I’ve been working on hard on the Northfield Historical Society website recently and am excited about the progress there! Here’s what I’ve tackled recently.
Transferred the hosting of the domain to my own bluehost account.
Created a subdomain to archive the current website.
Set up a redirect to provide access to the existing content while I build out the new website.
Successfully installed Omeka on the Northfield domain.
Next steps:
Add the appropriate plugins.
Upload the metadata I created (using the Northfield metadata guide)
Upload the file images to the omeka site.
Create new email addresses on that domain?
Actually transfer the ownership to my bluehost account.
I’m working on updating and uploading my thesis to an new, online home. I’m particularly interested in the metadata and how moving from analog to digital offers new opportunities and challenges. I’ve been working on this project for a while now and think it’s time to get somewhat more serious about it. Sometimes my idealist and dreams get in the way of actual, productive work so I wanted to address them both head on here and now.
Ideals
Ideally, I’d like to use my thesis as the basis of an exploration in linked data and the semantic web. My grandest visions involve creating a “Wikipedia of Covenant history” that allows raw data (names, dates, etc.) to be incorporated into meaningful narratives as well as stand alone as definitive data sets. The narratives I have in mind would be analogous to the text of my thesis – interpreting the bare facts of the history – and the data sets would be somewhat analogous to the bibliography.
The data sources I have in mind are ambitious; they include:
Books. Given my interest, this should be obvious. But I’d also love to include other information resources: tracts, pamphlets, videos, and blog posts. Perhaps even tweets and news stories.
People. Obviously all authors and editors but also all ordained Covenant clergy, including basic biographical information. Former Covenant archivist Timothy Johnson compiled a wonderful resource that I’ve used many times – I’d love to transition that data online and mix it with other datasets
Churches. A list of all Covenant churches of all time. Ideally, this would include information such as location, date of founding, etc.
Dates. This is pretty easy – link all of these events to a standard calendar.
Events. Catalog covenant events like CHIC, Midwinter, the Annual Meetings, etc.
These would be the different data sets – at least the ones I’m currently imagining – and they would be linked by different connections. I’ve done a little dreaming and research about different taxonomies and schemas but am having a hard time (1) determining what schema/structure makes the most sense and (2) what the technical challenges would be in implementing such a thing.
Additionally, there is the question about how I would generate and manage these different datasets. I have a relatively complete lists of books…but in that process I realized how incomplete that list was and how arbitrary certain distinctions seemed in practice. For example, certain articles in The Covenant Quarterly were much more influential to Covenant life than certain books. Yet cataloging all the periodical – Covenant Quarterly, Covenant Companion, weekly newspapers! – seems like an overwhelming and daunting task but ultimately one that would be very beneficial.
I’m going to spend sometime in the next few days exploring other examples of linked data set so that I get a better sense of how these things can related, what relationships already exist, and what tweaks I would need to make locally.
I’m imagining both a site where these different entities are linked to each other (much like my current sites in Omeka) but also where the user could browse and filter so as to ask relatively complex questions and get back hard data in response. For example, a list of pastors that served at a given church, list of churches started in a certain decade, books written by North Park grads, etc. I think this falls squarely in the “digital humanities” ball park and I’m excited to continue thinking about it.
Used under CC license – https://flic.kr/p/8agsb6
Practical
I’m going to start building an omeka site that will import the Zotero for my thesis and create items for each book. This will also allow me to generate: a small set of names to begin thinking about people and some items to plot on a timeline (to see what features are available there). I think it will also be nice to get the data into a “better” format – i.e. a format where a limited amount of metadata is structured in such a way that it can move moved to a different system.
At this point, I’m thinking of these datasets much like tables in a database but I think there are alternatives (XML, JSON, etc.) that are worth exploring and a sample set of this size – and a project with no real consequences! – is a perfect test run.
I also think practically about how I will generate the datasets that I need to complete this project. That is a bit daunting but the raw data is available in the Covenant Yearbooks. Ideally, I’d build on existing works but that’s a start.
I’ve been fooling around with Omeka for two years now – and it’s time to get serious. I’ve decided to try and set up a whole test environment on my local machine so that I can try to do more customizations.
Download XAMPP (https://www.apachefriends.org/index.html) and follow the standard installation process for XAMPP.
Clicked “Databases” tab and created a new database.
Clicked on that database, then the “Privileges” tab, then created a new user.
Important stuff from this step: database name, user name, user password.
Extract the Omeka Download into the XAMPP htdocs folder (in my case, C:\xampp\htdocs). I renamed this “north” to relate to a project I’m working on now.
Update the db.ini file here (C:\xampp\htdocs\north) with the information from the steps above.
Open a browser and head to http://localhost/north
Complete the installation prompts.
I ran into two problems that I wanted to fix. First, on the main install screen I got the following warning:
To Fix this problem, navigate to C:\xampp\php and edit the php.ini file. Uncomment the following line
extension=php_fileinfo.dll
by removing the “;” from the start of the line. Then restart the Apache server through the XAMPP interface. Problem resolved!
