Constructing a Digital History Website

Of the 44 plug-ins available at omeka.org , at least (or as many as) seven could prove very useful for the design of my group's website project.  Each of the seven are listed below, arranged top-to-bottom according to how important I think it will be for our project.   I include under each a brief explanation of why it would be beneficial for our project.  (My group includes Jessica Injejikian, Samantha Machalik, Jay Requard, and myself.  Our project is on "the covers of Playboy as a reflection on American society's views on sexuality, politics, music, etc.")

1) Image Annotation: "allows users to annotate images"

    - this plug-in is practically imperative for our project, given that it revolves around analysis and commentary regarding the various topics addressed by Playboy during its first 16 years

2) Image Re-size: "gives administrators the ability to re-size image derivatives"

    - enlarging or shrinking images of covers on pages could help us juxtapose, arrange, and categorize particular issues according to time-period, literary content, etc.

3) Zoom It:  "embeds a zoom.it image viewer into item show pages"

    - useful for inserting a larger number of cover-images onto a single web-page or into a single area on a page: users could scroll over the covers to view magnified images thereby enabling easy perusal of the cover content, whether of photographs or articles mentioned

4) Neatline Time: "create timelines in Omeka"

    - it might be neat (no pun intended) to place the magazine covers along one side of a timeline, and having the other side show relevant socio-political events of the same period, may provide insight into how progressive and liberal Playboy was (or was not) at particular points in U.S. cultural time; or to show how cover-art and articles cited evolved during certain periods of Playboy's early history

5) Social Bookmarking: "inserts a customizable list of social bookmarking sites below each item in your Omeka database"

    - a nearly requisite plug-in for any site-builder who wants visitors to be able to rapidly and easily make referrals to friends, family, or associates they think might also be intrigued (or offended by) the site

6) Simple Contact Form: "adds a simple contact form for users to contact the administrator"

    - another must have for site-builders interested in hearing feedback about how the site is perceived by visitors

7) Contribution: "allows collecting items from visitors"

    - might be neat to have if visitors have other media they'd like to digitalize in order to provide further comparisons or contrasts on or insight into the material addressed on or the commentary in our site

(All quoted and underscored text are from omeka.org/add-ons/plugins/ )