User:Susan Tol/Siobahn Leachman

Siobhan Leachman is a New Zealand digital volunteer, citizen scientist and Wikipedia editor.

The first citizen science project that Leachman was a part of was the Smithsonian Transcription center where she began her volunteer work transcribing the field books of Vernon Bailey. Through her transcriptions she was able to find faults in other online databases and took action to see that they were improved. This led to her work becoming featured on the the Smithsonian Transcription center's blog.

She has volunteered for the Biodiversity Heritage Library, the Smithsonian Transcription Center and various New Zealand museums, transcribing records and providing photographs to accompany records. She has been recognized by the Biodiversity Heritage Library for her dedication to their volunteer projects.

One of her projects has been creating Wikipedia, Wikidata, and Commons entries for all 1800 moth species endemic to New Zealand.

An advocate for open access and biodiversity Leachman has spoken at conferences advocating for museums to make their collections more accessible online. She has been at the forefront of championing open data in New Zealand and has helped organise and run wikipedia edit-a-thons throughout New Zealand.

Due to her experience in numerous crowdsourcing initiatives she is often consulted by the organisations she volunteers for, offering advice in how to create and support citizen science projects.

In 2019 Leachman was awarded a Companion of Auckland Museum Medal from Auckland War Memorial Museum for her contributions towards improving online access to their records.