The British Library releases 1 million images

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Emilio J. Rodríguez-Posada

15 Dec 2013 15 Dec '13

5:08 p.m.

Quote from full announcement http://britishlibrary.typepad.co.uk/digital-scholarship/2013/12/a-million-f… We have released over a million images<http://www.flickr.com/photos/britishlibrary>onto Flickr Commons for anyone to use, remix and repurpose. These images

...

were taken from the pages of 17th, 18th and 19th century books digitised by Microsoft<http://pressandpolicy.bl.uk/Press-Releases/The-British-Library-19th-Century-Book-Digitisation-Project-343.aspx>who then generously gifted the scanned images to us, allowing us to release them back into the Public Domain. The images themselves cover a startling mix of subjects: There are maps, geological diagrams, beautiful illustrations, comical satire, illuminated and decorative letters, colourful illustrations, landscapes, wall-paintings and so much more that even we are not aware of.

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Jens Best

15 Dec 15 Dec

6:05 p.m.

Thanks for the news. A question comes to my mind when I read this article: Why did the British Library use Flickr instead of Wikimedia Commons? Maybe it has to do something with a better usability of Flickr? - The usability of Wikimedia Commons most be increased to make it more attractive to individual and institutional users. Don't you think so? The next steps mentioned in the article indicates good opportunities for us to get involved and show the potential of an experienced platform for crowdsourcing information and knowledge: "We are looking for new, inventive ways to navigate, find and display these 'unseen illustrations'. and furtheron in the blogpost, "We plan to launch a crowdsourcing application at the beginning of next year, to help describe what the images portray. Our intention is to use this data to train automated classifiers that will run against the whole of the content." http://britishlibrary.typepad.co.uk/digital-scholarship/2013/12/a-million-f… Best regards, Jens 2013/12/15 Emilio J. Rodríguez-Posada <emijrp(a)gmail.com>

...

were taken from the pages of 17th, 18th and 19th century books digitised by Microsoft<

http://pressandpolicy.bl.uk/Press-Releases/The-British-Library-19th-Century… then generously gifted the scanned images to us, allowing us to release

them back into the Public Domain. The images themselves cover a startling mix of subjects: There are maps, geological diagrams, beautiful illustrations, comical satire, illuminated and decorative letters, colourful illustrations, landscapes, wall-paintings and so much more that even we are not aware of.

Flickr account http://www.flickr.com/photos/britishlibrary Example of image http://www.flickr.com/photos/britishlibrary/11307195524/ Example of all images from a book http://www.flickr.com/photos/britishlibrary/tags/sysnum002660292 Stuff for coders https://github.com/BL-Labs/imagedirectory So... :-) _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, <mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe>

Jens Best

6:37 p.m.

...

http://britishlibrary.typepad.co.uk/digital-scholarship/2013/12/a-million-f… We have released over a million images<http://www.flickr.com/photos/britishlibrary>onto Flickr Commons for anyone to use, remix and repurpose. These images

were taken from the pages of 17th, 18th and 19th century books digitised by Microsoft<

http://pressandpolicy.bl.uk/Press-Releases/The-British-Library-19th-Century… then generously gifted the scanned images to us, allowing us to release

them back into the Public Domain. The images themselves cover a

startling

mix of subjects: There are maps, geological diagrams, beautiful illustrations, comical satire, illuminated and decorative letters, colourful illustrations, landscapes, wall-paintings and so much more

that

even we are not aware of.

Michael Peel

6:45 p.m.

There’s been quite a lot of discussion of this on the cultural-partners mailing list (https://intern.wikimedia.ch/lists/listinfo/cultural-partners). As a result of that, Tom Morris has set up a working page on Commons at: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:British_Library/Mechanical_Curat… Thanks, Mike On 15 Dec 2013, at 17:37, Jens Best <jens.best(a)wikimedia.de> wrote:

...

were taken from the pages of 17th, 18th and 19th century books digitised by Microsoft<

http://pressandpolicy.bl.uk/Press-Releases/The-British-Library-19th-Century… then generously gifted the scanned images to us, allowing us to release

them back into the Public Domain. The images themselves cover a

startling

mix of subjects: There are maps, geological diagrams, beautiful illustrations, comical satire, illuminated and decorative letters, colourful illustrations, landscapes, wall-paintings and so much more

that

even we are not aware of.

