This week’s readings and examples were on how to effectively use Omeka. Omeka provides an open-source web-publishing platform that is optimized for use by libraries, museums, and archives. In the ever increasing digital world, institutions have learned the importance of digital exhibitions that reaches a worldwide audience instead of patrons who must physically visit an exhibition.
Omeka’s use of open-source software has given an edge over the increasingly commercialized exhibits that can be used as a corporate marketing campaign instead of historical fact. The use of exclusive websites, paywalls, and other virtual forms of gatekeepers of marketable historical content has become much too common in the digital era. Omeka’s functions offer a more standardized way to give the opportunity to learn while allowing access without financial compensation on the so-called information superhighway.
Omeka’s blend of standardization, along with customization allows the creator to reach wide audiences by limiting the superficial, yet allowing a personal touch to the source material. The simple navigation allows either a direct route of a timeline according to a narrative, or a sandbox experience of allowing the audience to view the timeline according to their interpretation of the events. Additionally, the ability to create pages with content that is not overwhelming or a difficult user interface allows seamless transition through the source material. For individuals and historical organizations alike, Omeka provides a digital soapbox free of questionable influences, yet provides a revolutionary way to view history with minimal infrastructure investment in tandem with a traditional physical exhibit.
