Omeka: First Steps

In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to add an item to our Museum Museum and put it in a collection. For today, don’t worry too much about things like controlled vocabularies and authority lists; we’ll talk about that more next week. Instead, focus on learning how to enter information and upload files.

Select a museum (any museum!) and have it in mind as you begin.

Log inThe Omeka login screen

Go to http://miriamposner.com/omeka/admin/. Enter the username and password you (should have) received via email.

Examine your dashboard

The Omeka dashboard

This is the back-end of our Omeka site. We’ll start by adding an item.

Add an item to your archive

Add an item
Add an item

Click on Items on the left-hand menu and then (naturally!) Add an item.

Describe your new item

Make your item Public using checkbox circled here
Make your item Public using checkbox circled here

Dublin Core refers to the descriptive information you’ll enter about your item. Fill out the fields as best you can. Many fields won’t apply, and you can ignore them.

Be sure to click the Public checkbox so that your item is viewable by the general public. If you don’t click that box, only people who are logged into your site will be able to see the item.

To add multiple fields — for example, if you want to add multiple subjects for your item — use the green Add input button to the left of the text boxes.

Attach a file to your item record

Adding files to an item
Adding files to an item

Once you’ve finished adding Dublin Core metadata, you can attach a file to your item record by clicking Files at the top of the Dublin Core form. (You don’t have to click Add Item before you do this; Omeka will automatically save your information.)

Once you’ve added a file or files, you can add Tags by clicking on the button. You can also click on Item Type Metadata to choose the kind of thing — person, place, animal, vegetable, mineral — your item is. If you don’t see the appropriate item type for your item, don’t worry. We can add a new item type later.

When you’re all done, click the green Add Item button.

You have an item!

Browse Items, Admin view
Browse Items, Admin view

This list contains all the items you’ve added. If the item were not public, it would have (Private) after the title. To see what the page for your new item looks like, click on the name of the item.

This is not the public page for your item.

Item show, admin view
Item show, admin view

It may look like it, but this page isn’t what a non-logged-in user will see when she navigates to the page for your item. To see what a user would see, click on the blue View Public Page button on the right. (Or you can edit the item by clicking on Edit this item at the top right.)

This is the public page for your item

Item show, public view
Item show, public view

This is what a general user will see if she navigates to your page.

Create a collection

Add a Collection
Add a Collection

You can begin to bring order to your list of items by grouping them together in collections. To do this, return to your dashboard, click on the Collections tab, and click on Add a Collection.

Enter information about your collection

Add collection metadata
Add collection metadata

In Omeka, metadata is king! Enter some information about your new collection, and remember to click on the Public button near the bottom of the page. Then save your collection.

Add items to your collection

Click the item checkbox to batch edit
Click the item checkbox to batch edit

To fill up the collection you just created, click on the Items tab. From your Browse Items list, click the boxes of the items that belong in your new collection. Then click on the Edit button.

Choose the collection

Select a collection from the dropdown
Select a collection from the dropdown

On the Batch Edit Items page, select the Collection you’d like to add your items to. (Also, take note of all the other things you can do on this page.)

Check out your new collection

Browse collections, public view
Browse collections, public view

Return to your public site. If you click on the Browse Collections tab on the public-facing site, you should now have a new collection containing the items you identified.

Now that you’ve added some items and grouped them into a collection, take some time to play with your site. It’s beginning to take shape now that you have both individual items and thematic units. But Omeka can do even more. We’ll talk about that in the next lesson.