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Building an Omeka Exhibit at the Fisher Fine Arts Library: Using Zotero with Omeka

A guide for using Omeka and Neatline in the humanities

Instructions

Another way to manage images and metadata in Omeka is to publish Zotero libraries to Omeka collections. 

Advantages:

  • This can be very helpful for maintaining and managing metadata with images or other files, especially if you are already using Zotero to organize your images.

Disadvantages:

  • You cannot update your Zotero library after it has been published to Omeka. The plugin does not add new items from your Zotero library to Omeka. And publishing the same collection again results in duplicate records, which you would need to delete. (You cannot publish individual items to Omeka from Zotero.) If you already have a complete collection in Zotero and do not plan on adding to it, this disadvantage may not be a problem. And you can always add individual items to Omeka directly later if you need to.
  • You have to pay for extra storage in your Zotero online library. If you are using it for images, this can add up quickly.

Tips and Instructions

  • Detailed instructions for installing and using the Zotero Import plugin for Omeka Classic are available on the Omeka Classic documentation site.
  • You will need to make sure you have image files attached to Zotero records before exporting to Omeka.
  • Be sure your Zotero online library is up to date before exporting.
  • This plugin should not be confused with the COinS plugin, which makes your Omeka pages readable to citation managers like Zotero (so that visitors to your cite can download files and metadata into their own Zotero library).