Wikipedia:GLAM/Bodleian/5th month report
| Institution | Resident's Name | Period Covered | Date of Report |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Bodleian Libraries, Oxford | User:MartinPoulter | 1st August-31st August 2015 | 4 September 2015 |
Content
[edit]Summary objective: To make content from the Bodleian available for use on the Wikimedia projects.
I uploaded 293 files from Bodleian collections, plus four I took myself (relating to scientific discoveries at Oxford), bringing the total to 560. There are 34 more uses of images, bringing the total to 265. New themes include Armenian gospel manuscripts, maps in Arabic, the Hebrew Bible, the Arabic Book of the Fixed Stars and the Persian tale of Layla and Majnun.
I spent an hour and a half in the Museum of the History of Science (one of the university's four museums) talking about different ways in which they can benefit from working with Wikimedia. They will allow me to share a few images from their collection to test the waters. They are interested in having better quality images of their display items, and we are exploring an event to bring in Wikipedian photographers.
Community
[edit]Summary objective: to expand, diversify and train the contributor community
No events were delivered this month, but a lot of future events have been planned and publicised.
We have announced four events for the bicentenary of Ada Lovelace next month. Rather than four editathons, each workshop will be based around a different kind of activity. We are exploring options for a fifth one involving a local school.
A "Working with the Open Culture movement" workshop for Bodleian Library staff will take place on 19 November.
With the Oxford Internet Institute, I discussed a "social machines" editathon for Wikipedia's birthday on 15 January 2016.
At the request of the Radcliffe Science Library, I have created a publicity leaflet (right) aimed at science librarians and scientists. A PDF is available on Commons and the Office file is downloadable from the Wikimedia UK wiki. The front page is not science-specific, so the leaflet could be adapted for an arts and humanities version.
A date has not been fixed, but I will present in a staff meeting at the Museum of the History of Science and we are looking to organise an evening event where people can photograph objects in the museum's display cabinets.
Two Wikipedia contributors have got in touch asking to take photographs in the Bodleian. I will arrange and supervise a morning visit.
Policy
[edit]Summary objective: Shape and implement policies and workflows for licensing and releasing digital media and reporting their use and impact.
An image from the John Johnson Collection of Printed Ephemera has been uploaded to illustrate the Women in science article, and we have secured permission from the collection and from the Access and Reuse Committee to upload this in a higher resolution so readers can appreciate the detail of the engraving. By raising this request, we have prompted internal debate about the rights given to users of the Bodleian.
The Bodleian runs a "DIY digitisation" project which gives readers access to items in the library that they can photograph and share in a group on Flickr. The group does not yet have an IP policy and is having internal discussion to decide one. I have circulated the Public Domain versus the museum paper and will attend meetings to advocate a Wikipedia-compatible licence.
There will be a conference on DIY digitisation in Oxford on 8 January. Liz McCarthy and I have been asked to speak on a panel and I will be advocating a radically open approach.
My conference presentation to Oxford library staff has been written up as a 1200-word article, "How a book-lover becomes a wiki-lover", which CILIP Update has accepted for publication in November/December. The article calls on the library sector to share out-of-copyright text through Wikisource and improve information about historic authors in Wikipedia and Wikidata.