with the archive—a term used here in the vernacular sense, to include materials in various formats collected as traces of the present or past. Sustained classroom engagement can open up key questions about the play of cultural power that shapes individual archival materials as well as whole collections: about what gets created and preserved, by whom, and for what purposes."
This definition is adapted from Lauren Coates and Gabrielle Dean, Digital Pedagogy in the Digital Humanities
Omeka is a digital platform that has long been the standard for organizing and displaying archival materials. The tool was designed for museums and academic institutions and it works best for projects that involve collections of documents or objects. In addition to providing a way to catalog and organize those items, Omeka can also be used to create exhibits that display materials in a creative way. It is time consuming to initially load the documents or objects in a collection into the Omeka database so this tool makes the most sense if there is a set of materials you plan to use on an ongoing basis. While not the most user friendly tool in the world, students can generally learn to use Omeka quickly. Here is a sample of some Omeka projects my students created during a four-week summer class. Because Omeka is widely used in the cultural sector, students who invest the time to learn Omeka have a digital humanities skill they can add to their resumes.
Omeka S
Omeka S is a free open source tool. The Omeka S showcase has a range of interesting projects that show the range of what can be accomplished. To start experimenting with Omeka S, you will need an account on our Omeka S Sandbox. Please email me at nbrown2 at ccbc for your account information.
I created a tutorial video for my students that walks through the initial steps of adding items to Omeka and creating an Omeka page. If you would like to get started with Omeka, I recommend just following along with this tutorial. Before you begin working, you will need to have at least one image (.jpg format) saved on your computer that you can upload. You will also need to have the URL of one YouTube video. These materials are just for practicing so the subject matter is not important. Omeka Practice Tutorial.