New subject: Lum Hats in Paradise

22 May 2012

Jon,

The point is be nice, and respectful, to the library staff. I was having
to stop laughing when Fiona was telling me that "they know a good
Wikipedia article by the number of cited references". Without any input
from us they've figured out how to judge article quality - they are
people we want to recruit.

I've done 'stubs' on Leith Library[1], Stockbridge Library[2], and
McDonald Road Library[3]. 

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leith_Library
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockbridge_library
[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonald_Road_Library

The 7th of July is the 125th anniversary of Andrew Carnegie laying the
foundation stone for Edinburgh's Central Library. If there's anything we
can do to get them main page mentions (DYK?) then we'll have an entire
city's ibrary staff onside.

Unlike most of the UK, Edinburgh City Council left libraries in the
hands of the public. The response to surveys was that £300,000 was put
_back_ into the library budget. I think the city deserves recognised for
that, and it should be a priority to document their libraries. Once
we've done so there is a basis to do outreach to the non-natives (Hindi,
Arabic, etc speakers) and get translations. Considering how many kids do
homework in libraries we can also 'stomp on' plagiarism and educate a
really wide swathe of the public.

Brian McNeil
--
Wikinews, Accredited Reporter. Personal: brian.mcneil(a)o2.co.uk
"Facts don't cease to be facts, but news ceases to be news."

...
  -------- Original Message --------
 Subject: Re: [Wikimediauk-l] Lum Hats in Paradise
 From: Jon Davies &lt;jon.davies(a)wikimedia.org.uk&gt;
 Date: Tue, May 22, 2012 1:15 pm
 To: wikimediauk-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org

 I hope we will be jumping at your offer! Brilliant work,

 On Tue, May 22, 2012 at 1:03 PM, &lt;brian.mcneil(a)wikinewsie.org&gt; wrote:

  Hola! From a non-Wikipedian Wikimedian - in
Edinburgh - who is delighted
 with the response from some tentative outreach work.

 I spend around an hour this morning touring Edingburgh's Central Library
 with Fiona Myles, took around 150 photos of the interior of the
 building, and _hope_ I've laid the groundwork for us to work far more
 closely in future.

 I have, dependent on copyright, a verbal agreement to get high-res scans
 of the plans of the building (A Carnegie Library), a keen interest to
 have librarians briefed on Wikipedia - if not outright encouraged to
 contribute, and the possibility of running recruitment/induction
 sessions in Edinburgh. Which, for the unwashed masses, is a UNESCO City
 of Literature.

 Given the piss-poor representation up here in Scotland, I think that's a
 major win. My next job, as interim 'cowboy liasion' between Wikimedia UK
 and Museums Galleries Scotland is to get a few councillors calling for
 all publicly funded publications to be under a CC-BY license.

 Any, and all, encouragement welcome. Any Englandshire Wikimedians wh
 plan to visit Edingburgh in the next 6-12 months, please feel free to
 drop me a mail. If I can get you meetings with people, or privileged
 access for photography, I will.

 Fun and frivolity aside, with limited Internet access I've come to the
 conclusion that public libraries are the way to recruit. Brief the staff
 of what makes a good Wikipedia article - half of them know already -
 then a simple static display may encourage locals to try their hand.
 Here in Edinburgh I suspect I can, without too many problems, get
 articles put into about a half-dozen languages with keen help from
 library staff.

 And this message's title? Purloined from a book on the city's libraries.

 Brian McNeil
 --
 Wikinews, Accredited Reporter. Personal: brian.mcneil(a)o2.co.uk
 "Facts don't cease to be facts, but news ceases to be news."

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