GLAM/Newsletter/February 2016/Single
Wikidata Tour Down Under
For Wikimedia Australia, February 2016 was all about Wikidata in GLAM. Andy Mabbett spent three weeks touring Australia, talking about Wikidata and about his GLAM activities.
Melbourne
Andy Mabbett was Wikipedian-in-Residence at VALA 2016, Australia's technology in libraries conference, held in Melbourne on 9–11 February 2016. Andy presented Bootcamps, and P-plate sessions on Wikidata and GLAM initiatives. We also held discussions with many speakers, delegates and exhibitors, about potential collaborations. Wikimedia Australia fielded interest from public, academic and community libraries at their booth in the exhibition hall. It was an excellent awareness-raising activity and an opportunity to connect with international presenters as well as publishers. Leigh Blackall from RMIT University organised a very well-attended Melbourne Meetup with participants from the GLAM, education, arts and the data sectors, at which Andy gave a presentation on Wikidata.
Sydney and Canberra
As the conference packed up, so did Andy - heading north to Sydney for an over-subscribed workshop at the State Library of NSW and meetings with Australian Wikipedians-in-Residence. This also resulted in an article on Wikidata in The Register, Wikidata makes Wikipedia a database. Let the fun begin. Two days later, he was in Canberra at the first Australian ORCID outreach meeting and launch of the Australian ORCID consortium (Andy is Wikipedian in residence with ORCID). This raised our profile further with the national higher education and research sector. The National Library of Australia hosted a day of meetings including Andy's presentation on Wikidata to staff. The eastern states leg of the tour ended with another productive Meetup of local Wikimedians in the nation's capital.
Wikimedia Australia would like to express our thanks to State Library of NSW for their help in Sydney, as well as that of the Trove and Libraries Australia teams at the National Library, and to ORCID.
Western Australia
In Perth, Wikimedia Australia held a public mini-conference that was well attended and received. Noongar elders welcomed Andy to country asking that elders past recognise the importance of the yarns Andy would be sharing. People from the State Library of Western Australia, WA Museum, City and Shire councils, the major universities and community cultural organisations attended the event. This was followed by a public workshop on Wikidata at the State Library, and personalised workshops for GLAM organisations who have ongoing active projects. Andy and Gideon also addressed a meeting of the WA branch of ALIA, the Australian Library and Information Association, which was covered in an ALIA-WA blog post. Andy also got to indulge in his love of birds, as well as view first-hand the only two Australian WikiTown projects in Fremantle and Toodyay.
Wikimedia Australia would like to acknowledge the support of State Library of Western Australia, School of Indigenous Studies at University of WA, Curtin University Aboriginal Studies and the Shire of Toodyay's Old Newcastle Gaol Museum for their assistance in WA.
Why a tour?
This 'tour by an expert' initiative was a strategy identified by Wikimedia Australia in response to a request for expertise we could not provide locally, and is in part a response to Australia's dispersed geography. There is general agreement that it has been a useful model in terms of providing editors with new knowledge and skills. It also provided a focus for local meetups and increased engagement with the professional GLAM community in a number of locations. Several Australian Wikimedians are now confident to present Wikidata workshops. WMAU plans to partner with GLAM organisations with a multi-city program in the future. From Perth, Andy headed over to Jakarta and did presentations for Wikimedia Indonesia. By moving one person around the country, we reached more people at less cost than if we had planned for Australian Wikimedians to all travel to the same venue.
Of course this requires a very special kind of presenter, one with expert knowledge, cultural sensitivity and an ability to get on with a wide range of people - even while jet-lagged. Wikimedia Australia would like to express our thanks to Andy Mabbett for his work, his insights and his patience in helping WMAU and Australian GLAM communities get a better understanding of Wikidata.
For additional coverage, see;
- this month's GLAM-Wikidata report.
- Wikimedia Indonesia report (in Indonesian)
Wikipedian in Residence at State Library of Queensland
From the start of February, I am the Wikipedian in Residence at the State Library of Queensland for 1 day per week. This is paid employment and the subject matter is Queensland in World War I as part of the State Library's commemoration of the centenary of World War I. My role is to:
- advise and assist staff and volunteers at the State Library of Queensland and their affiliated GLAM (galleries, libraries, archives and museums) and heritage organisations to contribute content to Wikipedia relating to Queensland in WW1 drawing on the material in their collections as sources
- personally contribute content to Wikipedia in relation to Queensland in WW1 drawing on those same collections as sources
The role has been designed to align with the Wikimedia Foundation's strategic plan to "improve quality ... via partnerships with universities, cultural institutions and other groups who align with our mission".
The State Library of Queensland understand the concerns about paid editing and conflict of interest on Wikipedia. I will not be expected to edit content relating to the State Library of Queensland or any topic that I believe would constitute a conflict of interest. The State Library of Queensland has a long history of being a supporter of Wikipedia, having contributed tens of thousands of out-of-copyright images to Wikimedia Commons and collaborated with Wikimedia Australia on providing Wikipedia edit training throughout Queensland. I will be the first Wikipedian in Residence at the State Library of Queensland with others to follow later in 2016.