The second problem was getting the image magick extension installed. This proved to be a major problem and one that is still unresolved. However, because I had an active installation, I found a solution by simply copying the SQL database from my live webhost to my local host and then copying files from that server to my local machine. This allows me to do local changes without having that extension installed. Ideal? No! But functional.
It’s Winter Break at North Park – this means my evenings are more free for side projects. A long-standing side project has been working on installing and stylizing a few Omeka sites. I’ve written some about this project already – but haven’t been as productive as I wish. But, ever the optimist, I thought I would press on with a brief update as well as some goals.
First, that header is entirely untrue; I’m not creating a new Omeka theme – I’ve just borrowed and tweaked an existing theme! The theme I’m using is Deco and I’m tweaking it, pulling it apart, and otherwise changing it. It was a relatively easy process: first, copy the entire theme folder (from public_html/omeka/themes/deco) to a new folder ( to public_html/omeka/themes/coffee) and, second, change the theme.ini file with my own data. This was actually pretty easy.
Customizing the Main Page
Next, I wanted to customize the main page of my Omeka site. Essentially, I wanted to remove the second column and just have the contents span the entire width. I accomplished this by editing the index.php page. I could have done a better job keeping track of those changes – but I did backup that file beforehand – but it really wasn’t more difficult that just removing the two <div> markers.
Changing the Deco_Get_About function
I wanted to removed the awkward <h3> header from this function – I did this by deleting a bit of code from the custom.php file responsible for this. It was pretty easy and looks great!
Future Projects
A list of future projects/ideas for this theme:
Create a cool logo to replace the text.
Add a secondary set of page navigation tools to each item page.
In the very little spare time I manage to find, I still try and update my personal family archive project. Again, it’s been a great experience working with a wonderful (and very personal collection!) and I’ve learned so much. I feel like I should write a little about that project here to show what I’ve learned.
People – This was surprisingly difficult and I dithered on this for quite sometime. First, I created a controlled vocabulary of sorts using the person’s official birth (therefore maiden) name. Then I decided to use the tagging system within Omeka to describe the people in the resource. For the intended audience, this is perhaps the most important piece of metadata and I wanted it featured prominently.
Date – trying hard to use the international standard yyyy-mm-dd consistently through out this project. Inferred dates are entered in square brackets [] and partial dates are left incomplete.
Language – for the few items I’m including that have a language component, I’m using a controlled vocabulary (via the Simple Vocab plugin) to describe the language of these resources. Right now it’s just English and Dutch.
I’ve written about my personal project using the Omeka tool in the past, but wanted to provide an update that I recently updated to Omeka 2.0. Here is the news piece from the Omeka blog: http://omeka.org/blog/2013/01/24/omeka-2-0-drops-today/
However, updating from my previous install to the brand new 2.0 version took a little work – especially because I made a relatively major mistake in (somehow) deleting one of the thumbnail files that Omeka requires. The site is working, but I learned a few valuable lessons in the process.
Back up all files. I had to rely on the back up service that bluehost provides. Well that worked just fine in this case, it was scary to think that data might have been lost. Lesson learned.
Open source rocks. I had to post a question on the Omeka help forum and was amazed at the quick and helpful response. Also, reading through the other postings was extremely helpful in seeing what the problems are and seeing what others are trying to do. It was great.
DYI is the way to go. Even though I had a few hours of fear and confusion, doing this myself has taught me so much about websites work and are built. Even without changing the files, I’m getting a better sense of how things like SQL, PHP, and CSS all relate to each other.
I could offer a more technical version of how to do this install – but following the steps they have posted eventually worked for me. I’ll update more as a I play around in Omeka 2.0, but wanted to share my progress so far.
It’s been a while, but I’ve been busy doing some scanning as well as working on other projects. Forgive me for neglecting this blog!
Just read a cool thing on the Omeka development blog. I know it’s a baby accomplishment, but it’s my own way of getting into the more technical conversations about websites and I’m proud of myself nonetheless. Here’s how I changed the heading “Dublin Core” to “Description” for the items. (And here is the source I used: https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!topic/omeka-dev/raQ5FEok3rc)
Find the “item-metadata.php” file. Hint: it’s in application/view/scripts/items.
[Write a description of what this file does…]
Copy that file to a new location – theme-name/items/
As noted, moving this file to a new location helps preserve this change through future upgrades to Omeka. I’m sure if I changed the file in it’s original location, it would have worked – however, the change would have been lost in a future upgrade to Omeka itself.
I’ve removed the variable $setName and used the literal value “Description” instead.
That’s that! I’m quite happy with this minor change and glad that I managed to even read that helpful comment by one of the developers. Things I’ve learned:
Apparently themes trump the built in displays. Somehow omeka must look at the files in theme ‘first’ and then revert to the standards provided in the application itself. Very interesting.
