User:MartinPoulter/Bodleian

From April 2015 to March 2016 I am working as WIR in the Bodleian Libraries, Oxford.

• Project page on Wikipedia including monthly reports

Activity log

April

• Wrote project final report

March and late February

• Did a lot more work (and was active almost every day in March as the end of the project approached) but got out of the habit of writing this log.

February

• 18 February: Uploading individual images + meeting Julie Anne Lambert about bulk upload quality and further sources of bulk uploads + arranging workshops next week + booking room for potential March editathon + additional reporting about the John Johnson Collection
• 17 February: Delivering Open Knowledge Ambassador workshop + writing big for further funding + acquiring lists of content for bulk upload
• 16 February: Various correspondence and preparation for tomorrow's workshop
• 10 February: Writing up monthly report
• 5 February: Leading training at Tudor Music editathon
• 4 February: Blog-post writing and other reporting related to this week's events + looking at funding options
• 3 February: Delivering second Open Knowledge Ambassador workshop + some checking & correspondence related to bulk upload.
• 2 February: Preparation for tomorrow's workshop + initiating bulk upload to Commons

January 2016

• 28 January: Write up for Open Knowledge Ambassador training. Meeting Prof Eric Meyer to talk about impact of digital collections and tell him about about LinkSearch and BaGLAMa2 tools. Taking part via Skype in induction of Edinburgh University WIR.
• 27 January: Preparing and giving talk for Oxford Geek Night group. About 50 in audience.
• 26 January: (full day working from Bristol) Test metadata upload to Commons Beta, interrupted by a problem on the server. Wrote feedback on GWToolset interface for Glamtools mailing list. More publicity for forthcoming events.
• 21 January: Catching up with various actions/ meetings: arranging workshop with Voltaire Foundation
• 20 January: Prepare and deliver first Open Knowledge Ambassador workshop + follow-up
• 19 January: Reporting from last week's editathon + sending queries about potential funding
• 18 January: Invited speaker at HistoryLab, University of London, talking about Wikipedia and academic skills. 13 audience (7 women, 6 men) + two other speakers. Storify of reactions
• 15 January: Preparing and delivering Wikipedia 15th birthday workshop
• 14 January: Responding to various queries, including related to this term's events.
• 13 January: Responding to some queries. Writing blog post about open access.
• 8 January: Attending and speaking at DIY Digitization conference, advocating Wikipedia-compatible free licencing as the default for digital images created by individuals photographing books in libraries.
• 7 January: Monthly reporting; on-wiki publicity for editathon event. Various correspondence. Preparing slides for tomorrow's talk.
• 6 January: Catching up with reporting and emails; some preparation for upcoming events.
• 4 January: Creating project page for Tudor Music editathon

December

• 15-16 December: Creating and testing perl scripts to extract metadata from Digital Bodleian and convert to flat XML for GWToolset.
• 9 December: Writing blurb for upcoming events, including blog post; requesting events with John Radcliffe Hospital and Radcliffe Science Library
• 8 December: Internationalising template using text from last week; tour of St. John's College library; writing report for Outline. Asked over Twitter for someone to write a Turkish article about the Bodleian Library, and received text from a user who joined Wikipedia as a result.
• 7 December: Reporting on last week and some correspondence incl. about January event
• 3 December: Preparing and delivering Free Speech Debate editing workshop.
• 2 December: Meeting Nick Millea and Michael Athanson of the Map Room. Discuss Wikipedia editing and map sharing on Commons, incl. Wikimaps Warper. Discuss possible sharing of non-Western maps. Correspondence with media office about them possibly releasing, or encouraging release of, video clips of Oxford.
• 1 December: Team meetings, catch-up on correspondence, incl. pre-event email for Thursday's training workshop.