Note, outside of my role with the State Library of Queensland, I will be continuing to edit as a volunteer, pursuing my usual interests of the Queensland Heritage Register and the history, geography and biography of Queensland.
GLAM activities for libraries and archives in the DACH region
OpenGLAM @ Digital Libraries Conference in Graz
Beat Estermann and Sylvia Petrovic-Majer from the Knowledge Foundation's OpenGLAM working group and Wikimedia Österreich's Executive Director Claudia Garád joined forces to host a GLAM workshop in the context of this year's "Vernetzte Welten" conference on digital libraries in Graz, Austria. The event is an annual gathering of digitalization experts from the DACH region (Germany, Austria, and Switzerland) and organized by the University of Graz in cooperation with Europeana Local Austria. The 3-hour workshop consisted of two parts: During the first part, participants were provided with an overview of OpenGLAM and GLAM-Wiki activities in general, with concrete examples from Switzerland and Austria – covering many forms of activities, ranging from mass uploads, over Wikipedians in Residence, to Hackathons, and Edit-a-thons. The second part consisted in an interactive session designed to foster the exchange among the approximately 20 participants about the opportunities and challenges of Open GLAM activities in their institutions and to discuss the next steps that could be taken in common. The workshop was not only a great networking opportunity but also provided fresh impetus for GLAM activities in Austria and the DACH region.
On the second conference day, Florian Steffen from the Swiss National Library talked about his institution's experiences with GLAM-Wiki cooperation. By giving an account of their rich interactions with the Wiki-Communities, the Swiss National Library could serve as another source of inspiration for similar cooperation projects in Austria.
In the course of the conference we also discussed possibilities of hosting an international OpenGLAM get-together in the context of one of next year’s GLAM conferences in Graz.
Gender Redirect Wikipedia workshop addressing the Gender Bias; Open Belgium 2016
Just for the Record: Gender Redirect Wikipedia workshop addressing the Gender Bias
At 27 February 2016, the second project day of the project Just For The Record was organised.
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Just For The Record organizes its second event, Gender Redirect, a day bringing attention to gender representations in language constructions. Gender Redirect takes over the threads developed in the previous event, heroine, and continues its analysis of the process of Wikipedia editing, with its specific functions such as ‘view history’ and ‘talk page’, analysis tools like metrics and operations like redirection and disambiguation - to investigate the possibilities and challenges of gender-neutral writing. — source
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To address these issues Just for the record organises a series of events in Brussels starting in January 2016. The topic of the second event was Gender Redirect. During the event, these observations were taken as the point of departure for lectures and discussions, and intervention—the day includes a crash course in Wikipedia editing. The event included a presentation by Femke Snelting and a performance by Frau Picha.
The next event will be organised on 8 March 2016 for the International Women’s Day. The previous event was on 15 January 2016.
Open Belgium 2016
On 29 February 2016 the third edition of the Open Belgium Conference was organised by the Open Knowledge Foundation Belgium. Wikimedia Belgium was present at the conference with a presentation about Wiki Loves Art. Another presentation was given by Packed on Flemish art collections, Wikidata and Linked Open Data.
Getting technical...!
Come On !
In February, EdouardHue came to Paris to present his uploading tool ComeOn ! to Wikimédia France members, staff and two partners. The French National Archives and the Health Inter-Universities Library are both involved in content partnership with our organization, as many others. As uploading files to Commons sometimes takes a lot of time and requires dedicated skills, we tend to run short of volunteer resources to perform these uploads. Edouard proposed to train partners on the tool he developed, to empower them and give them a greater autonomy. The afternoon was a success !
Wikidata for Science
A day of discovery of Wikidata was held on February 2 by Wikimedia France and the Center for Data Science of Paris-Saclay. This day - open to all - was held within the University Paris-Saclay : 40 academics and PhD students attended the workshop to discover how Wikidata is today one of the first open knowledge database in the world, and how to integrate it and use it in the projects of students and researchers.
Data sharing, with the aim of achieving the "Linked Data" also called Giant Global Graph, or Web 3.0, involves costly creation of knowledge databases, which themselves become obsolete very quickly. The alternative is the collective development of these knowledge databases on a contributory basis.
The various scientific fields are already represented in Wikidata. These contributions can be used for example to facilitate the discovery of information, reproducibility and traceability of research. The Center for Data Science worked on tools aiming to facilitate the discovery and reuse of the data contained in Wikidata.
Musée de Bretagne
A new workshop took place at the musée de Bretagne (museum of Brittany) with the Wikimédia France's Rennes local group on February 27. After a one-hour visit of the temporary exhibition “Boire” (french for Drink), several wikimedians gathered to edit and explain the Wikimedia projects around the beverage thematic.
