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;Victorian-era Dictionary of National Biography digitised on Wikisource
;Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums and Wikimedia UK to jointly appoint Wikimedian in Residence


[[File:George_Smith_by_John_Collier.jpg|thumb|200px|right| George Murray Smith painted by John Collier]]
[[File:Steam_tug_Vigilant_in_Newcastle.jpg|thumb|200px|right| A steam tug called Vigilant in Newcastle]]


''This post was written by Charles Matthews, Wikimedian and Wikimedia UK volunteer.''
Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums, working with Wikimedia UK, have today announced they are to jointly recruit of a Wikimedian in Residence.


The digitisation project for the Victorian-era [http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Dictionary_of_National_Biography,_1885-1900 Dictionary of National Biography (DNB) on Wikisource] has reached the milestone of a complete posting for the biographies for the first edition, which was published in 63 volumes from 1885 to 1900. Wikisource is the text repository of Wikimedia, less well known than Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons (media files), but which adds value to texts with author pages, portals and categories, and light  annotation and hyperlinks.
This is a ground-breaking partnership between one of the North East’s most important cultural bodies and the charity that promotes and supports Wikipedia, the world’s 5th most popular website.
The Wikimedian in Residence will be working on photographs from TWAM’s Shipbuilding, Maritime Trade and Science & Technology collections, digitising content and helping to improve content on Wikipedia.


The efforts of over 30 people since 2008 have put close to 30,000 DNB articles onto Wikisource. While in the UK the text of the old DNB is available freely through library cards on [http://www.oxforddnb.com/ http://www.oxforddnb.com], the subscription site of the modern revised Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (ODNB), the old DNB is still of interest, and this digitisation makes it much easier to use for the whole world… For example the DNB contains more genealogical and bibliographical research information. This major resource has in fact not previously been available straightforwardly on search engines.
Jon Davies, Chief Executive of Wikimedia UK, said: “Wikimedia UK is really pleased to be working together with TWAM. The Wikimedian in Residence will make a valuable contribution to making the museum’s materials accessible to people around the world, for free.”


The DNB was a remarkable legacy project of the publisher George Murray Smith. Typical of the unstoppable Victorian attitude, it was authored by over 700 writers, with the first editor being Leslie Stephen, father of Virginia Woolf. It is particularly strong in areas such as naval biography and Scottish history. With a deep coverage of figures relevant to the British Empire as it then was, it was called by historian Christopher Hill “that much maligned and indispensable work”. Texts on Wikisource cannot be guaranteed perfect, but the small numbers in the left margin of the DNB biographies give access to scans of original pages allowing for checking and correction by anyone. <span class="plainlinks">[http://blog.wikimedia.org.uk/2013/02/victorian-era-dictionary-of-national-biography-digitised-on-wikisource/ <nowiki>[</nowiki>...<nowiki>]</nowiki>]</span>
Carolyn Ball, of Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums, said: “The Wikimedian in Residence will be working with our shipbuilding, maritime and science and technology collections, which are Designated as being of national and international importance. They will work with TWAM staff and the research community to develop new Wikipedia articles, and improve existing articles, relating to these collections.”
 
To apply for the position of Wikimedian in Residence please visit [http://www.twmuseums.org.uk/about-us/job-opportunities.html www.twmuseums.org.uk/about-us/job-opportunities.html]  and to find out more about Wikimedians in Residence [[2012-13_Wikipedians_in_Residence|please visit this page]]
The closing date for applications is 12pm on Monday 4 March 2013. <span class="plainlinks">[http://blog.wikimedia.org.uk/2013/02/tyne-wear-archives-museums-and-wikimedia-uk-to-jointly-appoint-wikimedian-in-residence/ <nowiki>[</nowiki>...<nowiki>]</nowiki>]</span>


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Revision as of 14:39, 13 February 2013

Cymraeg | English

Wikimedia UK

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The Wikimedia projects are special: they are written and curated by thousands of volunteers. They are also supported by voluntary donations, through Wikimedia UK, the Wikimedia Foundation and other international chapters.

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