November

• 26 November: Investigating upload possibility; more work on reporting; re-writing proposal for Open Knowledge Ambassador course.
• 25 November: Prepare and deliver talk for University of Oxford social media group. More work on digital books. Answering query about maps. Experimenting with Wikimaps Warper. Correspondence relating to future events.
• 24 November: Going through digitised books in SOLO (library index) to identify some for potential sharing.
• 19 November: Prepare and deliver workshop for Bodleian Libraries staff. Write up evaluation. Meeting with Dr Yan Wong about Wikidata.
• 18 November: Bid writing. Meeting with OII about January's editathon. Exploring possibility of sharing digitised books. Funding bid went in the next day.
• 17 November: Team meeting. Catch up with various correspondence. Start editing funding bid.
• 12 November: Meeting with Richard Nevell for 7-month review. Attending event on future of the academic monograph: asked about whether AHRC funding council could require open licensing of original work, as they have done with academic papers. Followed this up by talking to someone involved in the AHRC project on future of the monograph. Other reporting for funding bid.
• 11 November: Follow-up on yesterday's event, other event planning, and reporting
• 10 November: Delivering World War I editathon
• 5 November: Some event planning, including for editathon next week.
• 4 November: Preparing and delivering lunchtime workshop "Under the Bonnet of Wikipedia"; working on reporting
• 3 November: staff meeting; Email catch-up; some preparation for tomorrow's workshop and next week's editathon

October

• 22 October: Correspondence relating to last week's events. Meeting at St. Anthony's College about free speech event
• 21 October: Preparing and delivering talk for researchers and students at Oxford Internet Institute (OII). Meeting at Music Faculty about Tudor music editathon.
• 20 October: Reporting on last week's events
• 16 October: Attending day event about Ada Lovelace and women in science, hosted by Somerville College + visit to the college's library to see their exhibit about Mary Somerville.
• 15 October: Meeting with Lucy Crompton-Reid, some image work, delivering image-a-thon
• 14 October: Deliver improve-a-thon + identifying images for image-a-thon
• 13 October: Deliver edit-a-thon + correspondence related to images + photos for CILIP Update article
• 12 October: Deliver transcribe-a-thon event
• 11 October: Bit of time identifying and setting up texts on Wikisource for event.
• 7 October: Correspondence relating to forthcoming events and image sharing
• 1 October: Correspondence inviting attendees and content for this month's events.

September

• 30 September: Correspondence relating to Ada Lovelace events. Start on project pages. Meet Stuart Fowkes about speaking to communications staff in the university.
• 29 September: Catching up on email and publicity for Ada Lovelace events.
• 25 September: Uploads
• 24 September: Correspondence and uploads. Finding texts to transcribe in Wikisource event
• 23 September: Correspondence about upcoming events + some uploads
• 17 September: Some uploads
• 16 September: Writing call to action for librarians, writing descriptions and setting dates for future events. Some uploads
• 15 September: Catching up with email. Meeting about DIY Digitisation project.
• 12 September: Attending WMUK board meeting and reporting on my placement
• 4 September: Various emails and start on reporting

August

• 27 August: Image uploads and uses. Meet with Liz about Ada Lovelace events.
• 26 August: Image uploads
• 25 August: Emails + team meeting. Change flyer in response to feedback.
• 20 August: Meetings with David Sutcliffe of Oxford Internet Institute and Stephen Johnson of Museum of the History of Science
• 19 August: Submit article to CILIP update- accepted! Working through various actions. Finish & upload science librarian leaflet
• 18 August: Email catch-up. Write descriptions and learning goals for forthcoming events.
• 10-14 August: on holiday
• 6 August: Finish first draft of leaflet. Sending out emails to contacts to request events.
• 5 August: Finish up reporting. More work on publicity material and on requesting other events. Take and upload some photos of chemistry-related plaques after request by Andy Mabbett. Email briefing to another part of the Bodleian on the advantage of free licences.
• 4 August: Reporting and catchup

