Omeka Toolkit: Rights/Copyright

This guide is a toolkit of resources about Omeka compiled for a series of workshops for Virginia Tech faculty, staff, and students, as well as our larger community.

Rights for Digital Objects/Items

As a best practice, you should, whenever possible, include rights information for items so that people know if and how they can use or reuse them. Rights for digital objects can be complicated. If you are using materials you did not create, it is important to understand your rights, as well as the rights you can grant others. Hopefully, if you are creating a collection in an Omeka site, you have the right to use and share items you include, but that may not mean everyone else has the same rights. If your materials come from different sources, you may have different rights for each digital object, in which case we recommend adding a rights note at the item level. If an entire collection comes from a single source, you may instead add a rights note at the collection level. 

If you are working under United States or European copyright/rights, Rightsstatements.org has 12 different pre-written rights statements for cultural heritage organizations and individuals to use for digital objects that address these issues. They are both human and machine readable, and include text and hyperlinks you can add to Omeka.

Alternatively, you may choose to draft your own rights statement or statements for collections, items, or both. If so, we recommend you include, at minimum, the following information:

  • If others are allowed to download the items in the collection
  • If others are allowed to share the items in the collection (on another site or social media, for example)
  • If others should cite or credit the work in a certain way
  • If others can edit/remix/reuse the items in a collection
  • If you do not own the copyright, who others should contact for permission to use items

Rights for Digital Exhibits

If you are using items and collections to create a digital exhibit in Omeka, you will also want to consider a Creative Commons license on the exhibit to provide rights information for the work you created from the items (this should also take into account any restrictions on the items themselves). A CC license will allow you to indicate how others can use, share, or reuse the entirely or parts of your exhibit, including the images, text, and any other content.

The CC license website has a tool that asks a series of questions to help determine the correct license for your work and will provide text, a link, and embed code for your site. When answering questions, be sure to take into account the rights of individual items, especially if you are not the copyright owner. 

Alternatively, you can develop your own licensing for exhibits. If so, we recommend you a) review some of the CC license language/options and b) include, at minimum, the following information:

  • If others are allowed to download the items, text, or other content in the exhibit
  • If others are allowed to share the items, text, or other content in the exhibit (on another site or social media, for example)
  • If others should cite or credit the exhibit or elements of it in a certain way
  • If others can edit/remix/reuse the items, text, or other content, or the exhibit as a whole
  • If you do not own the copyright, who others should contact for permission to use items in the exhibit

Omeka Help

Are you working on an Omeka project? Do you need help getting started? Stuck on an issue or have a problem you can't resolve? Email us (omekahelp-g@vt.edu) and we will connect you with someone at the University Libraries who will try to help!