Omeka S is an open-source web publishing platform used by libraries, archives, museums, universities and research projects to organise, manage, connect and publish structured digital resources and metadata online. Developers, experienced users of Omeka S and digital heritage professionals representing 17 institutions from seven countries came together for three days of knowledge exchange, technical discussions and collaboration. Rather than following a traditional conference format, participants helped shape the programme themselves, bringing their own experiences, questions and challenges to the table.
Three days of exchange and collaboration
The interactive format created space to discuss current developments, exchange expertise and work together on topics relevant to the Omeka S community.
The Omeka core team presented recent developments in Omeka S and reflected on future directions, including performance and usability improvements, Omeka modules, hosted services and their 2027 roadmap.
Participating institutions showcased their own implementations and ideas with Omeka S in a series of lightning talks on various topics, such as digital collections, archival environments, controlled vocabularies, infrastructure as code, Linked Data and IIIF.
By means of a co-creation session, the topics for the six parallel discussion sessions were established. Participants had the opportunity to openly discuss common challenges, such as:
- Config API and deployment
- Multilingualism and transcription
- User interfaces and module development
- Artificial intelligence (the good and the bad aspects of it)
- Metadata, archival data and vocabularies
- Linked Open Data compliancy and IIIF
The event also provided an opportunity for participants from different institutions and countries to meet in person, strengthen existing connections and establish new ones. Maarten Coonen and Maryam Mazaheri, both from Maastricht University Library and involved in organising the event, reflect on the three days:
Maarten: “The foundation for this great community was laid in Ghent in 2023 and strengthened in Luxembourg in 2025. I am so proud that we were able to host this fantastic event and welcome such wonderful people in Maastricht in 2026.”
Maryam: “For me, the strength of this event was seeing how openly people shared not only solutions, but also challenges. Bringing together different technical and practical perspectives helped us identify where collaboration can make Omeka S and the wider ecosystem stronger.”
Continuing the exchange
Although the event came to an end, the collaboration will not stop. Four taskforces have been defined, that will collaborate on topics like:
- Artificial Intelligence
- Infrastructure as Code and Dockerised deployments
- Guidelines for archival data
- Community building
Their results will be presented at next year’s event.
Alongside the technical programme, the event also offered plenty of opportunities for informal exchange. From a visit to the University Library’s Special Collections and a virtual-reality experience in the library’s XR Lab, to a conference dinner and an Arts & Heritage tour through Maastricht. These moments provided additional space to strengthen connections between participants, continue conversations outside the formal sessions and explore opportunities for future collaboration.
Maastricht University Library would like to thank all participants for joining us in Maastricht and contributing their knowledge, experiences and ideas, as well as the Dutch Digital Heritage Network for their collaboration and for making this event possible.
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