July

• 29 July: Image uploads
• 28 July: More image uploads + audio interview with Resource Discovery project + more work on blog post
• 27 July: Image uploads + placing in articles + working on blog post
• 22 July: Image uploads +
• 21 July: Attending Anybook Libraries Conference: delivering "Adventures in a Wiki World" presentation and making contacts to discuss sharing of images. Write short report for John Johnson collection on use of their images.
• 20 July: Preparing slides for tomorrow. Catching up on email.
• 15 July: Categorising recently uploaded files. Meeting Mike Webb about using diaries on Wikipedia. Meeting at Radcliffe Science Library about possible image sharing.
• 14 July: Meeting an Oxford staff member interested in volunteering & contributing to Wikipedia. Comms team meeting; Meeting Kathryn Eccles of OII and TORCH to discuss future events. Some more uploading/ improving metadata about uploaded files.
• 13 July: Meeting with Daria and Richard from WMUK. Catching up on email. Blog post goes online
• 8 July: Writing evaluation of workshop; reporting on June activity; writing blog post and internal advice about evaluation
• 7 July: Delivering Vatican library and Bodleian library July 2015 workshop
• 2 July: Preparing and delivering workshop for Oxford Museums staff. Meeting with IT Services about future events.
• 1 July: Starting a Commons gallery of Bodleian uploads. Some more uploading. Adding summary to This Month in GLAM newsletter

June

• 30 June: Staff meetings, catching up on correspondence, starting on blog post about new uploads; getting my uploads included in BaGLAMa2
• 25 June: More uploading, categorising and adding images to articles. Writing explanatory post about reporting tools. Correspondence about potential workshop event for Oxford chemists.
• 24 June: More uploading and adding to articles.
• 18 June: Classifying Bodleian images that are already on Wikimedia + uploading new images + adding to articles
• 17 June: Classifying Bodleian images that are already on Wikimedia + uploading new images. Correspondence about Histropedia for Tudor-era composers: create a new category on Wikipedia to enable a demo.
• 16 June: Correspondence about historic manuscript + about possible future events. Attended OxTALENT award ceremony.
• 11 June: Taking part in historic manuscripts event. Some adding of images to Wikipedia.
• 10 June: Meet with academics in the Music Faculty to discuss 1) an editathon on the theme of medieval music, 2) an educational assignment to create articles in this area, in which Wikipedia is very deficient. Adding images to Wikipedia articles.
• 9 June: More uploading of files. Correspondence about forthcoming workshops and meetings.
• 4 June: Start uploading files and creating categories and adapted versions. Outcome of correspondence about Oxford Text Archive: a lot of the texts have had broken page links replaced with links to Jisc Historical Books so that transcriptions can be improved. Arranging review meeting with Daria. Meet User:Leutha at OII event. Request permission for use of Genesis reading audio file. Asking an Islamic science academic for help with women in medieval science.
• 3 June: Meeting about digital text and further correspondence. Attend seminar about controversy on Wikipedia. Publish second monthly report. Meeting about project to raise engagement with digital content through narratives. Working on project categories and templates.
• 2 June: Correspondence about Voyant Tools, about digital text, and about logo use.

May

• 28 May: Attending seminar on digital humanities and social machines. Compiling all content requests into one document. Writing briefing about Wikisource and digital humanities. Requesting other meetings.
• 27 May: Investigating Voyant Tools and corresponding with creators about use with MediaWiki texts. Arrange meeting at Music Faculty. Arranging meeting about course. Accepting invitation to give a talk/demo about Wikipedia for cultural organisations
• 26 May: (1 hr) Writing improved version of request for content for Thursday's meeting. Short week due to bank holiday.
• 21 May: Bodleian induction course for most of the day, then correspondence.
• 20 May: Reviewing Early Books Online material for inclusion, specifically texts that are complete enough for Wikisource and which bear on the project goals. Identifying specific images from collections to request, and finishing content request paper.
• 19 May: Writing course proposal. More correspondence about events. Provisional date set for a November editathon. Writing scripts for proposed videos.
• 14 May: More reviewing of content. Meeting with IT Services about: meeting rooms, Engage events, training workshops for Wikipedia Ambassadors, lunchtime helpdesk events, editathons & hackathons. Put first monthly report online.
• 13 May: Setting up meeting with E E Leach about medieval composers. Reviewing and identifying historical content for sharing. More work on paper for access & reuse committee. Responding to minor comments on report. Setting up meeting with Kathryn Eccles, Digital Humanities Champion. Other correspondence.
• 12 May: Follow up with contact from Oxford University Museums Partnership, sending info about content partnerships, backstage pass events and multilingual challenges. Other follow-up correspondence. More work on paper for access & reuse committee.
• 7 May: Further report writing, setting up future meetings and further work on requests for content. Raised with Histropedia about creation of timelines for a role such as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
• 6 May: Delivering "Working with the Open Content movement" workshop and writing up initial evaluation/reflections. Meeting in afternoon about Literary History of Medicine project. Collecting new laptop. First draft of April report. Confirming attendance at historical diaries event which is tentatively set for 11 June.
• 5 May: Preparing handouts, finalising slides for next day's workshop. Collecting new staff card for access to collections. Various correspondence.

