Looking back at this semester, I think that the most important thing I learned were the non-technical skills, specifically the troubleshooting and problem-solving aspect of a lot of the training and tools we were exposed to. That being said, I feel like the most important technical tool that I learned about was Omeka, as it is the foundation for the database of my digital project. It did seem kind of difficult and clunky at first, since there is a lot going on in Omeka, but I think I have gotten the hang of using it for now. Some advice I would give my past self would probably be to try to find opportunities to explore tools outside of drop-in shifts and weekly trainings. A goal of mine is to do that more in the coming semester, specifically with learning more about what Omeka can do.
I think the training model worked pretty well for me, especially the self-pacing. There were a few weeks where I was notably busier than usual, and the self-paced model gave me the opportunity to complete training modules/blog posts in advance. While the Omeka training has probably been the most important for my project, I also really feel like week two’s training on accessibility has been important as well. I remember meeting with my project lead (who is AWESOME by the way) to discuss her goals with how she wants the database to be, and she made it very clear that she wanted the database to be as user friendly as possible, where the organizing principles are so clear that it would be accessible to everyone. There also weren’t anything that I found immediately confusing either.
As far as next steps for my project go, I hope to get all of the articles and peer reviewed references that I have created a summary and keywords for digitized in the near future, hopefully towards the end of January. I also want to add to the database my own selection of articles and references that I have found, and I would like to create documentation on how a future Vivero fellow can do the same. I hope to also work on documentation that goes into detail about how to use Omeka, and the different nuances and tasks that needed to be done to set up the database.
In the future, like I mentioned before, I would like to continue learning more about how to use Omeka, specifically in regards to the design aspect of things. I am also interested in learning more about the tool CollectionBuilder, despite my digital project not being built upon that framework. I would also like to explore WordPress a bit more, specifically in order to make my website look better, although I am pretty happy with how it looks now. All in all, I am really grateful for the opportunity to be a Vivero fellow, and I am really looking forward to continuing on next year. Yay!