I’ve used Omeka, a website building platform that is designed for holding digital collections, before for a class project in HIST 299, but my portion just required me to input the fields (like date, description, author, etc.) for one news article in a collection at the UMW Simpson Library. I knew that Omeka held digital collections, but I had no idea before our class discussion that it also was used for public websites and had other kinds of displays or functions. The project I’ll be working on Central Rappahannock Heritage Center could possibly use Omeka for it’s digital collections and exhibits, so I wanted to look at an Omeka site that is more archival or museum like, but also for my own personal goals look at a site that shows uses for education.
Cleveland Historical
Cleveland Historical is an Omeka site that holds a digital collection for the city of Cleveland, Ohio which contains maps of historic locations, online tours on topics such as immigration and sports, and showcases the history of the city from different businesses to cemeteries to architecture.
I enjoyed exploring the digital map. As you click further into a location and find a place you can click on a photo and then get an in depth description along with other media, like videos or photos, associated with the location. I think this was a really cool, interactive way to explore the city online. I also browsed the tours section of the website and clicked on the “Conflict” tab that had 10 locations that tell the story of urban development, inequality, and the people and events that shaped what life in the city looks like today. Each location had a picture, a short description, and the option to read more of the story or view where it is on the map. Overall, I thought the site did a great job of keeping a well-maintained, professional digital collection while still telling a story and creating an interactive experience, which is a feeling I’d like to capture in my project.
Fifteenth-Century Italian Art
On the examples page of Omeka.org under the educators section was a site for a class on Fifteenth-Century Italian Art. This site was much more simple compared to Cleveland Historical, but besides the typical course specific things like the syllabus or course readings, the site included collections of art from multiple different cites. When I clicked on a collection, it showed the curated images and when you click on one of those images it takes you to their description. The site also had an interactive map where you could click on the dots to discover what was there, it brought up the items description, and there was even a timeline feature at the bottom. I thought this was a really interesting and engaging feature to include on a class website, and seeing this definitely gave me some ideas for my future classroom.
