| Institution | Resident's Name | Period Covered | Date of Report |
|---|---|---|---|
| National Library of Scotland | Ally Crockford | 15 June - 25 July (Twelfth month of residency, plus annual leave) | 25 July 2014 |
Projects delivered edit
Metrics edit
- Accounts Created
- No new accounts created; focus was on uploading content (see below)
Objectives and outcomes edit
| National Library of Scotland's Mission | Wikimedia UK's Mission |
|---|---|
| Enrich lives and communities. Encourage and promote lifelong learning, research, and scholarship. Provide universal access to information by comprehensively collecting and making available the recorded knowledge of Scotland. Promote access to the ideas and cultures of the world. |
To help people and organisations build and preserve open knowledge, to share and use freely. |
Public outreach edit
Objective: Delivery of 3+ public workshops for editors (i.e. edit-a-thons); help organise and host other Wikimedia related events for members of the public, Wikimedians, researchers and librarians such as workshops, Edit-athons, meetups, backstage pass tours
- 12th Month Outcomes:
- WiR was invited to take part in the annual Library Science Talks 2014 held at the CERN Library and Swiss National Library on 23 and 24 June, 2014. The talks, entitled Wikimedians in the Library, were delivered alongside presentations from the Wikimedians in Residence at the Swiss National Library, Micha Riser and Emmanuel Engelhardt. The LST talks are organised by the Swiss National Library, the CERN Scientific Information Service, and the Association of International Librarians and Information Specialists (AILIS). Talks reached approximately 20 people directly, and the talk held at the CERN Library was live broadcast and a video has been made available online, with powerpoint slides included. Powerpoint slides will also be available on AILIS website and on Wikimedia Commons.
- A podcast interview with the Special Libraries Association Europe was held following the successful SLA Wikipedia Talk and Info Session in early March, and the interview is now live on the SLA Europe website.
- WiR was interviewed as part of an upcoming documentary on GLAMwiki initiatives in the UK to be premièred at Wikimania 2014 in August.
- The upload of NLS material was officially announced in a press release that resulted in the following publications online or in print:
- "National Library adds collection to website." Edinburgh Evening News, 23 July 2014. p.16 (no link)
- "Pictures show Forth Bridge's construction." The Courier, 24 July 2014. p. 16 (no link)
- Historic Forth Bridge photos added to Wikipedia. STV Edinburgh, 23 July 2014 (Retrieved 24 July 2014).
- Wikimedia UK Blog "Historic library collections get worldwide exposure"
- NLS News - "Images added to Wikipedia: Historic library collections get worldwide exposure."
Upcoming public events edit
| Known or Prospective Date | Event Name or Description | Host or Partner Organisation | Scope of event or talk |
|---|---|---|---|
| POSTPONED | Wikimedia Information Session | Grampian Information, Aberdeen | A follow on from the Grampian Information Annual Conference in December, the planned presentation at the Grampian Information AGM in June has been postponed; a rescheduled event is likely to take place in the autumn. |
| Autumn 2014 | Content release edit-a-thon (topic TBD) | NLS (unknown partner org?) | Once a successful process for uploading content to Commons has been put in place, an appropriate collection will be identified to feature as part of an edit-a-thon intended to insert images in relevant Wikipedia articles and improve the content of those articles. |
| Autumn/Winter 2014? | Jisc Rsc Scotland editathon | New Jisc Rsc Scotland Offices | Jisc Scotland are anticipating a move of house in the near future (date TBC), and have offered up their new offices as a venue for an editathon once they have settled. Topic yet to be determined. |
| Autumn/Winter 2014 | Wikipedia Training Capture session (by User:ACrockford) | Jisc Scotland, CILIPS MmIT?; Scottish government? | Following from the Jisc 'Tales of a Wikimedian in Residence' webinar, Adobe capture would be used to provide a simple but thorough introduction to contributing to Wikipedia for Librarians and FE/HE educators. This would be released under CC-BY-SA license and uploaded to Commons, and also made available by Jisc as a wider learning resource for educators. |
| Sept/Oct 2014 | Wikimedia & Libraries Information session (by User:Graeme Arnott and User:ACrockford) | CILIPS MmIT | General introduction to Wikimedia, background to GLAM:Wiki collaborations, details about NLS WiR programme, ScotWiki network of volunteers, aims and goals, specific examples of successful projects, etc. |
| October 31 2014 | EduWiki Conference 2014 - Edinburgh | Wikimedia UK | It has been confirmed that the EduWiki conference will be held in Edinburgh this year, as a one-day rather than the usual two-day event; planning is under way although at a very preliminary state. |
| Undetermined date | Datafest Scotland 2014 | Alwyn Williams Building (School of Computing Science) and Boyd Orr Building, University of Glasgow, Scotland | Wikimedia volunteers will be on hand to organise a tutorial on editing Wikipedia |
Staff workshops and events edit
Objective: Organise and host workshops for Library staff to explain how they can directly contribute their knowledge and expertise to develop Wikipedia articles; deliver 7+ workshops for National Library of Scotland staff and researchers or related institutions
- 12th Month Outcomes:
- An additional three workshops have been held with the Library's IPR Officer Fred Saunderson throughout July. These workshops focused on the Library's Digital Content policy and encouraging staff engagement with Wikipedia/Wikimedia Commons and other open platforms. Staff in attendance included members of the digital access team, as well as curators from a variety of teams, in particular the maps team. In addition to informing staff about the change in policy and the resulting release of content to Wikimedia Commons, the workshops continued to prove useful in identifying issues with regards to digitisation and release procedure which would make the process more efficient in future.
