Our Omeka as it Engages the Elements of Thematic Research Collections

Carole Palmer (2004) uses Unsworth's characteristics of the genre of thematic research collections to describe what they are in her chapter, Thematic Research Collections and lists that these collections are the following: "electronic, heterogeneous datatypes, extensive but thematically coherent, structured but open-ended, designed to support research, authored or multi-authored, interdisciplinary, and collections of digital primary resources" (p. 349). Of course, we also see her famous table entitled Features of thematic research collections (Table 24.1) on page 350 which outlines the points in her chapter discussing what constitutes a thematic research collection.  It looks a little something like this:

Content                                    Function
Basic elements
   Digital                                Research support
   Thematic                      
Variable characteristics
   Coherent                           Scholarly contribution
   Heterogeneous                  Contextual mass
   Structured                         Interdisciplinary platform
   Open-ended                      Activity support


So let's take a little mosey through the Saco River Estuary Omeka page and see if we have met this criteria.  Is it really a thematic research collection? (It better be, after all that work!)

Let's look at the basic elements: is it digital? Yes. Is it thematic? Yes - the theme is the Saco River Estuary.

Next up: Variable characteristics. Is the collection coherent? I'd say so.  Although we are bringing lots of information in from many different areas through various forms of scholarly contribution, the items all are coherent in that they deal in some way with the Saco River Estuary.  As far as scholarly contribution goes, there is certainly a rich collection on our Omeka site.  We have University researchers and professors and the help of Renee DesRoberts at the McArthur Public Library, just to name a few.  And our class, of course! Is the collection heterogeneous? Yes.  I already touched upon this. The Saco River Estuary Omeka site a large variety of mediums, including maps, videos, still images, and text - there is certainly contextual mass there. Is the collection structured? Our site is structured in many different ways which makes it easy to use as an interdisciplinary platform.  First, it is set up by collection.  There are fish and bird collections, which may appeal to the ecologist or biologist, map and photo collections, which may appeal to the historian or artist, and a business collection, which may appeal to the Business and Communications field.  Next, our items are tagged. That way, they can be searched in an advance search to narrow results into categories.  Each entry is also structured by the Dublin Core.  We also have exhibits, structuring our items into heterogeneous groups which are interrelated in a specified way.  Lastly, is our collection open-ended? Yes.  Our collection can, and will, be added to.  It is not finished with the end of this course.  Instead, there is opportunity for it to grow and continue growing with contributions by other scholars.

The verdict? We have a winner! Looks like the Saco River Estuary Project can officially be considered a Thematic Research Collection, according to Carole Palmer's criteria.