WiR at the National Library of Wales. 11 Month Report
One new account was created this month as part of a Wikidata Editathon held on the 24th of November.
- 166 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
- 166 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
- Aug- Page Views - 2,437,248
- Sept- Page Views - 4,075,081
- October- Page Views - 4,698,284
- November- Page Views - TBC
- 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%
- Percentage of images used in a Wiki (September 17th) - 7.62%
- Percentage of images used in a Wiki (October 20th) - 11.43%
- Percentage of images used in a Wiki (November 18th) - 12.58%
- Percentage of images used in a Wiki (December 17th) - 17.29%
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.
11th month Outcomes:
- 19 November – A Wikipedia drop-in event was held as part of the NLW event to celebrate ‘Explore your Archives’ Week. Information about the project and Wikipedia in general was on hand and 10 people stopped by to find out more about Wikipedia.
- 24 November – 14 people attended the Wikidata event. 8 edited Wikidata relating to the Dictionary of Welsh Biography, and others looked at adding data on mass from NLW Metadata. A meeting was also set up for January to discuss the future of the Dictionary of Welsh biography website, with a view to make use of Wikidata to add new features. This event was held as part of the #LoveDigital Week activities at NLW.
- Jason.nlw ( talk) Jason Evans, Wikipedian in Residence at NLW (Organiser)
- User:mnmwikidata
- User:Sianllgc
- User:GMorgan91
- User:sic19
- User:helenrp
- User:morfuddnia
- User:Deins101
- User:PelaDiTo
- Jenny A'Brook
- Dan Field
- Remi Malessa
- Illtud Daniel
- Dafydd Johnston
- 27 November – A 15 minute presentation about the residency, Open Access and Wikipedia with 20 DIS Students from Aberystwyth University.
- Welsh authors edit-a-thon. It was decided to hold this event on 15 January to coincide with the birthday of Wikipedia.
- I am currently working on a proposal to invite Wikipedia Visiting Scholars to work with the Library, following discussions with Alex Stinson of the Wikipedia Library.
- I have been invited to give a lecture in the new year on ‘Wikipedia and the natural sciences’ for members of the Royal Society of Chemistry at Aberystwyth University.
- I have been invited to speak on BBC Radio Cymru at 9pm on Thursday 23rd of December about Wikipedia and Christmas.
- 3 December – Welsh Newspapers Volunteer project is completed.
- Completion on English Wikipedia:62/62
- Completion on Welsh Wicipedia:61/62
- 100% of the images are in use on Wikipedia
- 10 December – Created step by step guide for new volunteer project to create stub articles for Welsh Biography entries. Currently 1 volunteer is working on this, but I hope to recruit more in the new year.
More information about projects held with the NLW volunteer team can be found here
- 15 January - Welsh authors edit-a-thon. It was decided to hold this event on 15 January to coincide with the birthday of Wikipedia.
- Wikipedia ‘’Back Stage Pass’’ event at NLW to allow Wikipedians to DIY Digitise selected items from the collections. (Permission for this event is being considered by NLW management)
- 30 January - Wales for Peace Edit-a-thon. I will be hosting an edit-a-thon in two sessions as part of the launch event for the Wales for Peace project, with the possibility of imbedding Wikipedia editing into their program of events across Wales during 2016.
- March 5 – Global Art and Feminism Edit-a-thon
The objective is to engage with staff and to promote digital connections by inviting staff to learn more about Wikipedia and how to edit.
11th month Outcomes:
- 10 members of staff attended the Wikidata Editathon on 24 November as Editors and as ‘Hackers’. It was particularly positive to see I.C.T staff taking an interest.
- 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. As part of this training the member of Staff attended the Rugby event to assist editors, and also attended the Gwent Archives Editathon.
Planned events:
- A number of staff will be asked by their line managers to take part in the Welsh Authors edit-a-thon on January 15, 2016
- Staff Edit-a-thon. (Autumn 2015) Under review . Trying to find the best way of engaging staff with editing Wiki 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.
The objective is to identify and release digital archives to Wiki-commons, primarily for use in Wikipedia articles.
