| Institution | Resident's Name | Period Covered | Date of Report |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Bodleian Libraries, Oxford | User:MartinPoulter | 1st May-31st May 2015 | 3 June 2015 |
Content edit
Summary objective: To make content from the Bodleian available for use on the Wikimedia projects.
On 28th May the Access and Reuse committee considered my first request. I requested 25 pieces of content: some individual images, some entire books. One book The committee has established that I have permission to share web-resolution (1000px) images from digital collections. The committee will enable me to request higher resolution (aiming for a medium between web-quality and archive quality), and there is a process for this in email so there is no need to wait for committee meetings.
I am also requesting permission to use two sound files, where the owners are people outside Oxford.
I have identified some books addressing my project themes in the Bodleian's Google Books collection, and am arranging a meeting about how I can get access to these in a form suitable for Wikisource.
I have been invited to a event on June 11th in which History students will photograph old manuscripts, and have permission to upload the images under a free licence.
I have made contact with the conservations team at the Bodleian and will visit them to discuss sharing images of conservation and restoration of old items.
Community edit
Summary objective: to expand, diversify and train the contributor community
The workshop on "Working with the Open Culture movement" was attended by 11 staff. Slides and all evaluations are online at wmuk:Oxford_libraries_and_museums_May_2015. All evaluation forms agreed with the statements "I enjoyed this workshop" and "I learnt new things in this workshop."
I followed up with workshop attendees in email, leading to:
- correspondence with Jesus College about releasing images (see below),
- correspondence with Oxford University Museums about ways for museums to engage with Wikimedia, leading to a request for a repeat workshop for museum staff.
- staff from the Radcliffe Science Library requesting a meeting.
The communications team plan to make some short videos about my project, which will be based on sections of this talk.
With Oxford University IT Services, I have discussed:
- Lunchtime workshops for staff in the Engage course next term, including one on Wikipedia in Education
- A possible course to train Wikimedia/Open Knowledge Ambassadors, to run during the next term. (this could promote the sustainability of the project, but needs to be carefully explored so that it does not take up so much time that it holds up other activity)
- A mobile "helpdesk" event
- An Oxford At War editathon to take place in November
- Using the IT services computer rooms for other events such as editathons: easy outside of term time, but then fewer potential attendees.
More concrete details of these events will be decided in June when IT services staff have more time and a clearer view of the schedule.
I have been invited to give a talk/demo about Wikimedia for cultural organisations at a meeting on 8 July. The length and format are still being decided.
Institutional policy edit
Summary objective: Shape and implement policies and workflows for licensing and releasing digital media and reporting their use and impact.
The first meeting of the Libraries’ Access & Reuse Committee took place on 28 May. The group discussed its own remit (e.g. dealing with requests from staff members primarily rather than readers). The major outcome for the Wikimedian project was the agreement that any low res version not subject to additional copyright or rights restrictions can be shared with an open license without needing a further decision from the Committee. This is subject to a few restrictions (e.g. using full works or more than 50% of a collection at any one time may require additional approval) but will allow the WiR to proceed with a large majority of uploads without any delays.
There is an upcoming review of intellectual property policy for Jesus College. I have submitted some links and advice in email to make the case for free licensing, and have been asked to provide informal advice in future.
The University of Oxford Text Archive has many OCR'ed texts of 18th and 19th century works, sometimes with page scans. I am investigating making Wikisource part of the workflow of these texts to produce corrected versions.