April

• 27 April: Communications away-day. Suggested use of out-of-copyright text in the form of quotations, similar to (and perhaps improving) Wikiquote.
• 23 April: Finalising materials for staff workshop. Meetings about metrics/ reporting. Meeting Gillian Evison about Oriental collections. Proposed session for Oxford Libraries Conference 2015.
• 22 April: Reviewed more content for potential inclusion. Requested pilot set of content from John Johnson collection. Met with Sarah Loving of Oxford Vaccine Group to discuss how to edit around OVG's work in line with Wikipedia policy; how to improve coverage of women; open access publication for public impact.
• 21 April: Reviewing content. Preparing presentation materials. Create custom logo for badging Bodleian uploads. Recommend Wikisource and Commons materials on Lewis Carroll for the forthcoming Alice in Wonderland hackathon at the Story Museum. Expand redlist.
• 16 April: Meeting Daria Cybulska about expectations, planning, and reporting. More review of existing digital content. Arranging more meetings with content holders.
• 15 April: Meeting about John Johnson collection of ephemera. Reviewing digitised ephemera to build lists for sharing. Attending British Library session on open data and reuse of open content: followed up recommending Wikisource for transcription of out-of-copyright books.
• 14 April: Staff workshop date set for 6 May. Write proposal for a short talk about Wikipedia for Oxford Geek Nights. Setting up various meetings. Internal email with advice on Wikisource. Working on briefings and presentation materials.
  • P.S.: The "Bias on Wikipedia" talk has been accepted and will run later in the year. For reference, the abstract:

Wikipedia is an invaluable starting point for research, but in known to fall short of its goal of fairly summarising all human knowledge. The site is shaped to different extents by commercial, demographic, and technological forces. Battles between promotion and neutrality, between humans and bots, are being played out every hour. There are more insidious forms of bias deciding whether or not topics get a mention. This talk is a mix of good and bad news from a simultaneous optimist and pessimist. Martin is a veteran Wikipedia editor and currently Wikimedian In Residence at the Bodleian Libraries.

• 9 April: Met Lucy Evans and the rare books team to discuss source material about historical women, maps, and sources about collections. Other induction meetings. Met Sarah Barkla of Oxford University Research Archive. Oxford was involved in the Jisc-ARMA ORCID project: ORCID iDs are not implemented yet but this is coming in the future. Investigating potential target articles for digital content. Professor Dame Carol Robinson has written about Women in Science: investigating if the relevant paper or other materials can be made open access.
• 8 April: More meetings with staff. Met Anne Manuel of Somerville College Library to talk about preparations for Ada Lovelace celebration. Edited Wikidata to reflect family relationship of Helen Taylor and Harriet Taylor Mill. Correspondence with Monica Green. Starting survey of Digital Bodleian to identify materials for sharing. Met Christine Madsen to talk about collections and sharing. Writing abstract for staff event.
• 2 April: Induction continues. Individual meetings with staff. Further edits and links to project page. Found & fixed some links from WP to Bodleian that are broken. Took a mandatory online course. Add this project to list of GLAM projects on WP and WMUK. Monica Green, a US-based historian, has got in touch offering to list women scientists from medieval period: have responded.
• 1 April: Induction. Getting acquainted with team and building. Get keys, logins, email address, office PC setup. Lots of form filling. Took online Diversity & Equality course. Declaration on Wikipedia & Commons. Start project page on WP. Add self to official list of WIRs.