Omeka, you say? You know you’ve heard it about somewhere – not sure how it’s pronounced, maybe like “omega”? – and it had something to do with a class or maybe an exhibit. People at Duke seem to be using it, but how are they using it, exactly? And is it worth taking the time to learn for your project?
Well, this is your opportunity to find out, from a cast of local (and global) digital humanists. On Wednesday, March 18, in The Edge / Murthy Digital Studio, we’ll be hosting two events to help the Duke community learn more about using Omeka:
1:00-2:00 / Sonic Dictionary: A digital database of sounds
Mary Caton Lingold, Darren Mueller, Rebecca Geoffroy-Schwinden, Will Shaw
Register: http://tinyurl.com/edge-sonic
Student members of the Audiovisualities Lab and the Soundbox team, along with the Libraries’ Digital Humanities technology consultant, explain how they used Omeka to create the Sonic Dictionary, a crowd-sourced digital project for use across courses at Duke and beyond. The Sonic Dictionary is an experimental reference source for audio culture – a database of audio recordings created, curated, and cataloged by students and incorporated into visual narratives. The Sonic Dictionary team will cover the pros and cons of using Omeka for this work, and other tools and considerations for developing a sound-based data project.
2:15-4:00 / Introduction to Omeka
Alex Gil
Register: http://tinyurl.com/edge-omeka
Alex Gil, Columbia University Libraries’ Digital Scholarship Coordinator and globe-trotting humanist, leads an introductory workshop to Omeka, focusing specifically on how to begin using the externally hosted version of this software. Using the free account that they set up in advance of the workshop and objects they’ve gathered, participants will create their own exhibit in Omeka.
We hope you’ll join us! Of course, if you’d like to learn a little bit more about how Omeka is being used before you decide to come, check out the following created by members of the Duke community, as well as the array of examples in the showcase of section of the Omeka website:
- “Not as rewarding as the North:” Holger Cahill’s Southern Folk Art Expedition
Essay by Katherine Jentleson, PhD candidate in American Art History, member of the Wired! Lab, and incoming Curator of Folk and Self-Taught Art at the High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Georgia (click on illustrations to see use of Omeka Neatline) - I Recall the Experience Sweet and Sad: Memories of the Civil War
Omeka exhibit curated by Jessica Janecki, Meghan Lyon, and Kim Sims of the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library - Visualizing the New Woman
Omeka website by Hannah Jacobs, MA in Digital Humanities graduate of the King’s College of London, and currently Multimedia Analyst for the Wired! Lab
