User:Jason.nlw/7 Month Report

''' WiR at the National Library of Wales. 7 Month Report '''

 Note:  I was only at work for 2 weeks during this period due to annual leave.

Accounts created
No new accounts.

Image statistics

 * 3265 images uploaded to Commons (See Digital collections for release for details). All uploads can be monitored via Category:Images uploaded as part of NLW - WMUK collaboration


 * BaGLAMa (page views for Wikipedia articles containing images from National Library of Wales)


 * February- Page Views - 51,330
 * March- Page Views - 70,996
 * April- Page Views - 186,973
 * May- Page Views - 178,917
 * Jun- Page Views - 697,704
 * Jul- Page Views - 2,306,570


 * GLAMorous (Percentage of Commons files used on Wikimedia projects)


 * Percentage of images used in a Wiki (March 19th) - 7.29%
 * Percentage of images used in a Wiki (April 20th) - 10.2%
 * Percentage of images used in a Wiki (May 19th) - 11.7%
 * Percentage of images used in a Wiki (June 22nd) - 11.61%
 * Percentage of images used in a Wiki (July 17th) - 11.21%
 * Percentage of images used in a Wiki (August 19th)  - 6.34%

Public Outreach
The objective is to hold a minimum of 6 public events or workshops (Edit-a-thons) during the course of the residency (12 months). Each event will have a target audience and a well-defined subject for editors to work within. 7th month Outcomes:


 * 9 people attended a training workshop on the 22nd of July for a small project to create or improve 62 Wikipedia articles in English and Welsh (124 total). The project continues. Below are the user names of those who attended.


 * user:dave.greetham
 * user:non.lloydwilliams
 * user:geoffrey.jonesnlw
 * user:michael.harrisnlw
 * user:tim.mckenna-gorham
 * user:sic19
 * user:helenrp
 * user:eilir8
 * user:Gwyneth.hughes.davies


 * Plans for an Edit-a-thon at Gwent County Archives have been finalised. The event will focus on the history of Chartism in Gwent. 21 September 2015.


 * Dialogue has also opened with the Head of the Wales for Peace project, who would like to collaborate with Wikipedia as part of the project, perhaps through the donation of images. An informal evening Edit-a-thon to be held in the Philip Jones Griffiths exhibition at NLW has now been proposed. Still waiting for reply from Wales for Peace.


 * The project with NLW volunteers, set up to scan and index 200 images donated during the Patagonia Edit-a-thon is underway. Scanning is completed and indexing of images is about 50% complete. These images will be uploaded to Peoples Collection wales and Wikimedia Commons.


 * Wikidata Volunteers. Several volunteers remain active in this area although most of the original 13 who received training have not continued. Those continuing are receiving support as required.


 * Wikipedia Volunteers. A group of 3-4 NLW volunteers are receiving weekly catch up sessions on editing Wikipedia and continue to make regular edits.

Upcoming events

 * The Laws of Hywel Dda (Welsh law) Edit-a-thon (17 October) - An event focused on improving content  relating to the laws of Hywel Dda and aspects of Welsh society under Welsh Law (e.g. Women’s rights). The event will be supported Swansea University.


 * WWI, Edit-a-thon (Summer/Autumn 2015) – Discussions are ongoing. Drawing on contributors from the 1st WWI edit-a-thon the focus will be on all content relating to the Welsh experience of WWI. Possibly to be located at The Regimental Museum of The Royal Welsh in Brecon.


 * Rugby World Cup Edit-a-thon – (September 7th 2015) – To celebrate the Rugby World cup we will ask Wikipedians and sports enthusiasts to improve content about the sport, the players and famous games. To be held at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff.


 * Gwent Archives Chartism Edit-a-thon – (September 22nd 2015) – This event will be held in Gwent and will be attended to volunteers and users of Gwent Archives.

Staff Workshops and Events
The objective is to engage with staff and to promote digital connections by inviting staff to learn more about Wikipedia and how to edit. 7th month Outcomes:


 * 1 member of staff is being trained to teach Wikipedia editing skills. The member of staff can then assist me during busy events. This is part of a commitment by the Library to continue to host Wikipedia related events once my residency has ended.

Planned events:


 * Picipedia (Pictathon?). (Summer 2015) A staff Edit-a-thon to add pictures to Welsh articles listed as needing pictures This event will be arranged as soon as the first large batch of images has been uploaded to Commons using the GLAM Wiki Toolset


 * Staff Edit-a-thon. (Autumn 2015) All staff who take part in training will be encouraged to attend an Edit-a-thon, to edit topics of their choosing. The event will follow the conclusion of initial training workshops.

