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At Andornot, we're big fans of the Omeka web publishing and content management platform, as a low cost, easy, simple way to get historic, cultural or other content online. Why, we've even launched a whole website dedicated to it: Digital History Hub !

One of Omeka's many strengths is the selection of plugins that add all sorts of extra features. By our count, there are over 90 of them. Most are listed here and here, but we've found a few others around the web too. Some of the plugins are older and not as actively supported as others, or serve only a very specific purpose, or are not of use to very many Omeka users.

We've reviewed and tried them almost all of them, though, and present here our most highly recommended ones. These are plugins that, in our view, should be added to almost every Omeka site as they are each so useful and so likely to appeal to a wide array of Omeka users. About half are helpful for Omeka site administrators, while the other half offer new features in the public side.

Learn more about each plugin by clicking its name here: http://omeka.org/add-ons/plugins/ and then the More Info link.

Plugin NameDescription and Andornot Comments
Admin ImagesAllows administrators to upload images not attached to items for use in carousels and simple pages. Very handy.
Bulk Metadata EditorAdds search and replace functionality, allowing administrators to update metadata fields over many records quickly and easily.
CSV ImportImports items, tags, and files from CSV files. Great when you have data in another database, such as Inmagic DB/TextWorks and don't want to re-key it into Omeka.
Derivative ImagesRecreate (or create) derivative images (e.g. thumbnails). Handy when the initial size set proves to be too large or too small for the selected theme. Saves re-uploading each image.
Exhibit BuilderBuild rich exhibits using Omeka. See jpl-presents.org for an Omeka site that uses exclusively exhibits to present content.
HTML5 MediaEnables HTML5 for media files using MediaElement.js, to allow streaming playback. Great for sites with audio and video recordings.
Google AnalyticsA small plugin to include Google Analytics JavaScript code on pages. Everyone should want to know how much traffic their site gets!
Search By MetadataAllows administrators to configure metadata fields to link to items with same field value (e.g. click a Subject link to view all records with that same Subject).
Simple Contact FormAdds a simple contact form for users to contact the administrator. Be sure to configure the RECAPTCHA anti-spam feature too. Requires mail sending ability on the server, but a nice alternative to just listing an email address.
Simple PagesAllows administrators to create additional web pages for their public site. In our view, every site should have at least some sort of About page with more information about the site, who created it, etc.
Sitemap 2This Omeka 2.0+ plugin provides a persistent url for a dynamically generated XML Sitemap, for SEO purposes. With this enabled, create a Google Webmaster account (and similar one in Bing) to feed your site into these search engines.
Social BookmarkingUses AddThis to insert a customizable list of social bookmarking sites on each item page. Great for helping users share your items on Twitter, Pinterest, Facebook, Google+, etc.

All of the plugins above are installed and ready to use in every site built through our Digital History Hub.

The next list of plugins below are those which we think are quite useful, on a case-by-case basis. We make them available in every Digital History Hub Omeka site, for the site owner to install, configure and use if it suits their needs, their data and their audience.

Plugin NameDescription and Andornot Comments
CommentingAllows commenting on Items, Collections, Exhibits, and more. Most useful for gathering feedback from other site administrators, in our view. Consider Disqus instead for public comments (Note: there is an older Disqus plugin, but it may need updating).
ContributionAllows collecting items from visitors. Great for engaging the community and gathering additional contributions to a site. Requires the Guest User plugin.
Contributor ContactSupplies administrators with tools to contact contributors in bulk. Complements the above Contribution plugin.
CSS EditorAdd public CSS styles through the admin interface. Useful when you don't have access to the theme's CSS files and want to make some minor adjustments.
GeolocationAdds location info and maps to Omeka. Who doesn't love browsing a map as a way of discovering resources!
Getty SuggestEnable an autosuggest feature for Omeka elements using the Getty Collection controlled vocabularies. Could be quite useful for art and architectural items, as well as place names.
Guest UserAdds a guest user role. Can't access the backend administrative interface, but allows plugins such as Contribution to use an authenticated user.
Hide ElementsHide admin-specified metadata elements. Great when you really don't need even the 15 Dublin Core elements and have, perhaps, volunteers performing data entry – makes it even simpler for them.
PDF EmbedEmbeds PDF documents into item and file pages. Very useful if you have these in your Omeka collection.
Simple VocabA simple way to create controlled vocabularies, such as keywords or subjects, for consistent data entry. Works best with small-ish vocabularies.
Simple Vocab PlusA fuller featured option for controlled vocabularies with auto suggest.

Visit our Digital History Hub site for more information on Omeka and low-cost hosting plans, or contact us for help getting an Omeka site up, or for adding these or other plugins to an existing one.

And watch this blog for more in-depth posts about select plugins. Next up is a step-by-step guide to exporting data from an Inmagic DB/TextWorks database, then batch importing it into Omeka.

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