Digital Scholarship Services (DSS) will present four webinars promoting the UCT Libraries’ Digital Collections Platform, Ibali, to wrap up 2025. Each session highlights a different feature or collection in the system, offering participants a chance to get familiar with using Ibali to view and build digital collection sites. 

Ibali, the Xhosa word for ‘story’, is a university-wide showcase platform for digital collections. It runs on semantic web technologies, Omeka S and IIIF, and supports the Libraries’ commitment to Open Access by enabling collections to be created, curated, published, and shared. 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. Its primary focus is on organizing the various elements of a collection (e.g. people, places, media) so that the links between these items and their descriptions are strengthened, allowing for more relevant searches and deeper explorations of concepts and data. 

DSS has created a collaborative environment where Library staff and 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. 

Webinar Schedule 

State of the Showcases: Back to Ibali: Digital Collections UCT

• When: Tuesday, September 30, 2025 @ 14:00  
• The Ibali Indaba is back for 2025! In this opening session, we’ll catch you up on everything that’s been happening on Ibali: Digital Collections UCT since we last met. From Omeka S upgrades and exciting new modules to fresh showcase sites and even fights with AI bots, this is your “state of the showcase” update. Join us as we look back, share what’s new, and preview what’s coming next.
• Register: https://uct.ac.za.libcal.com/calendar/libraryevents/ibali-2025-01 

FAIR, Open Access and Ownership on Ibali: Digital Collections UCT

• When: Thursday, October 23, 2025 @ 14:00
• In celebration of International Open Access Week, this session explores how Ibali collections strive toward FAIR and Open Access principles. We’ll look at the technical and procedural steps that make our collections more findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable, and discuss how creating these sites fosters community engagement. We’ll also tackle this year’s theme: Who owns the showcase sites on Ibali, and what does ownership mean in a digital space?
• Register: https://uct.ac.za.libcal.com/calendar/libraryevents/ibali-2025-02 

Can Omeka serve as DAMS? Lessons learned from Ibali: Digital Collections UCT

• When: Thursday, November 20, 2025 @ 12:00
• Omeka S powers Ibali as a showcase platform—but could it also function as a Digital Asset Management System (DAMS)? In this session, we share our experiments in configuring Omeka S to manage UCT Libraries’ digital assets. We’ll walk through what worked, what didn’t, and what we learned along the way. If you’ve ever wondered whether Omeka can go beyond showcasing, this session is for you.
• Link: https://uct.ac.za.libcal.com/calendar/libraryevents/ibali-2025-03 

Welcome to the family, a Tour of the New Sites on Ibali Digital Collections UCT

• Tuesday, December 9, 2025 @ 12:00
• To wrap up our 2025 Ibali Indaba mini-series, we’re taking you on a tour of the newest sites launched this year. Meet the developers, hear about their creative process, and explore the design choices, modules, and workflows that brought these collections to life. From CSV imports to custom layouts, this session is all about celebrating the latest additions to the Ibali family.
• Link: https://uct.ac.za.libcal.com/calendar/libraryevents/ibali-2025-04