Overview
Unlike with other publishing programs, to add media in Omeka S, it must either be attached to an item or be added as an asset to your site. This page focuses on how to add media to an item, copyright and accessibility considerations for media, and some sources for finding open access or public domain media items that you can use in your site.
Adding Media
To add media to your site, it must first be attached to an item. To do so, select an item you would like to add media to, and select the "Media" tab at the top of the editor's view.
From here, you can upload a media item from your device, link to a media item's URL, or link to a specific media item hosted in a supported digital repository like YouTube, the Illinois Digital Library, and more. You can add multiple media items to any given item. When you first attach media to an item, you will only be able to add a "Title" to the media. However, once the media is saved to the item, you can select the "Media" tab in the left-hand sidebar to further edit the media and add additional metadata fields.
To learn more about adding and editing media in Omeka S, please visit the Omeka S User Manual's Media page.
Resources for Digital Media
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Wikimedia CommonsWikimedia Commons hosts a wide variety of freely reusable images and media. This includes content under open content licenses, such as Creative Commons licensing, or in the public domain.
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Internet ArchiveThe Internet Archive is a non-profit library with millions of free texts, movies, software, music, websites, and more. Please check the copyright and licensing restrictions for individual items before reusing them in your Omeka S site.
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DPLAThe Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) is a database of millions of digitized images, texts, videos, and sounds from the United States.
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New York Public LibraryThe New York Public Library's Digital Collections host over a million items from their collections, including prints, photographs, maps, manuscripts, and streaming videos.
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Hathi Trust Digital LibraryHathiTrust Digital Library contains over 18 million items from academic libraries across the world. Please note that access may be restricted based on an item's copyright status and the institution it came from.
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Public Domain Image ArchiveA collection of out-of-copyright media items hosted by the Public Domain Review.
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Finding Images: Getting StartedFind even more resources by exploring this LibGuide on finding visual resources related to various disciplines.
Copyright Advisory
When gathering material for your digital exhibit, it is important to be aware of copyright and licensing restrictions.
If an image or text is taken from an electronic database (e.g. ARTStor) or a website owned by an organization (e.g. The Getty, DPLA), there are often restrictions on how you can re-use and display these materials. Some material might even be in the public domain, but the holding institution can still apply licenses and restrictions.
To learn more about copyright restrictions, please review the resources below. You can also contact Scholarly Communication and Publishing or the Copyright Librarian Sara Benson to set up a consultation.
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Copyright Reference GuideA guide providing general information about copyright law, what it protects, and some exceptions to copyright.
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Copyright Services: Copyright Term and the Public DomainA page from Cornell University's Copyright Guide that provides an overview of how to determine if an item is in the public domain.
Media Accessibility
When adding media to your site, it is important to make sure that the media is accessible to all users. This includes making sure that images have alt-text, which can be a difficult field to find in Omeka S. The resources below will help you write strong alt-text for an image, as well as demonstrate how to add alt-text in Omeka S.
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Tutorial: Adding Alt-Text in Omeka SA video tutorial walking users through how to add alt-text to media in Omeka S.
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WebAIM Alternative TextWebAIM's Alt-Text guide provides an overview of alt-text and several examples of what good alt-text looks like.
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Alt-Text Best PracticesThis resource discusses best practices for writing alt-text, as well as provides examples of writing alt-text for different types of images, including photos, logos, comics and illustrations, and more.