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Archive 1

Idea

I was having a discussion with a British Library curator earlier and I think I came up with a way that people involved in GLAM outreach could convince management to release images or let curators and librarians get involved: have a subpage of WP:GLAM/BL which anyone can add articles to and with each article have stuff which could potentially make the article better. Imagine it a bit like this:

  • Magna Carta
    • some images A, B, C
    • expert consultation from X, Y, Z
    • photographs from collection items 1, 2, 3

Then when people are trying to convince management or whatever, they can just print it out. —Tom Morris 17:05, 14 January 2011 (UTC)

Review on Sat morning

Here's what we found during the 'editathon' event:

  • Start of day on Friday was mostly curators, few Wikipedians - not an 'editathon'. Would have been better done as a presentation to start with
  • Wikipedians don't like early mornings!
  • Science: discussion around Dunhuang Star Chart and Aurel Stein. Follow-up is likely to be the curators editing the article, and also involving local organisations.
  • Audio: improvements made to the British Library Sound Archive article; St Mary-le-Bow public debates article started
  • Philately: we had a good session with the two remaining curators. We discussed wikipedians supporting volunteer stamp enthusiasts co-ordinated by BL to help them become editors and develop relevant pages
  • Possible Follow-up: run a Wikipedia workshop, overviewing Wikipedia.

Please expand the above! Mike Peel (talk) 10:13, 15 January 2011 (UTC)

This Wikipedian likes morning in direct proportion to what time he went to sleep the night before. Yesterday, Southeastern (train operating company) didn't seem to like mornings though! Wikipedia workshop sounds good. —Tom Morris 13:28, 15 January 2011 (UTC)
It would be nice to have something like 9.30 start to be targeted at specific stuff like agreeing day format, new editor basics/demo and then from 10.30ish the main activities can start. This gives the folks will travel issues being better catered for. Fæ (talk) 16:46, 15 January 2011 (UTC)

Query...

Not sure if you want John Joscelyn tagged as part of your project or not. Just letting you know he exists. Ealdgyth - Talk 14:47, 30 January 2011 (UTC)

Out of scope ?

Whilst it's great to see the good work that Ealdgyth has done with De Iniusta Vexacione Willelmi Episcopi Primi and Leges Henrici Primi, I do wonder if it is appropriate to add articles that achieved DYK in 2009 and GA in 2010 to the Outcomes section of a project that only started in January 2011? Surely these articles should not be considered an outcome of the current British Library project -- including them as outcomes seems to me to just confuse what exactly has been achieved. BabelStone (talk) 21:35, 30 January 2011 (UTC)

Agreed - the Outcomes ought to be fresh work from after the edit-a-thon started. If these articles were improved this year as part of the collaboration that than can be claimed but not their pre-existing GA status (though they will still be counted in the quality matrix as within the project). Fæ (talk) 21:47, 30 January 2011 (UTC)
Sorry! I thought that was just a section for listing any articles that had made GA. Oops! Ealdgyth - Talk 23:53, 30 January 2011 (UTC)

I'm currently working on a British Library portal and have just got to the 'topics' section. I would have just used the content in a navbox, but there isn't one. Would anyone be interested in making one, perhaps along the lines of the British Museum's one? Regards, Rock drum Ba-dumCrash (Driving well?) 19:24, 1 February 2011 (UTC)

Colindale newspaper request

User:Fuhghettaboutit has posted on my talk page about trying to get access to editions of the Daily Express from the 1930s to help with pushing the article on Hadji Ali to FA. Does anyone at WM-UK or the BL have the ability to get that done? I've listed myself on Resource Request for the BL, but when I use BL reading rooms, I generally use Humanities 1 at St. Pancras; going to Colindale might be a bit of a stretch to get newspaper articles for a fellow Wikipedian. Anyone at the BL able to take this on? —Tom Morris (talk) 03:02, 8 February 2011 (UTC)

The Daily Express is available at BL St. Pancras as it has been digitized from 1900-current (Around 180,000 pages covering selected dates between 1900 and 1982 are currently available). See [1] and [2]. If the requests are posted at REX, I would have thought that someone would be able to look them up fairly quickly either at the BL or if their library happens to subscribe to this particular D/B. I would have suggested a microgrant (5.99 for 48 hours) but I'm not sure there is a good case for this one. Fæ (talk) 08:03, 8 February 2011 (UTC)

Some areas of comment

Today, my brain has been abuzz with GLAM-related stuff. GLAMsters watching may want to chime in:

Firstly, I suggested on User:Fæ's talk page about how we could use portals as a way in to looking at specific content and articles about objects in GLAM institutions. A British Library portal could potentially have links to all the articles about objects in the permanent collection at the BL, as well as containing material from sister projects.

