Archive of Items

To start building an Omeka site, a user first needs to add some content building blocks called items.

An Item contains metadata, or descriptive data about that specific things, based on the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative. Items can belong to a collection, be tagged with many keywords, and used in multiple exhibits.

For more information on Working with Dublin Core, see: http://omeka.org/codex/Working_with_Dublin_Core

Watch this Screencast on Building an Archive from Omeka on Vimeo or continue reading below.

Add Items

  1. From your dashboard (yoursite.omeka.net/admin) click “Add new item to your archive.”

    2. Click to Add Items

  2. This takes you to the admin/items/add page where you will see a navigation bar on the left pointing you to different sections that comprise the item’s metadata.
  3. Fill in fields as best you can, but you are not required to fill in every fields. Click on the HTML box if you would like to style your text by adding bold face, italics, or a link; or to add formatting for the text in that field.

    4. Dublin Core metada when adding an item

  4. The first tab shows the Dublin Core metafields. These are available for every item in the archive. Each field can have multiple values; Simply click the “Add Input” link below each field title to add a new input for that field.
  5. The item type section lets you choose a specific item type for the object you are adding, such as a document, still image, moving image, et al. Once you choose the type, relevant metadata fields appear for you to complete as desired. (See Manage Item Types for information about adding/editing item types.)

    6. Select an Item Type

  6. The Collection section allows you to add this item to a collection. Collections must already exist in the system before you can add an item to the collection. (See Manage Collections for information about adding/editing collections.)

    7. Choose a collection

  7. The Files section lets you upload multiple files to an item. Individual file size is limited to 32mb. Clicking the “Add Another File” link will reveal another field for adding a file. You can associate any number of files to an item. Remember, file size contributes to the amount of storage space you will need for an account.

    8. List of accepted file typesblockquote>

  8. The Tags tab allows you add keyword tags to your item. Type in tags in the text box and click “Add Tags.” Tags will appear in a list.

    9. Add Tags

  9. Be sure to click the “Add Item” button to save your data.

    10. Click Add Item

At any time, you may check the “Public and/or “Featured” boxes at the top of the item form. Featured items will rotate on your site’s homepage if theme you chose has a space for featured items.

You may also change this status from the /admin/items page without needing to re-open the individual item.

Edit Items

  1. Access the Items from the tab in the top navigation bar in your /admin interface (/admin/items).
  2. Find the item you want to edit from the list of most recently-added items or by searching.
  3. At the far right end of the item listing, click on the “edit” button which takes you to the /edit/item/# page.

    4. Find and edit item

  4. You will be presented with the same interface for adding an item. Find the appropriate field to edit. Be sure to click the “save changes” button. If you do not hit save, your changes will be lost.

Delete an Item

You can delete an item by visiting that item’s edit page, and clicking the “Delete this Item” button at the bottom of the form. Deleting an item also deletes the item’s files.

Output Formats

At the bottom of the admin/items page, you will find that Omeka.net offers many different output feeds for sharing data from your archive, including: dc-rdf, dcmes-xml, json, omeka-json, omeka-xml, and rss2. The Atom Ouput and OAI-PMH Repository plugins provide additional ways to export and share data.