Contributor communities edit
Objective: Help establish relationships with the Scottish Wikimedia community, editors and projects
- 12th Month Outcomes:
- Continued to assist with planning for EduWiki 2014; toured the St Leonard's Hall venue with Toni Sant to confirm suitability and discuss accommodation and disabled access.
- A fourth meetup in Glasgow was held 26 July at the Saramago Cafe in the CCA. The meetup was well attended, with 7 Wikimedians present, including User:Leutha up from London. Discussion focused largely around the potential for EduWiki fringe events to take place in Edinburgh from 31 Oct - 2 Nov, as well as a ScotWiki presence at Wikimania in August.
Material for future digitisation edit
Objective: Explore adding digital resources such as digitised books, articles, photographs and posters to Wikimedia Commons; work with staff, including librarians and curators, to identify areas of Wikipedia and sister projects that could be enriched with resources and knowledge from the Library’s collections
- 12th Month Outcomes:
- Following the successful upload of the first three batches of digital content from the NLS to Wikimedia Commons, a further 900 files have been uploaded in July. The total number of images uploaded include:
- 200 19th century theatre posters and photographs from the Weir Collection - uploaded 09/07/2014
- 700 images from the Jacobite prints and broadsides collection - uploaded 14/07/2014
- 90+ photographs of the Tay Bridge collapse - uploaded 11/06/14
- 104 etchings from Scotia Depicta - uploaded 13/06/14
- 40 photographs of the construction of the Forth Bridge - uploaded 13/06/14
- All photos have been uploaded into Category:Images from National Library of Scotland using the Institution template, as well as Category:Images uploaded as part of NLS-WMUK collaboration for tracking purposes. Images have also been uploaded into individual categories (as linked) where appropriate, in most cases creating new categories, with the exception of Category:Tay Bridge disaster, which already existed.
- Images will be released in smaller batches according to their originating collection; this is partly to allow for the development and familiarisation with the batch uploading process and also partly to encourage more effective use of the images on Wikimedia Commons after their upload
- The WiR programme has been extended by the National Library of Scotland from 01 September 2014 - 28 February 2015 in order to allow for more content to be uploaded and for the impact of this release to be measured. As such, more content has been selected for upload in the Autumn and Winter, subject to confirmation by the NLS's Intellectual Property Officer and the appropriate curators. This content includes:
- Hutton Drawings - 500 drawings, maps, plans and prints relating mainly to Scottish churches and other ecclesiastical buildings. A few depict castles or other secular dwellings)
- The Gutenberg Bible, NLS copy - Material to be released will certainly include the 'additional images' of the NLS's copy of the Gutenberg Bible, containing special shots taken to record watermarks, red printing and other special features
- Hopkinson Verdi collection - An internationally renowned collection of scores and libretti of the works of Giuseppe Verdi, featuring concert programmes, newspaper cuttings, photographs and stamps as well as sheet music, totalling 2750 files in total
- Slezer's Scotland - 70 engraved views of Scotland from the 17th century by military engineer John Slezer
- WWI photographs from the collection of Field Marshal (Earl) Haig - This upload will be delayed since the collection is comprised of PD content and copyrighted content which must be separated, but approximately 1500 images should be cleared for upload
- Sonnets from the Portuguese (Elizabeth Barrett Browning), illustrated by Phoebe Anna Traquair - 44 sonnets by Barrett Browning beautifully illuminated by Phoebe Anna Traquair
- Photographs of the South Side of Edinburgh - 138 images from around Edinburgh, taken in the early 20th century
- Theatre Royal Edinburgh playbills - 240 playbills from Edinburgh's Theatre Royal during the 19th century
- The first Scottish Books collection - 220 images from the only known copies of nine of the earliest books printed in Scotland
- Aberdeen Breviary - Over 1500 images from the digitised Aberdeen Breviary, printed in Edinburgh in 1510 on Scotland’s first press.
- The current strategy for release is as follows: in addition to the categories relevant to the images, a category will be created that is relevant to the collection (where appropriate - e.g.Theatrum Scotiae within the Commons category for John Slezer). As each batch is uploaded, messages and links will be posted to relevant WikiProjects and general topic talk pages making interested contributors aware of the new content and pointing them to the category.
- Following a conversation with curators at Edinburgh City Libraries during the 2014 EDGE Conference, a second Wikimedia Takes Edinburgh photo expedition has been proposed for July 2014. The event would specifically be designed to correspond with the release of images from the NLS' and Edinburgh City Libraries' shared collection of 19th and early 20th century photographs of Edinburgh (prospect of a 'now and then'-type focus was raised). A meeting with the National Records of Scotland was arranged for 5 May but was postponed; the meeting aims to discuss their involvement in the use of this material in Wikipedia articles, potentially identifying a few key 'lost' landmarks in Edinburgh for which old and new photos of the location could be uploaded and information from the NRS and the NLS could be used to create or improve articles on an area, event, or landmark.
- A backstage pass of the current Behind the Lines exhibition has also been proposed, which correspond with the release of content from the Haig Collection of WWI photographs sometime in November 2014.
| National Library of Scotland Wikimedian in Residence 12 Month Report |
|---|