This document discusses the digital collection platforms Islandora and Omeka used at the University of Toronto libraries. Islandora is used for building and preserving digital collections, while Omeka is used to create online exhibits integrating various digital objects. The document outlines several use cases for each platform and describes how they can be used together through connectors and workflows that allow sharing of objects between systems. Contact information is provided for the librarians managing these platforms.

1. IIslandora and Omeka:
Building Digital Collections
and Exhibits at U of T
Kelli Babcock, Digital Initiatives Librarian - kelli.babcock@utoronto.ca
Leslie Barnes, Digital Scholarship Librarian - leslie.barnes@utoronto.ca

2. Presentation Overview
1. Use cases for Islandora
2. Use cases for Omeka
3. Introducing Islandora http://collections.library.utoronto.ca/
4. Introducing Omeka - http://exhibits.library.utoronto.ca/
5. Islandora and Omeka Together
6. Contact Us!

3. Why would you use
Collections UofT? (Islandora)
http://collections.library.utoronto.ca/
I need to…
● preserve a digital collection (images, data, audio,
video) in an institutional repository
● create a digital collection with permanent
identifiers
● create a digital collections to be harvested through
OAI-PMH
Or: tell us how you might use Collections UofT?

4. Why would you use
Omeka
http://collections.library.utoronto.ca/
I need to…
● create online exhibits that integrate text and
images, video, or audio
● little to no need to rely on developers: Omeka
has an easy-to-use, intuitive interface
Or: tell us how you might use Omeka?

5. What is Islandora:
a sandwich
Top layer: Drupal (display)
Middle bits: Islandora (tools)
Bottom layer: Fedora (repository)
http://islandora.ca/islandora-installations

6. Islandora at UofT:
collections.library.utoronto.ca
http://collections.library.utoronto.ca/
Purpose
● search across UofT collections through the Collections UofT
portal (de-silo)
● UofT content collaborators take an active role in creating digital
collections using a user-friendly and customizable front end
● preserves digital content according to best practices defined by
the digital curation community (Fedora Commons object
derivatives automatically generated upon ingest)
● controls access permissions to digital collections
● supports the dissemination of UofT digital collections through
Open Archives Initiative Protocol Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH)
● allows for the analytics of UofT digital collections use
● one-stop tool for digital collection creation!

7. Collections UofT Documentation
http://collections.library.utoronto.ca/
Existing Collections UofT Documentation!
Learn how to...
● batch edit image files (XNConvert / Photoshop)
● batch edit metadata files (Sublime Text /
MARCedit)
● edit metadata display
● ingest objects and build digital collections

8. Why Omeka? Exhibit Builder!
Omeka is a Content Management System (CMS): it can store, collect, and
present collections of digital objects
Islandora does all of this too and is a more robust preservation platform…
Omeka’s Exhibit Builder plugin makes it incredibly easy to make context rich,
digital exhibits that integrate images, video, audio, and text

9. Islandora and Omeka together...
● Connector plugin, which allows you to pull Islandora objects into Omeka
● Currently researching workflow for batch uploading directly from Islandora
to Omeka -
○ One-time ingest: can import objects from Islandora into Omeka
○ Collections sites and Omeka Exhibits don’t duplicate storage
● De-silo digital collections across U of T
● Visual consistency across platforms, using coordinated U of T web
templates for collections and exhibits

10. Contact Us!
● Kelli Babcock, Digital Initiatives Librarian - kelli.babcock@utoronto.ca
● Leslie Barnes, Digital Scholarship Librarian - leslie.barnes@utoronto.ca