-- -- Jens Best Präsidium Wikimedia Deutschland e.V. web: http://www.wikimedia.de mail: jens.best <http://goog_17221883>@wikimedia.de Wikimedia Deutschland - Gesellschaft zur Förderung Freien Wissens e.V. Eingetragen im Vereinsregister des Amtsgerichts Berlin-Charlottenburg unter der Nummer 23855 B. Als gemeinnützig anerkannt durch das Finanzamt für Körperschaften I Berlin, Steuernummer 27/681/51985. _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, <mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe>

Jens Best

6:50 p.m.

Just discovered the Commons project-site, too. Good to break down the massive amount of unsorted material in countries first. Could help to address interested editors quicker. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:British_Library/Mechanical_Curat… Jens 2013/12/15 Michael Peel <email(a)mikepeel.net>

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Just discovered a short note of Andrew Gray, why Flickr was preferred instead of Commons. http://www.generalist.org.uk/blog/2013/mechanical-curator-on-commons/ 2013/12/15 Jens Best <jens.best(a)wikimedia.de> > Thanks for the news. > > A question comes to my mind when I read this article: Why did the

British

> Library use Flickr instead of Wikimedia Commons? Maybe it has to do > something with a better usability of Flickr? - > > The usability of Wikimedia Commons most be increased to make it more > attractive to individual and institutional users. Don't you think so? > > The next steps mentioned in the article indicates good opportunities for > us to get involved and show the potential of an experienced platform for > crowdsourcing information and knowledge: > > "We are looking for new, inventive ways to navigate, find and display > these 'unseen illustrations'. and furtheron in the blogpost, "We plan to > launch a crowdsourcing application at the beginning of next year, to

help

> describe what the images portray. Our intention is to use this data to > train automated classifiers that will run against the whole of the

content."

> > >

http://britishlibrary.typepad.co.uk/digital-scholarship/2013/12/a-million-f… >> >> Best regards, >> >> Jens

> > >

>> 2013/12/15 Emilio J. Rodríguez-Posada <emijrp(a)gmail.com> >> >> Quote from full announcement >>> >>> http://britishlibrary.typepad.co.uk/digital-scholarship/2013/12/a-million-f…

>> >> We have released over a million >> images<http://www.flickr.com/photos/britishlibrary>onto Flickr Commons >> for anyone to use, remix and repurpose. These images >>> were taken from the pages of 17th, 18th and 19th century books

digitised

>>> by Microsoft< >>

http://pressandpolicy.bl.uk/Press-Releases/The-British-Library-19th-Century…

who >> then generously gifted the scanned images to us, allowing us to release >>> them back into the Public Domain. The images themselves cover a >> startling >>> mix of subjects: There are maps, geological diagrams, beautiful >>> illustrations, comical satire, illuminated and decorative letters, >>> colourful illustrations, landscapes, wall-paintings and so much more >> that >>> even we are not aware of. >> >> >> Flickr account http://www.flickr.com/photos/britishlibrary >> Example of image

http://www.flickr.com/photos/britishlibrary/11307195524/ >>> Example of all images from a book >>> http://www.flickr.com/photos/britishlibrary/tags/sysnum002660292 >>> Stuff for coders https://github.com/BL-Labs/imagedirectory >>> >>> So... :-) >>> _______________________________________________ >>> Wikimedia-l mailing list >>> Wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org >>> Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, >>> <mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe>

> > >

>> >> -- >> -- >> Jens Best >> Präsidium >> Wikimedia Deutschland e.V. >> web: http://www.wikimedia.de >> mail: jens.best <http://goog_17221883>@wikimedia.de >> >> Wikimedia Deutschland - Gesellschaft zur Förderung Freien Wissens e.V. >> Eingetragen im Vereinsregister des Amtsgerichts >> Berlin-Charlottenburg unter der Nummer 23855 B. Als gemeinnützig >> anerkannt durch das Finanzamt für Körperschaften I Berlin, >> Steuernummer 27/681/51985. >> > > > > -- > -- > Jens Best > Präsidium > Wikimedia Deutschland e.V. > web: http://www.wikimedia.de > mail: jens.best <http://goog_17221883>@wikimedia.de > > Wikimedia Deutschland - Gesellschaft zur Förderung Freien Wissens e.V. > Eingetragen im Vereinsregister des Amtsgerichts > Berlin-Charlottenburg unter der Nummer 23855 B. Als gemeinnützig > anerkannt durch das Finanzamt für Körperschaften I Berlin, > Steuernummer 27/681/51985. > _______________________________________________ > Wikimedia-l mailing list > Wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, <mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe> _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, <mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe>

Andrew Gray

8:31 p.m.

