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Kākā beak by Sarah Anne Featon

Introduction

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This is a project created by me, Ambrosia10 (talk), to work on during 2018, to improve data on illustrators found in the digitized content of the Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL). I am aiming to add to and improve items on illustrators in Wikidata, add illustrations and improve the data relating to them in Wikimedia Commons, and to create or improve Wikipedia articles on the artists themselves. I am particularly interested in improving knowledge of, and access to, art by women scientific illustrators.

This project is an extension of my volunteer work with the Biodiversity Heritage Library and the collatoration I am undertaking with an independent researcher who also volunteers for BHL and who also is interested in women scientific illustrators and their work.

Workflow

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  1. Find an illustrator and undertake basic research. I'm using my Artists & Scientific Illustrators spreadsheet as a starting point in this process.
  2. Check if a Wikidata item on illustrator exists. If not, create one. Example: Clarissa Munger Badger (Q20769459)
  3. If Wikidata item does exist, check that the Stuttgart Database of Scientific Illustrators identifier is linked as well as any BHL creator identifier. Discover and add to Wikidata item the VIAF identifier for the illustrator if lacking. Ensure other identifiers mentioned in the VIAF entry, such as the Library of Congress Name Authority File identifier, have also been added to the illustrator's wikidata item. Examples: Stuttgart Database of Scientific Illustrators, BHL VIAF
  4. Search Wikimedia Commons for the artist category and creator page. If present, ensure they are linked to the artist's Wikidata item. If not present, create them where needed. This may need to wait until the Pattypan spreadsheet for bulk upload of images is complete and awaiting use.
  5. Search Wikimedia Commons for images by the artist. User:Fae has been uploading thousands of BHL images so ensure that not just the name of the artist but also the titles of the books in which their works are featured are also searched for. See: Commons:Biodiversity Heritage Library for Fae's BHL project page
  6. If images exist, check whether they need to have the artist's category added to them. If artist has drawn all images in a book or article check that artist category is attached to category page for that work. For images in bulk, consider the use of appending the category markup via Help:VisualFileChange.js.
  7. Ensure that Wikimedia Commons Creator template markup is added to each illustration. There is no current bulk method for this. Individually edit the markup of each image. Example: Creator:Clarissa Munger Badger
  8. If images are lacking in Wikimedia Commons, start spreadsheet for bulk upload of images via Pattypan. Ensure that Creator template markup and artist category markup as well as book category markup are added to this spreadsheet. Use BHL permanent page identifier (DOI) for source of image. Prior to uploading the images double check that the appropriate categories and creator page have been created. Example: Category:Clarissa Munger Badger. Categories are hierarchical, so tag publication with creator category. Add institutional template. Examples: Template:Biodiversity Heritage Library
  9. Check Wikidata to see if the book or scientific article has a Wikidata item. If not, create one. Example: Floral belles from the green-house and garden (Q47097245) Add Wikimedia Commons category. Example Category:Floral belles from the green-house and garden
  10. If a book or scientific article item exists, ensure that the Wikimedia Commons category and the illustrator are added to the Wikidata item. Also ensure that the BHL DOI for the title is added, if it exists. Example: doi:10.5962/bhl.title.132919

Links, identifiers, templates, tools

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Work completed

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Publication citation Publication Wikidata item Publication Commons category Artist name Artist Wikidata item Artist Commons Category
Badger, C. M. (1867). Floral Belles from the Green-house and Garden. New York: C. Scribner & Co. doi:10.5962/bhl.title.132919. Q47097245 Floral belles from the green-house and garden Clarissa Munger Badger Q20769459 Clarissa Munger Badger
Featon, E. H.; Featon, S. A. (1889). Art album of New Zealand flora. Wellington: Bock & Cousins. doi:10.5962/bhl.title.24349. Q47102287 Art album of New Zealand flora Sarah Featon Q7422296 Sarah Featon
Cheeseman, T. F. (1914). Illustrations of the New Zealand flora. Wellington: John Mackay. doi:10.5962/bhl.title.12029. Q47133248 Matilda Smith Q3299110 Matilda Smith
Hemsley, William Botting (1885). "Report on the scientific results of the voyage of H.M.S. Challenger during the years 1873-76. Botany.". Report on the scientific results of the voyage of H.M.S. Challenger during the years 1873-76. Botany Vol. 1 – via Biodiversity Heritage Library. Q47158174 Report on the scientific results of the voyage of H.M.S. Challenger during the years 1873-76. Botany - Vol. 1. Matilda Smith, Walter Hood Fitch, William Mitten Q3299110 Q1102060 Q2918015 Matilda Smith Walter Hood Fitch William Mitten
Balfour, Isaac Bayley (1888). "Botany of Socotra". Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. 31 – via Biodiversity Heritage Library. Q20013586 Botany of Socotra Matilda Smith, Harriet Anne Hooker Thiselton-Dyer, John Nugent Fitch Q3299110 Q15995730 Q12057765 Matilda Smith Harriet Anne Thiselton-Dyer John Nugent Fitch