Digital collections for release
The objective is to identify and release digital archives to Wiki-commons, primarily for use in Wikipedia articles.

7th month Outcomes:


 * 19 were uploaded this month . Following a formal request by myself the NLW has agreed to release a sample of images from Medieval manuscripts into the Public Domain via Wikipedia despite many technically being subject to UK copyright until 2039. This follows a similar move by the British Library who recently released 400 similar images via Wikimedia Commons. The NLW will initially release 75 images. You can view the images  here. These images include images from the13th Century laws of Hywel Dda and rare 14th century representations of biblical figures.
 * 181 images from the P B Abery collection were uploaded to Commons using the Flickr2Commons tool. You can view the images here


 * 3053 images from the Welsh Landscape Collection were uploaded using the GLAM Wiki toolset. The upload is ongoing and has encountered some problems such as duplicate file names and the inclusion of non-existent categories. I am working with Library staff and volunteer Wikipedians to correct any problems and a second smaller upload will take place for files which failed the first attempt. The images can be viewed here

Collections identified for future upload:

A revised list of collections identified for upload has been approved by Library management. Over 140,000 images have now been identified for Upload to Wikimedia commons. It has been agreed to use the Glam Wiki toolset to upload further collections. Testing has been successful and I am now waiting on the NLW systems team for the final Metadata file in order to upload the first 5000 images to Commons.

Although 140,000 images have been cleared for upload to Commons it is unlikely that all the collections will be available for upload before the end of the residency in January 2016 due to the amount of Work involved in preparing metadata for upload. Collections are being prioritized accordingly.


 * Geoff Charles Collection – 120,000 images taken by Photojournalist Geoff Charles c.1940-70 mainly in Mid and North Wales. The upload of this collection has been set out as a target in the operational plan of the new Digital Access department. This will require a significant amount of work by the NLW systems team and uploading the entire collection may extend beyond the end of the Residency in January 2016


 * P.B. ABERY Photographic Collection - 2000 images. Early 20th century images of mostly of scenes from the Breconshire/Radnorshire area.


 * Martin Ridley collection - 800 images (needs to be ingested first). Mostly South Wales Streets and industry. Late 19th – early 20th century


 * Welsh Portraits - 15,000 images (needs to be ingested first). This is the largest single Welsh portrait collection including examples of framed works, etchings and photographs. The collection includes portraits from the middle ages to modern times. (According to NLW digitisation team, this collection is unlikely to be ready for upload during the period of the residency)


 * A Formal request has been approved to release a handpicked sample of images/pages from Medieval manuscripts. Uploads are ongoing

Building bridges
The objective is to affect changes to NLW culture, guidelines, policy and procedure in order to create a sustainable relationship with Wikimedia UK and Wikipedia and to promote the open knowledge ethos.

7th month Outcomes:
 * The Peoples Collection Wales Management are still committed to changing their policy and to try and phase out the use of the Creative Archives license in favour of a Non-commercial CC license, with the option for people to also choose a Commercial License. I met with Peoples Collection management on the 27th of July and a provisional timetable was set out to achieve the goals stated above by the end of the year along with a commitment to develop a systematic way of sharing openly licensed material with Wikimedia Commons.

The possibility of holding a Hackathon with Wiki program developers in order to develop a semi-automated upload system using the Peoples Collection API was proposed and the suggestion has been put to Wikimedia UK staff for advice.
 * A timeline has now been implemented for integrating the identification and upload of suitable digital collections to Wikimedia Commons as part of the digitisation workflow. These guidelines should be implemented by 30 September


 * Discussion are underway with Dr Dafydd Tudur, Digital Access manager at the NLW about preparing a business case study for sharing openly with Wikipedia. Detailed discussion will be held in early September.


 * Exhibitions - QRpedia codes are now in use in NLW’s major exhibition on Philip Jones Griffith. A number of the codes have been  used to offer more in-depth information about subjects and items discussed in the exhibition which opened on the 27th of June.


 * ‘Cite on Wikipedia’ – A ‘Cite on Wikipedia’ is now live and in use on the new Welsh Newspapers Online website which launched and the end of June. The expectation is that it will be added to our other websites as and when resources become available.

Media Coverage

 * An article has been submitted to Medievalists.net which discusses the power of Wikipedia and the advantages of releasing medeival works into the Public Domain.


 * I conducted a 20 minute interview live on Radio Cardiff on the 20th of July in order to promote the Rugby World Cup Editathon and my work as a Wikipedian in general.