30 GLAM volunteers in museums and libraries
30 volunteers at GLAM on Tour in Dresden
From march 4-7, the ninth event of the GLAM on Tour project took place in Dresden. This time, two cultural institutions, Technische Sammlungen Dresden and Verkehrsmuseum Dresden, invited 30 Wikipedians to write new articles and take pictures for Commons.
Both of the institutions opened their doors for free tours for the volunteers, edit-a-thons and foto excursions to explore their numerous collections. A Wikipedia workshop for newbies and staff of the institutions was part of the programme, too. There also was a high amount of media coverage, TV and radio contributions including calls for volunteer engagement in the Wikimedia projects. See the documentation page for media coverage and, more important, the ongoing photo uploads and article-work (in German).
Wiki-Worldcafé at library congress
On March 14, a "Wikiversum Weltcafé" (engl.: Wikiverse Worldcafé) will be held at the German library congress in Leipzig. This is a GLAM format we developed and tested during 2014 and 2015 with GLAM volunteers on different occasions, such as conferences about cultural heritage and digitization. After an input talk that informs about the Wikimedia projects and possibilities to cooperate with volunteers in the GLAM sector, three or four volunteers present to the participants "their" Wikimedia projects, mostly Wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons and Wikidata. On monitors, the congress participants are informed as to how the projects work and how they can participate. This way, a large group of potential interested people from cultural heritage institutions get a first insight in the Wikiverse and are able to directly connect with the volunteers themselves.
Four new Wikipedians in Residence, and Food!
Wikipedians in Residence in Italian museums
This month four new Wikipedians in Residence are begininng to work in collaboration with Italian museums!
The museums, carefully selected from ICOM Italia and Museimpresa museums respondents to a Wikimedia Italia announcement, are Museo nazionale della scienza e della tecnologia Leonardo da Vinci and Fondazione Mansutti collections, both in Milan, MUSE Museo della scienza in Trento, and Museo Galileo in Florence.
This is the result of a special effort aimed to boost wiki projects inside Italian museums, that have not been involved in a massive way so far. Wikimedia Italia is for this reason directly funding four brief collaborations (the Wikipedians are going to work only for two months with the museums) with cultural institutions selected both because of the value and richness of their collections, and the diversity of their collections and activities.
First images by Food Museums
The images donated by Parma Food Museums are being uploaded to Commons in these days. They will be very useful to illustrate articles about the history of Italian food and typical agribusiness products such as Parmigiano Reggiano (Parmesan cheese), and Prosciutto di Parma (simply the Prosciutto in the English article!).
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Car carrying an unusually large tube of Mutti brand tomato puree - Musei del cibo - Pomodoro -
Attestato di produzione - Musei del cibo - Parmigiano -
Bascula da caseificio - Musei del cibo - Parmigiano -
A one litre milk bottle - Musei del cibo - Parmigiano -
Boule - Musei del cibo - Pomodoro -
Almond shaped knife for cutting Parmigiano - Musei del cibo - Parmigiano
Theatre Actors of Macedonia
This month saw the first part of the project called Theatre actors of Macedonia (Театарски глумци во Македонија) designed to systematically illustrate the theatre actors of Macedonia (many of them TV and film actors too) by taking high-quality images in their theatres and improving their articles. In February we covered 17 thatre personalities of the Skopje Drama Theatre, photographing them at the stalls. Our project page lists them by name and shows the status of their articles.
Editors of our community have started improving actor's articles consulting information provided by the theatre itself and other sources. New articles will be created, where none exist so far. We are grateful to Robert Veljanovski, the Director of the Skopje Drama Theatre and a noted actor himself, for his enthusiasm for the project and his kind help in organising his cast.
Some images
Here are some of the images made during the session at the Skopje Drama Theatre.
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Robert Veljanovski, Director of the Skopje Drama Theatre -
Ǵorǵ Todorovski -
Maja Veljkoviḱ-Panovska -
Violeta Šapkovska -
Dragan Spasov - Dac -
Tea Begovska
All the images from this part of the project can be seen at Category:Theatre actors of Macedonia by Shared Knowledge.
Towards to our first Art and Feminism 2016
This year Wikimedia Mexico are organizing the Art and Feminism 2016 local event allied with relevant actors in the scene of the Mexican contemporary art as the Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo -which belongs to UNAM, Centro de Cultura Digital of Secretariat of Culture and Fundación Alumnos 47, a private cultural foundation based in Mexico City. The Editatona will have three different simultaneous venues at March 5, 2016. We anticipate the attendance of no less than 200 people.
For have a better experience during that days, we are doing since January previous workshops to teach the Wikipedia basic concepts and edition skills. The list of missing articles of women artists in Spanish and English Wikipedia is being made by researchers from the three institutions and the Mexican local chapter.
