User:Aaaker/National Art Library/Rsonderman Peer Review

General info

 * Whose work are you reviewing?

Aaaker


 * Link to draft you're reviewing
 * https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:Aaaker/National_Art_Library&veaction=edit&preload=Template%3ADashboard.wikiedu.org_draft_template&redirect=no


 * Link to the current version of the article (if it exists)
 * National Art Library

Evaluate the drafted changes
Lead

The lead has been updated to reflect the current holdings and specialty services offered at the library. There is special mention of the artists' books and children's literature. The first sentence provides a good overview by stating exactly what the library is and where it is located. The lead provides a good summary of what is to be included in the Wikipedia article. It covers the collections and some of its services, such as the reference services. It also provides a brief history, without repeating what comes in the later section. The lead ends with the mission statement, which is not mentioned later on in the article. However, this feels like an appropriate location for this piece of information and acts as a nice conclusion to the lead. Overall, the lead is concise and covers the necessary topics to learn quickly what the library is and how it functions.

Content

It appears that the main content added was a new 'History' section and some additional information to the Artists' books portion of the 'Collection Highlights'. I particularly like the addition of the history portion of the article, as it shows the evolution of the museum over time and would provide good sources for anyone interested in the history of British educational institutions or how older libraries operated. The artists' books seems to contain new content that goes in depth on the collection scope of the library. There is also a great link to the V&A's Artists' Book Visual Database that would be handy for continuing to browse the collection's holdings. There do not appear to be any areas overlooked in these new sections. One possible addition could be more information on key donors that provided the early collections? The article also engages with historically underrepresented populations by providing information about disability services and accessibility. This offers fantastic information that is often overlooked when describing libraries and museums.

Tone and Balance

The tone appears to be quite neutral and not eagerly persuading the use of the museum. Some of the sources appear to come from the museum, which could potentially be a biased source, but it depends on the information extracted from these sources. If these were used for dates or straight facts then it is an appropriate source to use.

Sources and References

There is a thorough list of sources, some of which are especially useful, as the information would normally be behind paywalls. It appears all new content has been backed up with a source, and the links and citations all seem to match up. Even though the list of services for patrons with disabilities is not a new addition, if this information comes from the same source as information later in the paragraph, it could be helpful to add a citation to that as well. Overall, the sources seems to cover a wide range of authorial voices, from the authority of the museum, to peer reviewed academic journal articles.

Organization

The newly added content is well written and easy to read. There is a natural flow to the writing and none of the paragraphs appear to be too long. There are no apparent grammatical errors.

Images and Media

There is one image used in the Collection Highlights section. This was not a new addition. It appears to be well captioned and includes its own citation. The image is useful to the text, as it provides a visual for the types of materials that the library houses. A possible addition could be to add an image of the outside of the library or an interior shot of the reading room.

Overall Impressions

Overall, I believe that the added content really improved this article. The added information helped to flesh out the library and its holdings, and make it less of an advertisement just to visit the library. As mentioned earlier, the history section was my personal favorite addition as it gave the library added character and contained very interesting information! I also really liked that additional internal Wikipedia links to the different artists who hold books within the library. I think this adds a nice visual aid to helping to understand the types of works included in the library.

I do not think there are many areas that need improvement in this work. Most of my suggestions so far have been additional content to add, rather than changing any of the new writing. In summary some of my suggestions were to possibly add a couple of influential donors in the 'History' section, possibly cite the list of disability services, and add an additional photo of the exterior or reading room of the library for additional visual aids. Great work overall!