New subject: [Commons-l] The British Library releases 1 million images

I was just about to respond with this :-) I discussed this with the BL team a few weeks before the release, and while we could sort out the technical issues of a million items fairly easily, it looked like the lack of metadata would make them very unsuited for Commons. There's nothing stopping us harvesting them individually, of course, but I think adding a million unidentified images and saying "the community will sort them out" would be a very quick road to my getting beaten up ;-) Andrew. On 15 December 2013 17:37, Jens Best <jens.best(a)wikimedia.de> wrote:

...

-- -- Jens Best Präsidium Wikimedia Deutschland e.V. web: http://www.wikimedia.de mail: jens.best(a)wikimedia.de Wikimedia Deutschland - Gesellschaft zur Förderung Freien Wissens e.V. Eingetragen im Vereinsregister des Amtsgerichts Berlin-Charlottenburg unter der Nummer 23855 B. Als gemeinnützig anerkannt durch das Finanzamt für Körperschaften I Berlin, Steuernummer 27/681/51985.

-- - Andrew Gray andrew.gray(a)dunelm.org.uk

Katie Chan

6:39 p.m.

On 15/12/2013 17:05, Jens Best wrote:

...

Thanks for the news. A question comes to my mind when I read this article: Why did the British Library use Flickr instead of Wikimedia Commons?

This:

...

"We plan to launch a crowdsourcing application at the beginning of next year, to help describe what the images portray."

The images release contained no image-level metadata == One million uncategorised images == Commons community raise up in arms Katie -- Katie Chan Any views or opinions presented in this e-mail are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent the view of any organisation the author is associated with or employed by. Experience is a good school but the fees are high. - Heinrich Heine --- This email is free from viruses and malware because avast! Antivirus protection is active. http://www.avast.com

Juergen Fenn

6:48 p.m.

2013/12/15 Katie Chan <ktc(a)ktchan.info>fo>:

...

"We plan to launch a crowdsourcing application at the beginning of next year, to help describe what the images portray."

The images release contained no image-level metadata == One million uncategorised images == Commons community raise up in arms

It does not really make a difference whether you release a million images without metadata to Flickr, or to Commons. It comes without any metadata, so it cannot be searched (and images cannot be found) in either case. :( Regards, Jürgen.

Matthew Flaschen

17 Dec 17 Dec

9:08 p.m.

On 12/15/2013 12:48 PM, Juergen Fenn wrote:

...

2013/12/15 Katie Chan <ktc(a)ktchan.info>fo>:

"We plan to launch a crowdsourcing application at the beginning of next year, to help describe what the images portray."

The images release contained no image-level metadata == One million uncategorised images == Commons community raise up in arms

As Andrew said, the interesting question is whether the Commons community can effectively help curate/add metadata for this unidentified content. I agree with Andy (see http://www.generalist.org.uk/blog/2013/mechanical-curator-on-commons/#comme…) that tools for easier curation will be quite helpful. Matt Flaschen

geni

18 Dec 18 Dec

6:06 p.m.

On 17 December 2013 20:08, Matthew Flaschen <matthew.flaschen(a)gatech.edu>wrote;wrote:

...

As Andrew said, the interesting question is whether the Commons community can effectively help curate/add metadata for this unidentified content.

Even if we could a lot of the images could do with some preprocessing to remove things like stray text. -- geni

Jane Darnell

19 Dec 19 Dec

10:07 a.m.

I like the stray text around the images - it shows that the picture is from a book, rather than a separate unattached file like a photo or engraving, and the captions are necessary in most cases. The problematic images are the ones of letterheads and margin decorations, which, though perhaps interesting for articles on publishing or printing, are not really useful in the quantities available unless Wikisource is able to ingest the books in such a way that they use those too. As I understand it however, you cannot recycle a Commons image in a djvu file (yet). I do think some of the more encyclopedic books would be great to have in their entirety on Wikisource. 2013/12/18, geni <geniice(a)gmail.com>om>:

...