Naturalis' Wikipedia project; Open Culture Data
Naturalis' Wikipedia project
At the end of January 2016 the upload of more than 275,000 biological images from Naturalis Biodiversity Center at Leiden to Wikimedia Commons came to a temporary conclusion. You can find an overview of the results at Commons:Naturalis Biodiversity Center. Thanks to many Wikipedians with biological expertise, the initial categorisation of the images was refined using up to date biological taxonomy; this process is still ongoing. The bulk uploads were done with the GLAMWiki toolset.
Some statistics: the donation provides images of about 21,000 biological species, many of which previously lacked an image on the internet. From May 2015 up to February 2016 pages sporting a donated image from Naturalis have been consulted 5.0 million times, in January 2016 alone 1.8 million times. As of February 2016, 2991 images (1.1% of the donation) have been used on 3614 article pages on Wikimedia websites and who knows how many more on websites outside Wikimedia or elsewhere.
The donation consists of various collections, ranging from historical coloured drawings and watercolours of (Japanese) plants, fish and birds, to (extinct) bird, mollusc, small mammal and plant specimens, rounded off with photographs of the exhibitions in the Museum. Naturalis released most images under the liberal CC0 copyright license (some others under CC-BY-SA-3.0) and hopes they will find their way around the globe in reuse by experts and lay people alike. Furthermore, Naturalis intends to extend its collections on Wikimedia Commons with subsequent uploads by an internal permanent Wikipedian.
Please put your cursor on an image to view the caption
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Aethopyga mystacalis, Raalten, G. van -
Rhyticeros undulatus -
Video
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Unidentified plant, Aken, J. van -
Vulpes vulpes Linnaeus (fox) -
Carollia perspicillata -
Oriolus oriolus oriolus (Linnaeus, 1758) -
Biplex aculeata (Schepman, 1909), cut by Wikipedian JoJan -
Murex aduncospinosus Sowerby, 1841 -
Haemogamasus hirsutus (Berlese), Anthonie Cornelis Oudemans -
Blotiella confusa Jongkind and W.P.de Winter, old plant type specimen -
Dactyloptena orientalis (Cuvier), Kawahara Keiga, 1823 - 1829 -
Alectis ciliaris, Kawahara Keiga, 1823 - 1829 -
Carl von Linné (Linnaeus) in his Lapland costume, Martin Hoffman -
Exhibition Biotechnology, large multicolour model of DNA
Open Culture Data Lab
English
In 2016 Kennisland and the Sound and Vision museum are organising a 4-part workshop on "Open Culture Data". During this Open Culture Lab we will help participants develop a strategy for sharing their collectiondata and contet, and we'll explore possible uses for their cultural collections.
During the sessions we will dive deeper into relevant copyright and law, as well as the use of open content licences. Technological and policy aspects will also be addressed.
We'll go hands-on too. As a group we'll work on creating a digital artwork based on the open content which will be showcased during the 'Bring Your Own Beamer' festival in Utrecht. We're connecting images form the past with today's culture.
for more information please read the announcement. You can also sign up until March 10th.
P.S. Do you work for the (local) government or do you know someone who does? Then our Open Data Educational Network for Dutch Municipalities might be of interest.
Nederlands
In 2016 organiseert Kennisland samen met Beeld en Geluid een vierdelige workshop over Open Cultuur Data. Tijdens dit Open Cultuur Data Lab ontwikkelen we samen met de deelnemers een strategie voor het vrijgeven van collectiedata en digitale objecten en gaan we op zoek naar nieuwe mogelijkheden voor culturele collecties.
Tijdens de sessies gaan we in op de auteursrechtelijke aspecten van dataverzamelingen en creatieve werken, en het toepassen van opencontentlicenties. Ook de technologische en beleidsaspecten van open cultuurdata komen aan bod.
We gaan ook praktisch aan de slag. Met de hele groep ontwikkelen we een digitaal kunstwerk dat geëxposeerd zal worden op het ‘Bring Your Own Beamer’ festival in Utrecht. Zo komen beelden uit het verleden en hedendaagse cultuur samen.
Ga voor meer informatie naar onze aankondiging; je kunt je ook direct inschrijven voor het Open Cultuur Data Lab via het online inschrijfformulier. Inschrijven kan uiterlijk tot en met 10 maart 2016.
P.S. Ben je of ken je een gemeentemedewerker? Bekijk dan ook de aankondiging voor het Gemeentelijk Leernetwerk Open Data. Inschrijven daarvoor kan tot 10 maart 2016.
Donation of 760 historical bookbindings - National Library of the Netherlands
In February the National Library of the Netherlands (KB) donated 760 historical bookbindings (period 1100-1875, public domain) from its collection of 12.000 bookbindings to Wikimedia Commons.
The bindings range from sober ones in leather and parchment to richly decorated in textile, silver or turtoise shell. They give a small insight into how historical binding techniques were used and how successive decorative styles developed over time. In the details one can recognize the requests of patrons, the craftsmanship of the binders and the preferences of collectors.
The upload was facilitated by the GLAMWiki toolset for bulk uploads.