11th month Outcomes:
- 166 John Ingleby Watercolour paintings were uploaded to Commons. You can see the collection here
- All 5000 NLW images from Commons will be copied to the Peoples Collection Wales website, as part of the strategy to strengthen the partnership between Peoples Collection, the NLW and Wikimedia UK.
- The Library has agreed that all pre 1880 works of art shared with the Public Catalogue Foundation as part of the BBC Your Paintings project can be shared with Wiki Commons. I am now waiting for the Metadata to be handed over.
- Permission has been granted to upload around 3000 images of Thomas’ Pennants tours in Wales, which includes portraits, coats of arms, watercolour landscapes, scientific diagrams and a description of the country. These will be uploaded manually at 300dpi in the new year.
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.
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.
Due to limited technical support in preparing collections for mass upload, a new list of c.500 handpicked items for manual upload has been submitted for approval. The items have been selected based on their potential impact and usability on Wikipedia. The Systems department are focusing on preparing the Welsh Portrait Collection for mass upload. The limited technical support is due to a lack of resources at NLW and in particular because of the current work being undertaken to implement a new Library catalogue system, which is priority for the NLW systems team
- 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. (Preparing this collection for upload has now become a priority for the NLW, and it is hoped we can upload before the end of the year)
- Images from Newspapers. Software is being developed in order to extract images from the Welsh Newspapers digital collection. The eventual numbers and timing are unclear but the NLW has committed to releasing many to Commons
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.
11th month Outcomes:
- Myself and Dr Dafydd Tudur (head of Digital Access) have begun writing a business case with a strong case for adopting an open access approach similar to the Rijksmuseum. Once completed the document will be made available to Wikimedia UK and presented to the National Library management team
- The possibility of holding a Hackathon with Wiki program developers in order to develop a semi-automated upload system using the People's Collection API was proposed and the suggestion has been put to Wikimedia UK staff for advice. Now waiting for details of date, location ect from Peoples Collection in order to discuss with Wiki developers.
- 19 November - BBC Radio Cymru interview about the library's work with Wikipedia
WiR at the National Library of Wales. 11 Month Report
One new account was created this month as part of a Wikidata Editathon held on the 24th of November.
- 166 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
- 166 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
- Aug- Page Views - 2,437,248
- Sept- Page Views - 4,075,081
- October- Page Views - 4,698,284
- November- Page Views - TBC
- 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%
- Percentage of images used in a Wiki (September 17th) - 7.62%
- Percentage of images used in a Wiki (October 20th) - 11.43%
- Percentage of images used in a Wiki (November 18th) - 12.58%
- Percentage of images used in a Wiki (December 17th) - 17.29%
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.
11th month Outcomes:
- 19 November – A Wikipedia drop-in event was held as part of the NLW event to celebrate ‘Explore your Archives’ Week. Information about the project and Wikipedia in general was on hand and 10 people stopped by to find out more about Wikipedia.
- 24 November – 14 people attended the Wikidata event. 8 edited Wikidata relating to the Dictionary of Welsh Biography, and others looked at adding data on mass from NLW Metadata. A meeting was also set up for January to discuss the future of the Dictionary of Welsh biography website, with a view to make use of Wikidata to add new features. This event was held as part of the #LoveDigital Week activities at NLW.
- Jason.nlw ( talk) Jason Evans, Wikipedian in Residence at NLW (Organiser)
- User:mnmwikidata
- User:Sianllgc
- User:GMorgan91
- User:sic19
- User:helenrp
- User:morfuddnia
- User:Deins101
- User:PelaDiTo
- Jenny A'Brook
- Dan Field
- Remi Malessa
- Illtud Daniel
- Dafydd Johnston
- 27 November – A 15 minute presentation about the residency, Open Access and Wikipedia with 20 DIS Students from Aberystwyth University.
- Welsh authors edit-a-thon. It was decided to hold this event on 15 January to coincide with the birthday of Wikipedia.
- I am currently working on a proposal to invite Wikipedia Visiting Scholars to work with the Library, following discussions with Alex Stinson of the Wikipedia Library.
