Omeka Online Exhibitions

MSU students and faculty members can create an online exhibit.  It is strongly suggested that you work with a staff member from Special Collections (sp_coll@library.msstate.edu) to assist you in curating the digital images for your collection.  

Curator's responsibilities include:

• Gathering metadata for exhibition materials.
• Gathering and formatting images of exhibition materials.
• Confirming fair use of each image.
• Preparing additional content such as narrative text and captions.
• Planning the narrative sequence and layout for the exhibition.
• Building the exhibition in Omeka using the above components.
• Addressing any issues that may arise regarding content or copyright.
• Reviewing their own exhibitions at least once every year
• Reviewing their site(s) following a major Omeka upgrade. The Omeka Expert Users Group will notify all curators when a major Omeka upgrade occurs. The curator must address any problems found during review.
• If an Omeka online exhibitions curator leaves Mississippi State University, they must designate another person from the sponsoring department to continue reviews going forward. Failure to appoint a designee may result in MSU Library removing the exhibit and any associated items from the site or, in the alternative, assuming the curation of that site.

You will need to set up a consultation with a member of Special Collections (sp_coll@library.msstate.edu) who will assist you in requesting those items be digitized.

Site Curators are responsible for identifying copyright and obtaining the copyright owner's declaration and license to include copyrighted material in their Omeka exhibit. Failure to obtain necessary copyright permission might result in a request from outside sources to remove the content or take down the exhibit. For further information related to copyright matters, consult the Copyright and Fair Use guide.

It is not possible to automatically migrate a legacy exhibition (previously independently created Omeka exhibits) into MSU's Omeka instance, but you may recreate it. If you choose to recreate your legacy online exhibition in Omeka, the final product may have a different look and feel from the original. The standard Omeka template places certain limitations on formatting but provides added functionality. Should the online exhibition curator or sponsoring department decide to recreate exhibitions in Omeka, the working group recommends the following approach:

• The online exhibition curator or sponsoring department wishing to recreate an online exhibition in Omeka should follow the procedures for a new exhibition.
• As with any new Omeka online exhibition, the curator recreating a legacy online exhibition in Omeka will have the assistance of an Expert User.
• Curators recreating legacy online exhibitions should pay special attention to image files and ensure that they meet the minimum required resolution. If digital files used for images in the legacy online exhibition do not meet this requirement, the curator has two options:
  • Acquire new digital files, whether of the same object or a substitute
  • Remove the image from the exhibition entirely
• Similarly, curators should review all metadata for image files to ensure that the necessary metadata is available, or collect any additional metadata needed to meet the minimum standard.
• If it is not possible for the legacy exhibition to meet all minimum requirements, the curator should consult Omeka Expert User's Group about options for archiving the exhibition.

For Omeka support, contact Emily Harrison, Digital Project Specialist, email: eharrison@library.msstate.edu