Please put your cursor on an image to view the Dutch caption
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Band van beschilderd blank perkament -
Band van bruin marokijn en een chemise in fluweel -
Band van groene ribzijde -
Band van rood marokijn met inleg van groen geverfd perkament -
Band van zilver en verguld zilver, over zwart leer -
Noot met band van rood saffiaan -
Band van donker kastanjebruin en oker schildpad -
Band in brokaatpapier -
Band van blauw fluweel
Free pictures, classical music & libraries
Free pictures and classical music
In February we covered another event for obtaining pictures and upload them to Wikimedia Commons under a free license. This month we attended a concert of IZAL band in Valladolid. On the other hand, we continued recording classical music thanks to the concerts held at the Museum of Romanticism; this month, two new concerts.
Libraries
We continue collaborating and networking with libraries. On the one hand we have met with the library of the Faculty of Political Science and Sociology of the Complutense University of Madrid to prepare a edit-a-thon in April. On the other hand we have started a new course about Wikipedia in the Reina Sofía Library of the University of Valladolid.
Maps, planes and metadata on artists
Museum map
User Ambrosiani used Wikidata to make a map of museums in the world, coloured after what information is available on Wikidata. The source code is available if someone wants to replicate the map. This project was also forked by user Ainali to a map of nature reserves working in a similar fashion. Both projects are useful for cleaning up data by, for instance, finding objects outside the boarders of a country.
Airplanes
As a spin off to the cooperation between Wikimedia Sverige and the Council of Central Museums in Sweden the Flygvapenmuseum (Swedish Air Force Museum) hosted a workshop for staff and volunteers. Their aim is both to start regular edit-a-thons where staff will work on improving articles about the aircraft in their collections, and also to contribute with new and historical images to illustrate aviation articles.
Connected Open Heritage
Connected Open Heritage is picking up speed, and the first reports on availability and standards for cultural heritage data in different countries has been put up as a start for the selection process. If you know more about the situation in your country you are welcome to improve or comment on the reports. Since one of the goals with COH is to make historical cultural heritage material available (i.e. batch upload of images and videos) a call for contact with GLAMs is next, along with a discussion with the Wikidata community on actions needed before the migration of data can start. Feel free to sign up if you are interested in participating or helping out.
Data from the Nationalmuseum, Sweden
Using the mix'n'match tool roughly 3,500 of the 7,500 artists in the Nationalmuseum Sweden database has been matched to the corresponding entry in Wikidata. Thanks to this matching these entries have since been enriched with new statements and had existing statements referenced. In total more than 20,000 statements were referenced. The matching has also allowed for the creation of a list of women artists in both Wikidata and the Nationalmuseum Sweden which will work as an action list during the Art + Feminism Wikipedia Edit-a-thon in Stockholm.
There are still plenty of matching left to do after which comes the task of identifying artists for which new Wikidata entries need to be created. So if you care about art and Wikidata why don't you take a look and see if you can help.
Wales Report; Wikidata Tour Down Under; Museums Galleries Scotland report; Oxford
Wales Report
The residency at The National Library of Wales moved into a new phase this month. With the initial 12 month residency completed (see report here) both parties agreed an extension until the end of August 2016. The focus of the residency remains broadly the same but will concentrate more on working out a model for taking Wikipedia into schools and colleges. We will also be looking more closely at incorporating library data and collections into Wikidata and other Wikimedia projects. A proposal has just been submitted to the Welsh examining body WJEC to include a Wikipedia based challenge as an optional model for students studying for a Welsh Baccalaureate qualification, which is now offered in most Welsh Secondary Schools. We are also planning a series of Wikipedia awareness talks with teachers and students at local schools. We are also continuing to host public events and will hold an Art and Feminism Editathon on March 5th. Image uploads are continuing. Notable uploads this month include 2,000 photographs from the Arthur Lewis Collection, 74 illuminations from a medieval 'Book of Hours' and a High Quality image of an Oil Painting by J.M.W Turner.
Wikidata Tour Down Under
Andy Mabbett spent three weeks touring Australia, talking about Wikidata and about his GLAM activities, following which he spent five days in Jakarta, Indonesia, also talking about Wikidata. For full details, see this month's GLAM-Wikidata report and the Australia and New Zealand report.
Museums Galleries Scotland report
2016 has been busy so far, with two editathons in January (one about Glasweigan rent striker and activist Mary Barbour and one about modern scottish female artists, the latter of which spawned a follow-up event for Art+Feminism. The end of January marked the end of the initial 12 month residency finishing, but a short extension until the beginning of June 2016 has been agreed. This will allow more work to be done with some of Scotland's recognised museum collections of national significance. The 12 month summary & reflections report can be found here.
February saw two training sessions held at the University of St Andrews, one for Museums Studies students, and one for postgraduates, staff & researchers. A training session and mini editathon was also held for members of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals in Scotland. lirazelf assisted at the University of Edinburgh's Learning & Teaching Week History of Medicine Editathon, which was a great success. Resident is confirmed to speak at the DLNET Changing Cultures seminar on 22 March, the University of Glasgow's Learning & Teaching Conference on 12 April, and #OER16: Open Culture on 19 April.