Secondly, I've been wondering about out-of-copyright works in the BL and whether it would be possible to transcribe them by hand (or, rather, by touch type!) onto Wikisource. I'm planning to contact the BL Reader Services about this (unless Fæ or a BL official or other GLAM contact or whatever wants to) on Monday and I've posted up a discussion about this on Wikisource: see wikisource:Wikisource:Scriptorium#Library transcriptions (Scriptorium is Wikisource's version of Village Pump). I'm specifically thinking about it in the context of many of the source materials I've found to improve Ethical Culture movement (see talk and the current AfD). The problems with such a scheme come from three directions: copyright (which shouldn't be an issue for 19th century texts but the BL may disagree), BL reader policy and Wikisource policy. Of course, if the BL wants to draft a Wikimedian exception to their current rules on copyright licensing and document supply, that'd solve the issue!

Londoners: I'll be at the meetup next Sunday so we can discuss any of this further IRL. —Tom Morris (talk) 00:25, 6 March 2011 (UTC)

I've put up a blog post about the copyright status and use conditions for making copies of out-of-copyright material for Wikisource. I've done so because I want to add sources the history of Ethical culture and Humanism to Wikisource. Comments welcome. —Tom Morris (talk) 13:58, 8 March 2011 (UTC)

Imagemaps with... maps

Moving on from Tom's idea about portals, I've also had a moment of inspiration (or idiocy, I don't know yet). Would it be possible to get icon-free floor plans of the Library (icons such as those at the bottom of this page)? We could then insert imagemaps of each floor into the portal, with relevant links to rooms etc. which appear on the maps. For example, we could link to the article King's Library or the relevant section of the article British Library. Regards, Rock drum Ba-dumCrash (Driving well?) 19:10, 14 March 2011 (UTC)

I shall pass on a request by email, though my intuition says it would probably be easier for someone to knock up their own floorplan sketch based on (but not a direct copy of) the ones on the BL website. Cheers Fæ (talk) 19:13, 14 March 2011 (UTC)
I erm... borrowed one of the ones from the website and pasted out the little symbols although it was pretty shoddy on account of my lack of skills (and the fact I was using MS Paint :P), but I was also worried they would accuse us of breaking Copyright law if we used their pictures. However, if they uploaded them, they might be happier with it. Regards, Rock drum Ba-dumCrash (Driving well?) 19:34, 14 March 2011 (UTC)
You might want to add it to the shared todo list for someone else to take a look and possibly re-draw it. Creative content might be part of the design, including colour and the type of bevelling rather than just the use of symbols and so it's hard to claim representational or topological drawings might have no copyrightable content due to their simplicity. Fæ (talk) 19:48, 14 March 2011 (UTC)
 Add to to-do list. Thanks for your help. –Rock drum Ba-dumCrash (Driving well?) 19:59, 14 March 2011 (UTC)
NB - email sent to the BL asking if they have some they could let us have on a free release. Fæ (talk) 12:38, 16 March 2011 (UTC)

BL have come back by email and would like to look at an example before suggesting options - does anyone know of a simple floorplan used as an interactive map for another article than I can link to? Thanks Fæ (talk) 15:26, 16 March 2011 (UTC)

I can't think of any, but you could show them an imagemap on, say, a painting, or show them the map we want, and tell them what the links would be. Regards, Rock drum Ba-dumCrash (Driving well?) 15:42, 16 March 2011 (UTC)

Fæ: Have you managed to get a copy of some .svg images of their floorplans we can use? I've got a low-quality .png that I took from the website and rubbed the symbols off we can use if not. Thanks, Rock drum Ba-dumCrash 08:13, 17 April 2011 (UTC)

I have a meeting with Richard Power tomorrow, so this will come up again in a natural way, and I'll be able to give an update. Cheers Fæ (talk) 15:23, 18 April 2011 (UTC)

New article request for Hackney Double Eagles

If anyone's looking for a quick new article to create, there is a really lovely story about a treasure buried in Hackney in 1940 which was found & is currently on display at the BM but is about to be reunited with the family of the person who buried it. Am sure an article would be much appreciated by the BM and the Portable Antiquities Scheme, as well as being a gimme for DYK and maybe In The News... (Original WMUK email list message posted by The Land)