- I have been invited to give a lecture in the new year on ‘Wikipedia and the natural sciences’ for members of the Royal Society of Chemistry at Aberystwyth University.
- I have been invited to speak on BBC Radio Cymru at 9pm on Thursday 23rd of December about Wikipedia and Christmas.
- 3 December – Welsh Newspapers Volunteer project is completed.
- Completion on English Wikipedia:62/62
- Completion on Welsh Wicipedia:61/62
- 100% of the images are in use on Wikipedia
- 10 December – Created step by step guide for new volunteer project to create stub articles for Welsh Biography entries. Currently 1 volunteer is working on this, but I hope to recruit more in the new year.
More information about projects held with the NLW volunteer team can be found here
- 15 January - Welsh authors edit-a-thon. It was decided to hold this event on 15 January to coincide with the birthday of Wikipedia.
- Wikipedia ‘’Back Stage Pass’’ event at NLW to allow Wikipedians to DIY Digitise selected items from the collections. (Permission for this event is being considered by NLW management)
- 30 January - Wales for Peace Edit-a-thon. I will be hosting an edit-a-thon in two sessions as part of the launch event for the Wales for Peace project, with the possibility of imbedding Wikipedia editing into their program of events across Wales during 2016.
- March 5 – Global Art and Feminism Edit-a-thon
The objective is to engage with staff and to promote digital connections by inviting staff to learn more about Wikipedia and how to edit.
11th month Outcomes:
- 10 members of staff attended the Wikidata Editathon on 24 November as Editors and as ‘Hackers’. It was particularly positive to see I.C.T staff taking an interest.
- 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. As part of this training the member of Staff attended the Rugby event to assist editors, and also attended the Gwent Archives Editathon.
Planned events:
- A number of staff will be asked by their line managers to take part in the Welsh Authors edit-a-thon on January 15, 2016
- Staff Edit-a-thon. (Autumn 2015) Under review . Trying to find the best way of engaging staff with editing Wiki 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.
The objective is to identify and release digital archives to Wiki-commons, primarily for use in Wikipedia articles.
11th month Outcomes:
- 166 John Ingleby Watercolour paintings were uploaded to Commons. You can see the collection here
- All 5000 NLW images from Commons will be copied to the Peoples Collection Wales website, as part of the strategy to strengthen the partnership between Peoples Collection, the NLW and Wikimedia UK.
- The Library has agreed that all pre 1880 works of art shared with the Public Catalogue Foundation as part of the BBC Your Paintings project can be shared with Wiki Commons. I am now waiting for the Metadata to be handed over.
- Permission has been granted to upload around 3000 images of Thomas’ Pennants tours in Wales, which includes portraits, coats of arms, watercolour landscapes, scientific diagrams and a description of the country. These will be uploaded manually at 300dpi in the new year.
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.
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.
Due to limited technical support in preparing collections for mass upload, a new list of c.500 handpicked items for manual upload has been submitted for approval. The items have been selected based on their potential impact and usability on Wikipedia. The Systems department are focusing on preparing the Welsh Portrait Collection for mass upload. The limited technical support is due to a lack of resources at NLW and in particular because of the current work being undertaken to implement a new Library catalogue system, which is priority for the NLW systems team
- 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. (Preparing this collection for upload has now become a priority for the NLW, and it is hoped we can upload before the end of the year)
- Images from Newspapers. Software is being developed in order to extract images from the Welsh Newspapers digital collection. The eventual numbers and timing are unclear but the NLW has committed to releasing many to Commons
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.
11th month Outcomes:
- Myself and Dr Dafydd Tudur (head of Digital Access) have begun writing a business case with a strong case for adopting an open access approach similar to the Rijksmuseum. Once completed the document will be made available to Wikimedia UK and presented to the National Library management team
- The possibility of holding a Hackathon with Wiki program developers in order to develop a semi-automated upload system using the People's Collection API was proposed and the suggestion has been put to Wikimedia UK staff for advice. Now waiting for details of date, location ect from Peoples Collection in order to discuss with Wiki developers.
- 19 November - BBC Radio Cymru interview about the library's work with Wikipedia