Oxford
There have been two bulk uploads of images from the Bodleian, each with over a thousand files. The Bodleian Maps collection has maps from all over the world, going back to the 11th century, including a copy of Georg Braun's atlas Civitates orbis terrarum. The Curzon Collection of Political Prints has satirical cartoons from the era of the Napoleonic Wars.
I delivered a workshop for the ten staff of the Voltaire Foundation, who are keen to help develop articles about Voltaire's works. An editathon about Tudor Music involved eleven editors, nine of them newcomers. The next editathon is on the theme of Women and will take place on the 23rd March.
A bid for another year of funding has gone in to the university's IT Innovation Challenge fund, and has attracted endorsements from around the university.
One month, dozens of events: Black History Month, Art+Feminism and more
Black WikiHistory Month
On February 27, 2016, Wikimedia NYC joined with AfroCROWD for a Black Life Matters Wikipedia Edit-a-thon, and on February 6, 2016 with Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture for another Black Life Matters Wikipedia Edit-a-thon as a part of the national Black WikiHistory Month.
There were many editations for Black History month, including the 2nd Annual Howard University Edit-a-Thon, and African American Artists 2016.
Experimenting with Objective Revision Scoring at Edit-a-thons
At the February 16, 2016, Smithsonian American Art Museum Edit-a-thon, American University professor Andrew Lih (User:Fuzheado) experimented with inspecting and evaluating articles of Black artists using the new m:Objective Revision Evaluation Service.
Lih worked with students to input a list of 54 Harlem Renaissance artists, curated by the museum for a 2012 exhibition. Students determined whether a biographical article existed in English Wikipedia, and if it had a traditional article rating (ie. whether it was hand-assessed and noted on the Talk page). The students then used the new ORES/Revscore machine learning model, created by Aaron Halfaker and his research team, to note its evaluation - stub, start, C, B, good or featured status. For example, the ORES score for the article Joseph Delaney can be determined with the URL: http://ores.wmflabs.org/scores/enwiki/wp10/706034373/
With all this info, they created a table (with the aid of Magnus Manske's tab2wiki) to give an overall view of the quality of the articles on the artists. The table is sortable by column, so people can rank them by quality, and concentrate on the missing/weakest articles first. At the followup February 20, edit-a-thon, a number of the articles identified in this effort were worked on, such as James Van Der Zee, Joseph Delaney, Frederick J. Brown, Horace Pippin, James A. Porter and Sargent Claude Johnson.
Some observations from this approach to the edit-a-thon:
- English Wikipedia's hand-assessed article ratings are looking quite stale. People may be skeptical of whether a machine learning algorithm like ORES can do a decent job of properly assessing articles. However, in just two weeks of experimenting with ORES, it seems to be far more preferable than seeing stub/start/C human-assessed ratings that may be months or years old.
- This was a nice alternative edit-a-thon activity compared to straight editing of articles, which can be intimidating for newcomers. It also gives some insight into article coverage in things that may or may not be WikiProjects. This kind of exploratory work can help set up easier low-hanging fruit tasks for the next set of editors, as was seen in the February 20 followup edit-a-thon when others used the list and evaluation matrix as a way to approach the subject.
- You cannot go two steps in Wikipedia without hitting YAUMMT - Yet Another Useful Magnus Manske Tool. Maybe Magnus will make a tool to automate all this.
- American University students at the Edit-a-thon
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Wikipedia Space traveling posters launched
In October 2015 at Wikiconference USA, a banner-based exhibit called Wikipedia Space was launched at the US National Archives and Records Administration to help promote Wikipedia in NARA's new Innovation Hub. One version of the exhibit was designed to stay at NARA, while other traveling versions could be used temporarily at edit-a-thons and for outreach.
On February 20, 2016, the traveling version debuted at the Smithsonian American Art Museum's African American Artists Edit-a-Thon. The five panels explain the origins of Wikipedia, basic editing operations, the basics of Wikimedia Commons, the trustworthiness of content and a description of GLAM initiatives over the years, including case studies of the British Museum, Smithsonian and The Children's Museum of Indianapolis.
Feedback from Smithsonian organizer Ryan Linthicum was positive, saying the posters provided an immediate focal point for attendees as they arrived, and allowed for conversation and mingling with other participants. The full-color vinyl posters, roughly two meters tall and 80cm wide, are supported by a lightweight bamboo X-frame. This allows for easy transport, setup and teardown, with the entire exhibit fitting into two FedEx shipping tubes for delivery. Ideally, two people can setup the five banners quickly, though it is possible with one person as well. The poster set is available for other events or chapters, or a duplicate set can be printed for groups and chapters that expect to use them more often.
The project was initiated by Andrew Lih, and is partially funded by a 2015 Knight Foundation Prototype Grant. Please find more info or leave suggestions at Wikipedia:WikipediaSpace.