On 17 December 2013 20:08, Matthew Flaschen <matthew.flaschen(a)gatech.edu>wrote;wrote:

As Andrew said, the interesting question is whether the Commons community can effectively help curate/add metadata for this unidentified content.

Even if we could a lot of the images could do with some preprocessing to remove things like stray text. -- geni _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, <mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe>

Andrew Gray

10:25 p.m.

I did put a few of the books up in the past (as PDFs provided by the BL, then manually converted to DjVu): https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kennedy,_Robert_John_-_A_Journey_in… https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kennedy,_Robert_John_-_A_Journey_in… https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/A_Journey_in_Khorassan_and_Central_Asia I kept running into size limits & wasn't quite sure how best to get the right material to Wikisource, but if there's particular titles, let me know & I'll see what can be done. On 19 December 2013 09:07, Jane Darnell <jane023(a)gmail.com> wrote:

...

On 17 December 2013 20:08, Matthew Flaschen <matthew.flaschen(a)gatech.edu>wrote;wrote:

As Andrew said, the interesting question is whether the Commons community can effectively help curate/add metadata for this unidentified content.

_______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, <mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe>

-- - Andrew Gray andrew.gray(a)dunelm.org.uk

geni

11:54 p.m.

On 19 December 2013 09:07, Jane Darnell <jane023(a)gmail.com> wrote:

...

I like the stray text around the images - it shows that the picture is from a book, rather than a separate unattached file like a photo or engraving, and the captions are necessary in most cases.

Not for use in articles. For example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eaton_Socon_Castle -- geni

Andy Mabbett

15 Dec 15 Dec

8:36 p.m.

On 15 December 2013 17:39, Katie Chan <ktc(a)ktchan.info> wrote:

...

The images release contained no image-level metadata == One million uncategorised images == Commons community raise up in arms

The images contain metadata, which could be used for categorisation,at the book level. The whole point of the wiki model is that we make incremental steps towards completion. An analogy could be drawn with Wikipedia's "stub" articles. It's not good for us to lobby institutions to release media, and then decline to accept it. I would have liked the release to have been direct to Commons; at least, I would have liked the opportunity to debate whether to accept it. I hope that the next tome such an release is being considered, we will be in a better position to facilitate the former. -- Andy Mabbett @pigsonthewing http://pigsonthewing.org.uk

geni

11:01 p.m.

On 15 December 2013 19:36, Andy Mabbett <andy(a)pigsonthewing.org.uk> wrote:

...

The images contain metadata, which could be used for categorisation,at the book level.

Not that useful. If you look at the images a lot are simply decorations and there are a fair number of duplications.

...

The whole point of the wiki model is that we make incremental steps towards completion. An analogy could be drawn with Wikipedia's "stub" articles.

Commons already has 19 million images to make incremental steps on. En.Wikipedia has 4.4 million articles total, even the stubs are a lot more searchable and it has more people.

...

It's not good for us to lobby institutions to release media, and then decline to accept it.

So we need to decide in advance what we are looking at. With 19 million already we've reach the stage where we should probably be more selective.

...

I would have liked the release to have been direct to Commons; at least, I would have liked the opportunity to debate whether to accept it. I hope that the next tome such an release is being considered, we will be in a better position to facilitate the former.

Having the images on flickr isn't too bad. They are still searchable and fairly easy to import although my search results have been turning up less than 1% that area really of interest an even then the quality isn't always usable. -- geni

Andy Mabbett

7:14 p.m.

On 15 December 2013 16:08, Emilio J. Rodríguez-Posada <emijrp(a)gmail.com> quoted:

...

We have released over a million images<http://www.flickr.com/photos/britishlibrary>onto Flickr Commons

Please note that we have a project page, for discussion of importing these images to Commons in a sensible manner: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:British_Library/Mechanical_Curat… -- Andy Mabbett @pigsonthewing http://pigsonthewing.org.uk

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participants (10)

Andrew Gray
Andy Mabbett
Emilio J. Rodríguez-Posada
geni
Jane Darnell
Jens Best
Juergen Fenn
Katie Chan
Matthew Flaschen
Michael Peel