Discussion on workflow, issues and outcomes

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First attempt at workflow: Clarissa Munger Badger – Floral Belles from the Green-house and Garden

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I used illustrations by Clarissa Munger Badger in Floral Belles from the Green-house and Garden as a trial image set. This set was manageable for a trial run as it was relatively small and the images were all illustrated by the same artist. This ensured that my first attempt progressing through the workflow was achieved relatively seamlessly. I did discover one challenge. I was unable to use the BHL template for adding images to Wikimedia Commons when using Pattypan. For ease I ended up using the basic "information" template. See this image. Ideally I would like to use the BHL template as shown here; however, creating code for this via Pattypan is currently beyond my coding capabilities.

Sarah Featon - Art Album of New Zealand Flora

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I again used Pattypan to upload these images. The main issue was attempting to use the OCR in BHL for the description of the place. I wanted to copy and paste the description. Unfortunately, as is frequently the case, the OCR needed correcting. This slowed the process significantly as a careful eye was needed to ensure species names were correctly spelt. I also didn't add species categories to the images. This felt very much against the grain and I suspect I'll add them in the near future.

I also came across a copyright issue relating to previous uploads of these images. A set of edited images had already been uploaded by Commons:User:Rawpixel. This user appears to be a company that takes images, in this case images illustrated by Sarah Featon, which are in the public domain, they slightly retouch the images and then claim the work as their own. They license it under the CC BY SA 4.0 license. See for example this image. I've added license review markup to these images but this is the second time I've come across images from this user which appear to claim copyright in works in the public domain. The other time was with the work of New Zealand illustrator F. E. Clarke. See this example.

Matilda Smith - Illustrations of the New Zealand Flora

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These images have been loaded into Flickr by BHL. I have previously taxotagged those images with both the text and current taxonomy as well as the artist name and viaf number. I would prefer that metadata be uploaded into Wikicommons with the image as I don't want to replicate my efforts. Many of the BHL images in Flickr have been uploaded into Wikicommons by User:Fæ who manages to ensure tags are included in the upload. I am again limited by my lack of coding abilities as I can't work out how to replicate this. I'm therefore leaving these images until they are uploaded into Wikicommons and will interlink them when they are available.

Matilda Smith - Report on the scientific results of the voyage of H.M.S. Challenger during the years 1873-76. Botany Vol. 1.

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The Pattypan process was straightforward but the creation of the Wikidata entries for the main report and then the Botany reports and the two volumes challenged my wikidata skills. I also feel I need to upskill my library cataloguing skills as I'm sure more experienced folk with this skill set would find it easier to create appropriate Wikidata items for these volumes. However although they may not be ideal wikidata items they do now exist and have enabled the linking of these illustrations with their illustrators data.

I've got a query about Wikidata and Wikicommons that I can't seem to find an answer to. Looking at the wikidata entry of the subject of an illustration, for example Clematis paniculata, there is a section that links "other sites". I've seen many wikidata entries that link to the Commons gallery page whereas I believe it should be the Commons category page as shown in the example. However I can't find any confirmation that this is recommended.

Matilda Smith - Botany of Socotra.

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I'm getting very used to the Pattypan process by now. I've added the text names for the plants in the description but also the current name within the categories of the image. Many of these plants are not illustrated in English wikipedia and these images can be added. They could also be added to Wikidata.

Next steps

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I intend to continue to choose candidates from my artists and scientific illustrators spreadsheet to include in this project. There have been occasions where I have found New Zealand botanical illustrations or publications that are not yet or will never be in BHL. If possible I have put in a scanning request attempting to get the publication into BHL. If this is not possible (See for example Martha King) I'll attempt to source the illustrations from another source.

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  • Balfour, Isaac Bayley (1888). "Botany of Socotra". Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. 31.
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Clarissa Munger Badger.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Floral belles from the green-house and garden.
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