- Wikipedia Space posters
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Andrew Lih, Ryan Linthicum, Jim Hayes -
Banner setup at Smithsonian -
Banner setup at Smithsonian -
Banner setup at Smithsonian -
Banner setup at Smithsonian -
Banners at the Florida Library Association 2016 conference (credit:Rob Fernandez) -
Banner exhibit at the National Archives
Art+Feminism Wikipedia Edit-a-thon
Many events are underway, including Women in the Arts 2016, at the National Museum of Women in the Arts.
For more events, please see Wikipedia:Meetup/ArtAndFeminism.
TED Wikipedians in Residence
TED, the New York-based organisation behind the TED conference, TED talks, TEDx and more, has appointed Jane Darnell and Andy Mabbett as Wikipedians in Residence.
AAAS Convention
Wiki Education Foundation, the Simons Foundation, and Wikimedia DC teamed to provide demonstrations and an editathon at the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual convention, in Washington, D. C.
- AAAS edit-a-thon with WikiEdu
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Lightning talk overview of upcoming video series
This 13-minute overview of the LearnWiki instructional video series was presented at the February 2016 WMF lightning talks.
Gravitational wave detection; viral biomechanics, anglerfish, smart dining table
First observation of gravitational waves
On February 11, the first observation of gravitational waves was formally announced. Since the accompanying article was openly licensed, its files were reused in multiple ways across dozens of Wikimedia sites.
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The data. -
The model deduced from the data. -
The paper.
Recent uploads: viral biomechanics, anglerfish, smart dining table
The following represents a selection of the files that have been uploaded this month from open-access sources. Most of these came from PubMed Central through the Open Access Media Importer, whose uploads now total over 21,500. If you can think of wiki pages where these files (or other files from the same source articles) could be useful, please put them in there or let us know.
Books & Bytes: A Wikipedia Library Newsletter
Books & Bytes
Issue 15, December–January 2016
by The Interior, Ocaasi, UY Scuti, Sadads, and Nikkimaria
This issue we cover some new sources, including one in Arabic and another in Farsi, a medical resource, and something for all the ships editors out there! We also saw some new branches of the Library come into existence, and are pleased to announce some new coordinators. Finally, we have a summary of the popular #1lib1ref campaign, which ran in January. As always, we have a roundup of news and community items related to libraries and digital knowledge.
New accounts
We're excited about four new research partnerships including ships, medicine, Arabic, and Farsi sources:
- Miramar - an index to ships and their histories, covering iron and steel sailing ships, powered merchant ships, and warships, since the early 19th century.
- Annual Reviews - review articles in the biomedical area, including systematic reviews, meta-analyses, and and overviews of research.
- Kotobna (Arabic) - multidisciplinary ebooks
- Noormags (Farsi) - online journals in the social sciences and humanities.
New global branches
We are very excited to announce five more global Wikipedia Library branches:
- Bengali Wikipedia Library
- Greek Wikipedia Library
- Simple English Wikipedia Library
- Ukrainian Wikipedia Library
- Yoruba Wikipedia Library
We'd also like to take this opportunity to highlight the Global Wikipedia Library on Meta. This portal showcases the projects and accomplishments of each of our language branches. New and growing branches also have their own Meta planning pages to coordinate and track their progress, for example: meta:The Wikipedia Library/Bengali. If you're interested in helping to start a branch on another language Wikipedia, please get in touch! wikipedialibrary
wikimedia.org
New coordinator and call for volunteers
We want to welcome Harrias as a new account coordinator on our team! He will be managing the Oxford University Press partnership.
We are in particular need of a volunteer for metrics coordination. These volunteers help analyze and report metrics for Wikipedia Library partners and open-access publishers. If you have benefited from a TWL account or are interested in helping out, sign up here.
Spotlight: 1Lib1Ref
Last month, the Wikipedia Library started the #1ref1lib project - an effort to get the librarians of the world to add (at least) a single reference to a Wikipedia article. This initiative was timed to coincide with Wikipedia’s 15 birthday celebrations.
The effort was a success, with many library professionals from around the world participating in many languages. Some edited for the first time, others dusted off old accounts to engage with Wikipedia again. While it is difficult to track all the references added, participants were encouraged to use the hashtag “#1lib1ref” in their edit summaries. This edit summary search tool records all of those edits: 327 users made 1232 changes on 879 pages in 9 different languages (which is not the total, of course - some participants did not use the hashtag). Catalan Wikipedia, led by coordinator Kippelboy, had great success working with Catalan librarians; 350 edits were made by both new accounts (15-20%), and old or reactivated accounts (15-20%), supported by active users (30%) and users supporting groups of librarians (30%).
Some of the stories generated by the campaign are captured in this compilation. Highlights include Phette23 who made a webcast with editing tips, in-person editing events at locations like the West Virginia University, Queensland University of Technology, National Library of Wales, Xavier University Library, State Library of New South Wales, many libraries in Catalonia, Dutch, German, and Danish institutions (just to name a few), and a plethora of baked goods!
