Unit 11: Omeka

A new virtual machine and the Omeka demo were successfully installed.  Adding items to the collection was fairly easy and straightforward. The layout makes it easy to input all metadata required.   When logged in as a contributor, making an item public or featured is not possible whereas it is possible as administrator.  This makes sense as it allows users to contribute but needs approval from an administrator to make it public.  From a user and contributor perspective, Omeka is user friendly, easy to use and physically appealing.  The other home sites we worked with in class all seem to have its advantageous and disadvantageous.  The ability to add categories in Drupal provides flexibility; however, it can be time consuming at the forefront.  The ability to import Library of Congress Subject Headings and incorporate uncontrolled vocabulary in EPrints was a plus.  The process of cataloging the records in EPrints was straightforward; it was a matter of filling in the text boxes.  I recall that I did run into one problem for one of the records in which the creator was unknown.  Since creator is a required entry in which first and last name must be filled it, I believe I entered ‘unknown’ in both text boxes (first and last name).  For my collection, EPrints worked well; however, it lacked flexibility which could be a problem for other collections.