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| ;British Library Wikipedian in Residence - conclusions | | ;Wiki Loves Monuments in the UK - a review of the exhibition |
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| [[File:Alexander in a submarine - British Library Royal MS 15 E vi f20v (detail).jpg|thumb|250px|right|Library curators exploring a new world (or, Alexander the Great being lowered into the water in a submarine); BL Royal MS 15 E vi f20v.]] | | [[File:Wiki_Loves_Monuments_pictures_at_the_Senate_House_Library.jpg|thumb|250px|right|The exhibition at the Senate House Library]] |
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| ''This post was written by Andrew Gray at the conclusion of his residency at the British Library. It was [http://britishlibrary.typepad.co.uk/digital-scholarship/2013/05/wikipedian-in-residence-conclusions.html originally posted on the British Library’s blog here].'' | | ''This post was written by Richard Nevell. |
| | On Friday 3rd May, the Wiki Loves Monuments photo exhibition was packed up, marking the end of their time in the country, and is now en route to Sweden. |
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| My residency at the British Library is coming to an end today, and so it seemed a good chance to look back at what we’ve done over the past twelve months. It’s been a very productive and very interesting year.
| | Wiki Loves Monuments is the largest photography competition in the world, and in 2012 resulted in more than 300,000 images being uploaded to Commons. High quality prints were created of the 12 winning pictures and since January they have been exhibited in various countries. While in the UK they were shown to a varied audience of both Wikimedians and members of the general public. |
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| The residency was [http://blog.wikimedia.org.uk/2012/05/wikimedia-uk-and-british-library-unveil-latest-wikipedian-in-residence/ funded by the AHRC], who aimed to help find ways for researchers and academics to engage with new communities through Wikipedia, and disseminate the material they were producing as widely as possible. To help with this, we organised a series of introductory workshops; these were mostly held at the British Library, with several more at the University of London (two at Birkbeck and three at Senate House) and others scattered from Southampton to Edinburgh. Through the year, these came to fifty sessions for over four hundred people, including almost a hundred Library staff both in London and at Boston Spa, and another fifty Library readers in London! Attendees got a basic introduction to Wikipedia – how it works, how to edit it, and how to engage with its community – as well as the opportunity to experiment with using the site. | | The first stop was the [[March_2013_WMUK_media_event|media event with Jimmy Wales]] in March, where the photos formed an attractive backdrop to the event and prompted many discussions between Wikimedia UK volunteers, members of the press, and other interested parties who were at TechHub. Likewise when WMUK had an open day on the charity’s future later that month, which attracted members of the charity and members of the public who were interested in becoming trustees. |
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| As well as building a broad base of basic skills and awareness, we also worked with individual projects to demonstrate the potential for engagement in specific case. At the Library, the International Dunhuang Project organised a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:GLAM/BL/IDP/Report multi-day, multi-language, editing event] in October; IDP staff, student groups, and Wikipedia volunteers worked on articles about central Asian archaeology, creating or improving around fifty articles.
| | The main part of the exhibition was in April. On Friday 12th to Sunday 14th the British Library hosted GLAM-Wiki 2013, with about 200 attendees over the three days. In between talks and workshops, a mixture of GLAM professionals and Wikimedians had the opportunity to see the photographs. The final stop in the UK for the exhibition was the University of London’s Senate House Library. With more than 100,000 registered readers, the library is often busy. Installed at the entrance the library, the Wiki Loves Monuments exhibition was prominently displayed for visitors to view. During the exhibition’s time in the UK it has been viewed by a wide range of people, and helped raise awareness about Wikimedia’s activities. |
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| At the Library, one of the most visible outcomes has been the “[http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Picturing_Canada#Picturing_Canada Picturing Canada]” project, digitising around 4,000 photographs from the Canadian Copyright Collection, with funding from Wikimedia UK and the Eccles Centre for American Studies. We’ve released around 2,000 images so far, as JPEGs and as high-resolution TIFFs, with the full collection likely to be available by early June (we’ve just found enough left in the budget to do an extra batch of postcards). Other content releases have included [https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Books_from_the_British_Library digitised books], [https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Photograph_of_Jinnah_with_Gandhi_in_1944_%28Photo_429-17%29.jpg historic photographs], [https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Northern_Ireland_Revenue_Dog_Licence_1865-1928_2_shillings_steel_die_for_letterpress.JPG collection objects], and [https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Alexander_in_a_submarine_-_British_Library_Royal_MS_15_E_vi_f20v_%28detail%29.jpg ancient manuscripts] (pictured).
| | Wiki Loves Monuments 2013 will be held in September, and the planning process to hold the event in the UK has begun. If you are interested in helping out, feel free to add your name to the [[Commons:Commons:Wiki_Loves_Monuments_2013_in_the_United_Kingdom|page on Commons]]. And if you have a camera, keep your fingers crossed for a sunny September because we want you to go out and take as many pictures as possible! Hopefully it will be a resounding success. |
| | | <span class="plainlinks">[http://blog.wikimedia.org.uk/2013/05/wiki-loves-monuments-in-the-uk-a-review-of-the-exhibition/ <nowiki>[</nowiki>...<nowiki>]</nowiki>]</span> |
| We also hosted the [[GLAM-WIKI 2013|GLAM-Wiki conference]] in April, which was a great success, with over 150 attendees and speakers from around the world. Several of the presentations are [http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL66MRMNlLyR5-g_SZll_leqpaHDCulraD now online].
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| While I’m leaving the Library, some of these projects I’ve been working on will be continuing – we still have another 2,000 of the Canadian photographs to be released, for example! We’re also hoping to host some more workshops here in the future (possibly as part of the upcoming [http://www.jisc.ac.uk/fundingopportunities/funding_calls/2013/04/wikimedia.aspx JISC program]). I’ll still be contactable, and I’m happy to help with any future projects you might have in mind; please do [[wikipedia:Special:EmailUser/Andrew_Gray|get in touch]] if there’s something I can help you with.
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| <span class="plainlinks">[http://blog.wikimedia.org.uk/2013/05/wikipedian-in-residence-conclusions/ <nowiki>[</nowiki>...<nowiki>]</nowiki>]</span> | |
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