The 1lib1ref campaign was able to change some minds and attitudes about Wikipedia in the Library world. Social Media Officer at the Auburn City Library in New South Wales Louise Dolle and her colleagues were initially skeptical about participating. But after some reflection, they concluded that:
this great, collaborative online resource is in need of some help from the very information professionals their website had the potential to threaten. [...] After all, even an organisation as big as Wikipedia asked us for some help which just goes to show; Everyone needs Librarians![1]
We want to thank everyone who took part, either by adding refs themselves, or sharing the campaign through social media. If you have ideas about how this campaign could be improved, let us know on the Meta page! We would love to see it become a regular event.
More about 1Lib1Ref
- Social media "Storify" collecting the online highlights
- Press coverage from around the world
- Hashtag tracker showing over 5 million impressions of #1Lib1Ref
- Initial reflection in Learning Quarterly
Bytes in brief
Community roundup
- Anne Frank's diary removed from website, BBC.com
- WikiColor, The Wikipedia Library's answer to #ColorOurCollections
- "Millions have seen these historic Welsh images a librarian has helped share on Wikipedia", WalesOnline
- Wikipedia celebrated its 15th birthday
- Most Prolific Wikipedia Editor Opens Up On Wikipedia's 15th Birthday, Vocativ.com
- Wiki for Media Freedom: an interview with the Wikipedian in Residence
Newsworthy
- The Research Pirates of the Dark Web", The Atlantic
- Rutgers University launching a one-year open textbook pilot, InfoDocket
- Online legal publishers squabble over the right to copyright the law, Ars Technica
- Yorkshire universities set up a new open access digital platform, ProlificNorth
- Elsevier moves to open access, all Dutch government-funded papers to be open access by 2024, Sciencemag
- Dutch lead European push to flip journals to open access, Nature
- Canadian university libraries threatened by soaring academic publisher prices, rabble.ca
- Award honors 10 US librarians for public service, Bigstory
Worth reading (or watching)
- "For many library visitors, I'm the only person they've talked to all day", The Guardian
- Understanding the Turnitin/Wikipedia Collaboration, Plagiarism Today
- 2015 in Open Access
- Meet the Robin Hood of Science, BigThink
- A documentary video on GLAM-UK
- Making the Choice: Open Access vs. Traditional Journals, Researchtools
- The Wikipedia Year of Science is here!, WikiEdu Foundation
- Modern libraries are lending more than just books, Newsworks
- How much should a scholarly article cost the taxpayer?, bjoern.brembs.net
- Open access publications get more media coverage, Altmetric
- Bringing libraries closer to Wikipedia: Merrilee Proffitt, Wikimedia blog
- Wikipedia continues to chronicle human history in real time, Engadget
- Don't fall for Wiki-denial: there's nothing wrong with using Wikipedia
- Open access in the Marathi language expands by a thousand books, Wikimedia blog
- How Can We Support Library Innovation?, Mediashift
Data dump
Wikidata Tour Down Under
Wikidata Tour Down Under
Andy Mabbett spent three weeks touring Australia, talking about Wikidata and about his GLAM activities, following which he spent five days in Jakarta, Indonesia], also talking about Wikidata. His audiences included librarians and other GLAM staff, academics, academic publishers, and Wikipedians, plus staff of the Indonesian government's Language Research & Development Body. Slides and other resources are on line, and links to videos of some talks will be added to that page as they become available.
Outcomes to date include a VALA conference session video (accessible to conference attendees only), an ALIA-WA blog post, Wikidata makes Wikipedia a database. Let the fun begin - an article by Mark Pesce, in The Register, and a large number of new labels and descriptions in various Indonesian languages.
See the Australia and New Zealand report for further coverage.
Tech developments
- External identifiers are now held and displayed separately to other properties (the conversion process is ongoing)
- New page to discuss and coordinate data partnerships and imports
- New property browser
- Replicator: Wikidata import tool
- Paper: From Freebase to Wikidata: The Great Migration
GLAM news
- Blog posts
- Wikidata now supports Wikiversity
- Map of museums, coloured after what information is available on Wikidata (source code)
- A major German newspaper used Wikidata's data for their Oscar coverage
- Mix'n'match has new catalogues: WomenWriters, UNESCO Global Geopark Network, Biblioteca Nacional de España, Artists of the Nationalmuseum in Sweden and Encyclopædia Britannica [who they? - ed]
New GLAM-related properties
- National Historic Sites of Canada ID
- ČSFD film ID
- Box Office Mojo franchise ID
- Box Office Mojo studio ID
- WomenWriters ID
- Nationalmuseum Sweden artist ID
- Nationalmuseum Sweden artwork ID
- Italian Senate of the Republic ID
- recording or performance of
- in work
- bore (for engine cylinders)
- stroke
- Wikidata usage instructions (for adding notes to other properties)
March's GLAM events
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