Wikipedia:WikiProject ConwayLibrary

This page is a work in progress to support volunteers on the Courtauld Institute of Art Courtauld Connects Digitisation Project. However, all Wikipedians are of course welcome (this goes without saying, but for the benefit of newcomers!)! Please feel free to make changes and additions in format and content, and use the Talk page to leave questions and comments.

This project was established to support especially Courtauld Digitisation Project volunteers to create and edit Wikipedia pages related to the Conway Library. The Conway Library is a collection of over 1.6 million photographs. These photographs are of architecture, design, manuscripts, and fine art objects. These photographs have historically only been accessible in person, at the Courtauld Institute of Art (first at Portland Square, now in the North East Wing of Somerset House).

Photographs in the collection are usually pasted to a cardboard mount. The mounts frequently include a written name, or a stamp, that indicates who took the photograph.

Since 2017, volunteers have been transcribing the names written on mounts. So we now have a list of names. However: quite often the name is all we have. Since the start of COVID19 shutdown, volunteers have been researching these names to build profiles for them, so that we can create brand new, or edit existing, Wikipedia pages for people who contributed to the photographic collection. We will be adding photographs taken by the photographers to Wikimedia as appropriate.

Volunteers and Wikipedians are encouraged to use and add to the resources on this project page to help bring the Conway Library to Wikipedia.

Project Contributors

Coordinators

Contributors Add your name here by clicking 'edit' next to the Project Contributors heading above. Once in editing mode, go to the bottom of the list to add your name. Please place an asterisk first to make a bullet point. (If this list grows too long, we will archive usernames to this page of contributors).

Courtauldupdater2019 (talk) 13:47, 22 June 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Toubiz (talk) 13:49, 22 June 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Meredith0209 (talk) 13:46, 23 June 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Jinotaj (talk) 13:47, 23 June 2020 (UTC)[reply]
CLCCDigi

Getting Started

If you are new to Wikipedia

Create a Wikipedia login (a user name) if you do not have one already.
Create a sandbox within your user namespace. When you are logged in, you should see 'Sandbox' as a link in the menu at the very top of the page.
Ask one of the team to send you instructions for training tasks.

If you are a confident Wikipedian

Be in touch with the team either via email, Slack, or on the project Talk page to be assigned a photographer, or to update us of any progress.

Articles to edit

Ensure names are added alphabetically by LAST NAME.

The username of the primary editor will be added next to the photographer when they are assigned.

Articles to create

Ensure names are added alphabetically by LAST NAME.

The username of the primary editor will be added next to the photographer when they are assigned.

The link will turn blue when a draft is live!

Other pages to edit / cross reference with Conway Library images or links to Conway photographers

Outcomes

Record your contributions to the project below, and create a new month sub-section if necessary. Use an asterisk to create a bullet point if you are not using a visual editor.

June 2020 Outcomes

Paul Laib page created. Ffortitude
Added info to Tim Benton's page. Ffortitude
Created page for Amanda Simpson (art historian) User:CourtauldGill

Editing Tips and Resources

Getting Started guides

This is the very first page that Wikipedia recommends for complete newcomers to explore. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Getting_started

Editing a page beginners guide https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Editing_a_Wikipedia_Page_-_Beginners_guide.pdf

What do all the menu options and buttons on wikipedia do? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:What%27s_Where_on_Wiki.pdf

A guide for all things editing by the Wellcome collection wikimedian in residence https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:FAQ/Editing#How_can_I_add_pictures_to_pages?

Notability (deciding who 'deserves' their own page)

Not everyone who contributed photographs to the Conway Library will be considered 'notable' by the Wikipedia community. See these guides for what constitutes a notable academic, and on notability in general. Of course, some of the criteria serve as barriers especially for women and PoC, so it is up to us to pull together the evidence from around the internet and put our case forward! You might find that a page you create or edits you make are challenged, so be prepared to state your case (and ask for backup from fellow Conway Library editors).

Tip: If you are struggling to find open-source secondary sources regarding a particular scholarly argument, or biographical details of a person's achievements or history of a group, then why not make a source? If you are able to write up a blog post that contains first-hand information about a person, then that can act as a source for Wikipedia. Be in touch with the digitisation team to organise this.

Style guidance

Editorial guidance to consider when writing about women.

Wikipedia has useful guidance for writing biographies about living people.

Citation tool for generating references from Google Books http://reftag.appspot.com/

PDF of 'Good Faith Collaboration: The Culture of Wikipedia', by Joseph Michael Reagle. See especially the Chapter 'Nazis and Norms'

A guide to editing Wikipedia
A guide to adding files to Wikimedia Commons
A cheat sheet to get started with wikicode

Bibliographic references to support works in progress

Information will be generated here automatically if you create any citations on this page.