Info:

--Fæ (talk) 15:26, 18 April 2011 (UTC)

This would be a great opportunity for someone to write for Wikinews. — μ 16:25, 18 April 2011 (UTC)
If anyone is interested in writing the article, Commons has the following pictures:
BabelStone (talk) 21:31, 18 April 2011 (UTC)

Portal

I've finished the portal! After about 4 months of slacking off and forgetting to work on it () I've completed put at least something into the necessary sections and and some of the unnecessary ones. There are currently only 2 floorplans and quotes on rotation (the floorplans are kind-of ongoing so I'll do more of those in the future) and there is no "Topics" section as there is no navbox for this project. I've also abstained to put in "Related portals" as I could only really find one. As with everything else, please feel free to change it around or whatever you want to do. Regards, Rock drum Ba-dumCrash

Cool! That is great work, Rock drum! —Tom Morris (talk) 17:00, 12 May 2011 (UTC)

British Library editathon this Saturday

I just noticed the editathon at the British Library this Saturday, and I'm thinking of attending, but don't have an account on the WM-UK wiki to sign up with. Do you just create a new account, or can you merge from a SUL account? Carcharoth (talk) 00:26, 3 June 2011 (UTC) Eventually managed to get SUL to work over there, so have now signed up. Carcharoth (talk) 00:10, 4 June 2011 (UTC)

Sorry only just noticed your question. It would have been fine to inter-wiki link to your Wikipedia account rather than bothering with setting up a wmuk account. Thanks Fæ (talk) 06:01, 4 June 2011 (UTC)

Can anyone report on the highlights of the Editathon? -- Ssilvers (talk) 18:49, 4 June 2011 (UTC)

There is a list of output here. That would be a start, and others who were there will probably be able to say more. For my part, I enjoyed it greatly, though I ended up having to learn how to use an iPad (long story). Hopefully there will be more such events, though I would hope to find out about it sooner (my fault this time round) and be prepared with pre-event and at-event requests, which IMO are vital to really make full use of the amazing resource that is the British Library. Carcharoth (talk) 23:36, 4 June 2011 (UTC)
Note that Sadads has written something up for Signpost and there is likely to be a summary for the GLAM newsletter. Fæ (talk) 23:59, 5 June 2011 (UTC)

Harley Golden Gospels

These had no page and I wrote up something quickly, but I am not sure if the copies at the British Library are the only existing copies. Are they? That should probably be clarified in the article if someone can do it. Thanks. History2007 (talk) 01:33, 20 November 2011 (UTC)

Wikipedian in Residence

Hi all!

I've just started work as the Wikipedian in Residence at the BL; I'll be here for six months, until the end of October. I'm still in the process of settling in and meeting with people here to discuss possible projects, but if you've any suggestions or requests for things I could look at, please do get in touch.

We've currently got two events in the calendar:

and hopefully we'll be able to organise more community events this summer along the lines of the past backstage tours and editing sessions. Andrew Gray (talk) 14:40, 3 May 2012 (UTC)

Archived requests

Archived from the main page:

  • Ashley Library - Collection of 19th century literary books and manuscripts, formerly belonging to Thomas James Wise. Source information coming. Online refs: [3], [4] (under WISE, Thomas James), [5]. Cataloged in T. J. Wise, The Ashley Library. A Catalogue of Printed Books, Manuscripts, and Autograph Letters collected by Thomas James Wise, 11 vols. (London, 1922—1936), ISBN 0712904859.
     Done Fæ (talk) 02:13, 6 March 2011 (UTC)

Central Asian archaeology edithon?

Request national archaeology articles like Archaeology in Tajkistan, Archaeology in Kazakhstan, Archaeology in Turkmenistan, Archaeology in Uzbekistan etc.♦ Dr. Blofeld 14:45, 7 October 2012 (UTC)

Legislation

As a deposit library, the BL should have access to copies of governmental material from around 1860 or so...

I would like to source an alternate copy of the Chrnological Table of The Statutes from 1877, in order to repair some seemingly damaged pages present in the copy currently being used at Wikisource. Sfan00 IMG (talk) 15:32, 15 December 2012 (UTC)

Replied on Wikisource. Andrew Gray (talk) 12:40, 16 December 2012 (UTC)
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