Since Omeka’s very first release, the platforms have been designed to support open access to both digitalized collections materials and the robust metadata that describes those collections. We have worked hard to encourage standards and protocols that facilitate the free exchange, aggregation, and reuse of materials. Our recent post on supporting FAIR data principles is just our latest articulation of this commitment to open access. However, the preferential option for open access cannot be absolute or uncritical. The sharing of collections and data involving Indigenous peoples, their interests, their archives, and their cultural heritage materials necessitates collaboration with those commmunities on the degree and manner of access which is appropriate. The Local Contexts Labels and Notices help facilitate that collaboration and will enable Omeka users to engage in more responsible collections stewardship.

The availability of the Local Contexts Labels and Notices represents our effort not only to support FAIR data principles but also to support CARE data principles. In 2019, the Research Data Alliance’s International Indigengous Data Sovereignty Interest Group defined those principles as:

1. Collective Benefit: Data ecosystems shall be designed and function in ways that enable Indigenous People to derive benefit from the data.
2. Authority to Control: Indigenous Peoples’ rights and interests in Indigenous data must be recognised and their authority to control such data be empowered. Indigenous data governance enables Indigenous Peoples and governing bodies to determine how Indigenous Peoples, as well as Indigenous lands, territories, resources, knowledges and geographical indicators, are represented and identified within data.
3. Responsibility: Those working with Indigenous data have a responsibility to share how those data are used to support Indigenous Peoples’ self-determination and collective benefit. Accountability requires meaningful and openly available evidence of these efforts and the benefits accruing to Indigenous Peoples.
4. Ethics: Indigenous Peoples’ rights and wellbeing should be the primary concern at all stages of the data life cycle and across the data ecosystem.

We are pleased to be able to support our users in upholding these principles in their digital cultural heritage projects with Omeka.net, Omeka Classic, and Omeka S.

OHMS Embed is available for all users with a paid subscription, and we are excited to see what you all make with it!

Resource Metadata is available for all users with a paid subscription. Give it a try!

Freedom is available for all users with a paid subscription. Try it out!

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Updated Plugins

Exhibit Builder—The Exhibit Builder plugin has been updated with a new block: Carousel. You can now add a carousel of files to any exhibit page.

Google Analytics—The Google Analytics plugin has been updated with a setting that that can be turned on to allow visitors to your site to opt in or out of tracking. Useful for users who need GDPR compliance, or something similar, for their site

New Plugins

Collection Tree—The Collection Tree plugin allows Omeka.net sites to have nested collections. This plugin is available at the Plus level and higher.

Embed Codes—The Embed Codes plugin enables you to share individual Omeka items as an iframe in other webpages and blogs, including Wordpress installations and Omeka Simple Pages. This plugin is available at the the Silver level and higher.

File Paginator—The File Paginator plugin allows users to page through files on an item page. This plugin is available at the Plus level and higher.

PBCore—The PB Core plugin adds elements from the PBCore Metadata standard to your Omeka site. This plugin is available at the Silver level and higher.

Redact Elements—The Redact Elements plugin allows enabled users of an Omeka.net install to redact specific character sequences in a given element field in Omeka. This plugin is available at the Silver level and higher.

Timeline—The Timeline plugin allows you to add items to a timeline in your Omeka.net site. This plugin is available at the Silver level or higher.

VRA Core—The VRA Core plugin for Omeka.net adds elements from the VRA Core Metadata standard to your Omeka site, which can be used to describe items and collections on your site. This plugin is available at the Silver level or higher.

Please check our documentation for more information on these plugins.

New Theme

Foundation—The Foundation theme is based on ZURB Foundation Sites. This is a really great, responsive theme that comes with a default stylesheet as well as 3 other style options. This is available at the Plus level and higher.

Under the direction of Omeka’s lead designer, Kim Nguyen, we have been hard at work for many months to bring you today’s release of Omeka Classic 3.0. This version of the platform sports a completely redesigned administrative interface. The software retains all the functionality that you and hundreds of thousands of other users have come to know and love over the years, while also maintaining and extending our commitment to responsiveness and accessibility.

For this release, every administrative view of the core has been updated with a fresh new theme. We had a crucial assist in this base work from our friend Michael Tedeschi, who did the first pass at the design. Then, Kim undertook the massive task of tweaking and applying those styles to the full range of views and elements across the platform. Each plugin had to be reviewed, restyled, tested, and retested across browsers and devices. When we were satisfied with the implementation, we turned our attention to updating the documentation, which included a review of dozens of pages and the replacement of all the screenshots. (Big shout out to Katherine Knowles for the heavy lifting here!)

Ken Albers and John Flatness managed the deployment of the new versions of the core, plugins, and the documentation, providing seamless service to you, the more 80,000 users who work with Omeka.net.

We hope you enjoy the new look, and as always, we’re eager to hear from you about your work!

Don’t worry—this will not change any of your content, your public facing sites, or the functionality of the software. Your data and your sites will remain exactly the same as before. However, you will now have a new, more modern interface to work in.

All of our documentation will be updated to reflect the new look, and hopefully it will be a seamless transition for all.

Look for more improvements to the site and the Omeka.net experience in the near future as well.

The Omeka.net system is now running on Omeka Classic 2.7.1. This version upgrade addressed a number of small bugs and improved internationalization in a number of languages. Also, the software now has improved support for rich text in Dublin Core Titles. You can use italics, boldface, underline, and links when entering titles for items, collections, and files. Furthermore, themes now support alt tags for header images.

Throughout the year, we also made upgrades to key plugins. Notably, the Omeka Dev Team reworked the Geolocation plugin to use OpenStreetMap instead of Google Maps, in response to Google Maps moving to a paid model. We also made a big update to the Google Analytics plugin to support the newest analytics tag. Finally, we have added support for embeds from a number of new web services (Review the full list here).

Early in 2021, you can look forward to a newly refreshed administrative theme for the core Omeka application and an array of other enhancements.

We appreciate your dedicated use of Omeka.net and are looking forward to continuing to improve your experience with the system in 2021.