The Digital Scholarship Services at UCT Libraries manages a university-wide showcase platform for digital collections. The site is called Ibali, which is the Xhosa word for ‘Story.’ It runs on a set of semantic web technologies called Omeka S and IIIF. Ibali is part of the Libraries’ drive to nurture an Open Access space where collections can be created, curated, published and showcased.

As part of promoting the platform, DSS runs regular webinars. Each session looks at a different functionality or collection in the system. This gives participants an opportunity to get familiar with using the Ibali platform to view and build sites of collections.

Omeka S is a web publishing platform ideal for use by GLAMs (Galleries/Gardens, Libraries, Archives, Museums), Digital Humanities scholars, and other user groups who need to create relationships between objects in collections and describe them through linked open data resources on the internet. The ‘S’ in Omeka S stands for ‘semantic’, as in connecting to the semantic web, where data in web pages is structured and tagged. Its primary focus is on organising the various elements of a collection (e.g. people, places, media) such that the links between these UCT items and broader elements of the internet are strengthened, allowing for more relevant searches and deeper explorations of concepts and data online.

DSS has created a GLAM Lab-like collaborative environment where Library staff and collaborators from UCT's community of data stewards can build connections through collections on Ibali. These digital showcases allow users to experience their own ‘stories’ by navigating links between items and across collections.