As the air gets crisper and precipitation drives us indoors, Fall is a great time to reflect and to find energy for new projects and adventures.

Have you thought about the web presence your museum, archive or library collection has? Are you providing users with modern tools to help them research your records and share them with others. Here are 10 ideas to read on a blustery Fall day, and that could add some sparkle to your website and online collections.

1. Upgrade to a more modern search engine, such as our Andornot Discovery Interface, with features users expect when searching. For example, see how we helped Forestry Innovation Investment with their ThinkWood Research Library.
2. Add ever more historic content to attract users interested in local history and genealogy, like the Arnprior & McNab/Braeside Archives did with back issues of the Arnprior Chronicle newspaper.
3. Add a map interface so users can browse geographically, like the one we built for the Ontario Jewish Archives.
4. Have lots of documents? Why not index the full text of them, then when a user searches for keywords, take them directly to the most relevant page in the PDF. No more downloading and repeating the search within the PDF to find the right page. Learn more.
5. Get out in front of Community Engagement by adding the Disqus commenting system to your search results, so users can more easily discuss items in your collection, help identify people and places, and provide feedback to you.
6. Make sure your website or search engine is mobile friendly. Google and other search engines now place mobile-friendly results higher in their rankings. And make sure you have a sitemap and permalinks so your collection can be easily indexed by Google and Bing.
7. Planning to digitize large works, such as maps, paintings, or architectural drawings? Will users be able to see the fine detail in the resulting images on your website or in your search engine? Our Image Zoomer can help, by allowing users to easily zoom in on specific areas of a large image, without having to download that very large file.
8. Is your website looking dated? Maybe it has the digital equivalent of large shoulder pads or flared pants? Time for a refresh? Let us help with a Content Management System and new graphic design, like we did recently for PRCVI (the BC Provincial Resource Centre for the Visually Impaired).
9. Can't attract the attention of your own IT staff to help with your website or software? Why not have Andornot host it?
10. On a tight budget? Consider our low-cost Digital History Hub platform for putting collections online and making virtual exhibits.

Contact us to discuss any of these ideas, and ones of your own.

About this time last year we blogged about a new version of Omeka, Omeka S, entering beta release. Now we're happy to see that a final 1.0 release of Omeka S has just been released.

Omeka is a free, open-source content management system (CMS) for online digital collections. With Omeka, you can quickly build a searchable repository of archival, artifact or other records and assemble them into virtual exhibits to showcase your holdings.

Andornot uses Omeka with select clients and as the basis of our Digital History Hub platform.

Most content management systems are designed to manage a single website with a hierarchy of pages, in which are placed text and other media. In contrast, Omeka is based around items (e.g. historic documents, photographs, audio or video recordings, etc.) which can be arranged into item sets and pages of items. One Item can be used in multiple ways, as part of different exhibits, for example.

An easy-to-use web interface provides site administrators with access to all the important back-end features: configuring the site appearance and navigation, uploading items (individually or in batches, such as from a database export), changing themes, and creating content pages.

Omeka S offers users a brand-new interface and features such as:

• Manage multiple separate sites from a single installation of Omeka.
• Build and publish pages, exhibits, or digital stories by adding and mixing different content blocks.
• Create relationships between your resources - items, item sets, and media.
• Use importers to bring in content from a spreadsheet or an Omeka Classic site.
• Geolocate your content and display maps on sites using Mapping.
• Connect your installation with Fedora and DSpace repositories, with the ability to update content periodically.
• Use mobile-ready themes to customize the look of each site.

Omeka is a great choice for museums, archives, historical societies and others with cultural collections who want to make their collections searchable online. It's as easy to use for volunteers with little experience as by professional curators, archivists and historians.

More Information:

• Watch the About Omeka S Video Tour
• Play in the Omeka S Sandbox
• Sign up to use Omeka with Andornot's Digital History Hub platform
• Contact Andornot

Need a quick and easy way to showcase a collection of photos, or a portal for an in-depth online exhibit? 

Digital History Hub lets you do both!

You can quickly build a searchable repository of archival records, artifacts, photos, oral history recordings, videos, historic documents, and more.

• Ideal for archives, museums, historical societies and libraries.
• Powered by the popular Omeka system.
• Easy to use on your own, or with help from Andornot.
• Hosted in Canada.

 

Digital History Hub is Andornot's new hosting platform specially created for historical collections.

Digital History Hub uses Omeka, a popular, open-source web application used around the world to manage and search cultural collections. It's easy to use, with a wide range of features built-in and available as add-ons. Digital History Hub is fully hosted and supported, so there's nothing for you to install or configure. We'll create an Omeka site just for you, and you can get started creating collections and exhibits!

Visit www.digitalhistoryhub.com to learn more about the features available, pricing, and how you can get started putting your local history online.