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Wikipedia:GLAM/British Library/History

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Wikipedian in Residence: 2012-13

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Andrew Gray, a white man with brown hair and glasses, talking at a podium in front of a British Library sign.
Andrew Gray at the GLAM Wiki UK 2013 conference.

Andrew Gray paved the way for future Wikimedian residencies with his work at the Library from 2012 to 2013. Funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, Andrew's residency covered a vast array of library collections. You can see Andrew talking about this work as part of 'The GLAM-Wiki Revolution' documentary.

The original Project Page can be found here.

Detailed usage stats, compiled by Andrew, are also available here.

Highlights

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Andrew's work was comprehensive and wide-ranging: the following highlights show some of the work completed during the Residency.

A Selection of Uploaded Books

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Picturing Canada

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An old sepia image of a long-haired tabby cat sitting on an open book.
One of the Globe kittens, discovered in the Picturing Canada collection.

Picturing Canada utilised images from the Canadian Copyright Collection held at the British Library, primarily from the HS85/10 collection. In 2012-13 these images were digitised with funding from Wikimedia UK and the Eccles Centre for American Studies. The collection is available to view here, and is discussed by Andrew in the GLAM Wiki documentary above.

'Canada Through a Lens: the British Library Colonial Copyright Collection' was written by Dr Phil Hatfield and Andrew Gray, and published by The Public Domain Review in July 2013. The article gives an in-depth overview of the collection, the curatorial questions surrounding it, and the images therein.

Resources and Images from the International Dunhuang Project

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Star chart from Dunhuang, probably dating to c.700. The image shows a number of interconnected black and orange dots in a constellation shape on old parchment.
Star chart from Dunhuang, probably dating to c.700. This section shows a circular chart of the North Polar region. Uploaded as part of the original Wikipedian residency at the British Library.

Andrew facilitated the upload of a number of images from the International Dunhuang Project.

Template for Commons Uploads

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A template for all Commons uploads by the Library can be found here.