This Project looks at examples of how Omeka can be used by comparing two sites, both made with Omeka.
The first is The Public Art Collection from Eastern Michigan University, and displays photos of artworks from various areas of Michigan, mostly found on university campuses. The metadata for each photo are not overly standardized. Each photo has a unique identifier number and reports who contributed each photo and when, but other fields may or may not be used and not always in uniform manner.
Note also the differences between the titles, the one on the left includes format and description info within the title, the one on the right has the title only.
One example is the type of title: some titles provide only the name of the artwork, some describe the piece, what it is, where it is, and even the angle it was taken from. The site is easy to navigate, having a search function and different ways to sort the items.
The second is the Reitman V. Mulkey site from Reed University, which walks users through the context and ramifications of the Supreme Court case concerning housing discrimination. There are separate pages that can be navigated through using arrows at the bottom of the screen or by clicking the page title in the header.
The first page, “Browse” is where items are listed with their metadata. Items include maps, documents, photos, and books. Even so, this information (type, format, medium) is not part of the metadata, which instead focusses on a detailed paragraph in the description field, and also has date, creator, publisher, and source fields filled in.
Note the level of detail for both in the “description” field.
Like the other site, there is a search function and different ways to sort the items – the same options as above.
These two sites have very different purposes, one constructs an argument about the Reitman V. Mulkey case, and the other simply catalogues artwork found on Michigan campuses. Both have items with metadata, but that metadata differs according to that differing purpose. Both are easy to navigate and share much the same features, though the second site contains explanatory pages not found on the first.