Omeka.net as a librarian-led digital humanities meeting place

Abstract

Purpose – This case study aims to evaluate Omeka.net, the hosted Web publishing exhibit tool, as a low-cost and technology-friendly platform encouraging dynamic academic and non-academic communities to collaborate, explore and contribute to a genre film festival resource. Design/methodology/approach – A literature review established six variables to assess Omeka.net as a viable platform for libraries seeking to administer a resource-focused website adhering to information standards with limited budgets, training and technical or institutional support. The variables identified were cost; website management; content building and management; communities, engagement and collaboration; exploration and knowledge building; and website support. Findings – Omeka.net supports many activities with notable functions for website administration; collection building; media formats; collaboration; metadata; social media; user contributions; technical support; and the creation of simple, custom pages. While templates for page layouts offer a surprising amount of choices, some options are limited. Currently, interactive and exploratory items cannot be embedded into website pages. Originality/value – This paper discusses Omeka.net, the hosted version of the exhibit tool offered by Omeka, as a platform to encourage cross-sector collaboration for digital humanities projects, addressing a gap in the literature which focuses on Omeka.org, the open-source software version installed by libraries with access to servers and technical staff.