Can a physical exhibit effectively be translated to a digital exhibit using the same text, documents, and images? And using Omeka? This is the question I set out to answer.
My goal is to translate the exhibit that I curated at the Winnetka Historical Society to an online format. The exhibit, “Serving on All Fronts: Winnetka and World War II,” connected the global war to the local community, focusing on the stories of five Winnetka servicemen and women. The exhibit examined the experiences and contributions of Winnetka residents in the war, as well as the war’s impact on the local community.
At first, I thought it might not be possible to translate the physical exhibit to the digital world using the images I had available. Before digging deep into the Dublin Core cataloging system on Omeka, I thought it was similar to the cataloging systems I’ve used in museums. Those systems are fairly specific and don’t allow for cataloging multiple artifacts on the same page. I despaired that there would be no way to properly catalog the images of the exhibit that display multiple artifacts without instead uploading photos of each individual artifact. After more searching, I discovered that Dublin Core is not that structured and I would be able to use the images of the exhibit that show multiple artifacts. Instead, I cataloged the image as the image itself, rather than providing information on the artifacts it pictures. I figured I’d let the exhibit labels themselves and other Omeka features that I discover do that work.
For now, I have some images of the exhibit itself and two exhibit labels. I organized them into two collections. As this process continues, we shall see if that works, or if I’ll have to change it. I’m really not sure how Omeka will physically translate my images and cataloging into an exhibit either. If anyone wants to check out the work in progress, here’s the link.