Learned where to look to change somethings. Very intriguing.
I’ve got a very long list of things yet to learn, but so far so good!
Changing the default map type for the Omeka Geolocation plugin.
Install the Geolocation plugin.
Navigate to the map javascript file – example/omeka/plugins/Geolocation/views/shared/javascripts – and open it.
Look down to about line 45 – find the line that starts like this: mapTypeId: google.maps.MapTypeId.HYBRID (or just search for “mapTypeId”)
Now you’ve got choices to make! By changing just the last word in that line of code, you can change the default form of the map. From the google map javascript site:
HYBRID – displays a transparent layer of major streets on satellite images.
ROADMAP – displays a normal street map.
SATELLITE – displays satellite images.
TERRAIN – displays maps with physical features such as terrain and vegetation.
Save the file you just edited and refresh your site to see the changes. This worked quite well for me and I’m very pleased with the change.
Geolocation went from a view that was not helpful to my collection
to a beautiful satellite image of my family’s farm!
Very pleased with the results!
As I said, I know nothing about how the internet works – I’m claiming this works because it worked for me. If it’s not the right way, please let me know so I can correct it! Thanks!
As my book selection and earlier post might have implied, I’ve been interested in learning more about digital collections and the technological tools that can preserve, describe and share them. After some searching, I have settled on Omeka and Archon for my sandbox trials. I’m focusing mostly on Omeka, but be on the look out for information about Archon too!
I soon realized that any real test would require a collection of items to describe – so I started local and started scanning some old family photos. While it doesn’t have a lot of external meaning, it’s been a great collection to work with – it has a small but very interest patron group. I just wanted to share some progress I’ve made as well as future goals
Installing Omeka
Installing Omeka and downloading different themes and plugins was a breeze. The directions posted on the Omeka website made it all very easy.
This has been a bit of a headache. Initial attempts at using my family’s printer/scanner/copier provided very slow and lack-luster results. It also had some technical limitations that, while regrettable, I’m not upset about. For reasons related mainly to software, I’ve decided to forgo making true archival quality TIFF scans and have been scanning at the lower quality JPEG form that can be posted directly online without conversion.
Right now – I’ve been scanning photos at 400dpi and saving them as JPEGs. This has been more a matter of hardware – scanner quality and lack of hard drive space for larger TIFF files – but I’ve been pleased with them so far. But, like any good experiment, this might change in the future.
Changing Themes and Plugins.
I know next to nothing about the alphabet soup of internet acronyms – CSS, HTML, PHP, etc. One think I’m hoping to learn about in this process. I’m jumping right in an making minor changes to the CSS here and there (mostly on a trial and error basis) but have been learning a bit more each time. Eventually, I’ll jump in a create my own theme – but I’m quite content tweaking other themes at this point. Will keep this site posted on that front.
I did have a minor triumph that I think I can explain. One of my favorite plugins is the Geolocation plugin they offer. I really love maps, so this was one of my first plugins to install. I still really liked it, but – given the rural nature of my maternal home – I wanted the default view to be Satellite or a hybrid view and not the default street view it provided. I was convinced this could be changed and – lo and behold* – it could! Edit: Here’s how I did it!
Metadata Creation
I’ve got some basic descriptions and dates in at this point, but I want to think carefully and develop a bigger plan about metadata – once I’ve developed it, I will post it here.
Miller, Steven J. Metadata for digital collections : a how-to-do-it manual. Facet Publishing, 2011.
Over the weekend, I read Steven Miller’s book “Metadata for digital collections : a how-to-do-it manual.” Overall, the book was a perfect introduction to the fascinating (and still developing!) field of metadata in the context of digital collections. The book found a very nice balance between abstract theory and practical advice and was easily readable by someone with no professional training in the field.
In particular, his explanations and examples of the Dublin Core set of metadata in actual digital collections was a strength of this book. It provided a strong overview of some of the more nuanced elements of the Dublin Core – type vs. format, for example – as well as some other principles relevant to creating digital collections within a broad metadata framework.
Moving forward, I plan to continue reviewing and revisiting this book as a I begin to plan and explore the joys and challenges of creating my own digital collections within the Dublin Core framework using Omeka. I think that will be the best way to really comprehend the subtle differences among the elements and see how a universal set of standards can be adapted to describe a unique set of digital objects.
I thought this book was very readable and very worthwhile. I clearly accomplished the goals set out in the preface: “[to guide] students and working professionals through the basics of digital resource description, raising their awareness of commonly encountered challenges, along with common solutions” for a variety of different metadata schemes and to leave readers with “a solid working knowledge of metadata for digital resources that they can put to use in their jobs or take with them into today’s professional marketplace.” (xvii and xxi, respectively)
I plan on keeping it on my shelf and will likely reference it frequently in the days and months ahead. Highly recommended.
