Instructions:

Step 1 of 1

In this activity you will learn how to describe items in Omeka using Dublin Core metadata, and how to upload digital files associated with those items. You will describe and upload each of the five photographs you took, creating a collection of ten items.

1. Log in to your Omeka installation - [your domain]/mykitchen/admin
2. Click on Items on the left menu, and then click the green “Add an item” button



3. The Add item screen includes the 15 elements that constitute the Dublin Core metadata schema, each with a short statement defining what property of an item that element refers to, and a box in which to enter information



1. The items you are describing are all digital representations of objects and texts. In this case you need to decide whether you are creating metadata to describe the digital photograph or file or to describe the subject of the photograph or file. In digital humanities, we are almost always interested in the subject of the digital representation, not the file itself, so your metadata should describe what is in your photograph and documents.
2. Choose one of your photographs (you may want to open the file on your computer so you can refer to it)
3. Add information on as many of the 15 elements as you can. Not all may be properties applicable to the object in your photograph, but you need to describe the item as fully as you can (refer to the “Using Metadata Reading”). There is no right answer to what information should be included in each element; you need to decide what you think belongs, and then consistently follow that approach when describing your other items.
4. Click the “Public” checkbox under the green "Add Item" button
5. Click the green Add Item button -- NOTE, We are not finished describing your item, but Omeka does not autosave, so none of the metadata you have added is saved until you click this button.



6. Once the item is saved, you will return to Browse Items page, and you will see the item you just created.
7. Click on “Edit” under the thumbnail image of the item to return to describing this item
For additional information, see “Managing Items” in the Omeka.org documentation
4. Not all the properties of your Kitchen items that we explored in the module on digitization are included in Dublin Core (dimensions, weight, texture etc). In addition to Dublin Core, Omeka includes Item Type Metadata to allow you to describe properties specific to certain types of objects and media that are not included in the core elements.



1. To add Item Type Metadata, click on the “Item Type Metadata” tab at the top of the screen, next to Dublin Core
2. Click on the pulldown menu to see the default item types available in Omeka - choose the one that fits the subject of the photograph (in most cases that would be “Physical Object” or “Text.”)
1. If you select, "Text" add information to the fields that appear
2. If you select “Physical Object,” that there are no additional fields; we’ll fix that soon.
5. To add your photograph, click on the “Files” tab at the top of the screen, next to “Item Type Metadata” tab.
1. Click on the “Choose File” button, and navigate to the photograph on your computer, then select it and click "Choose" (Note: an item can have more than one file attached to it)
2. Click the “Public” checkbox under the green "Save Changes" button
3. Click the green "Save Changes" button
4. Once the file is saved, you will return to Item page, and you will see the file and the metadata for item you just created.



1. Click on the blue “View Public Page” button. You are now looking at the how Omeka displays the item on the web, the ‘frontend’ view seen by visitors to your site
2. 
3. Click on the “Omeka Admin" link on the top right of your screen to return to the dashboard
For additional information, see “Managing Files” in the Omeka.org documentation
6. You can edit - and add -- Item Types in Omeka so that you can create metadata that effectively describe your items. For your photographs, we need to edit “Physical Object” so that it includes the properties that we explored in the digitization module.
1. Click on “Item Types” in the left menu
2. 
3. Scroll down to "Physical Object" and click Edit (under the item type name)
4. 
5. Leave the button in the Add Element box set to “Existing” and click the green “Add Element” button -- this will create a new element field that contains a pulldown menu to Select below.
6. 
1. Using that menu you can choose one of the elements that has already been added for item type metadata. The one useful to us is “Physical Dimensions”
7. If you change the button in the Add Element box to “New,” and click on the green “Add Element” button, you can create an entirely new element
1. The new element field includes a box for Element Name (eg Weight), and a box for a description of the properties of that field (eg The actual weight of the original object)
8. Add whatever elements you think are necessary to describe the objects in your photographs
9. If you want to delete an element, click on the "X" on the right of the element box
10. When you have finished adding elements, click the green "Save Changes" button
For additional information, see “Managing Item Types” in the Omeka.org documentation
7. If the first item you added was a physical object, click on Items, and then click on the Edit link underneath the thumbnail image of that item
1. Click on the Item Type Metadata tab
2. You will now see the elements you added to the “Physical Object” item type - they will now appear whenever you select that item type
3. Add information for the properties of this item
4. Click Save Changes
8. Repeat steps 2-5 to add your other 4 photographs - note you can always edit items and item types if change your mind about the metadata you are creating

Note: There are a range of plugins for Omeka that help you manage your metadata by setting up a controlled vocabulary of options for an element (Simple Vocab), and by suggesting options based on Library of Congress subject headings or Getty Collection vocabularies. For an introduction, see https://vimeo.com/176189711.