Grants:IdeaLab/Batch uploader for small GLAM projects

Batch uploader for small GLAM projects

Currently, small GLAMs (eg. museums) don't have suitable tool for upload their resources. The idea is to create tool based on Excel spreadsheet to help them.

idea creator• Yarl

volunteer• Marta Malina Moraczewska

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created on17:19, 18 July 2015 (UTC)

Project idea

What is the problem you're trying to solve?

It is frequently the case that small-to-medium GLAM institutions have digitised a part of their collections, but making the content available online is problematic for them: many museums haven't got the infrastructure enabling them to create an online catalogue from which the public domain images would be downloadable. As a result the websites of many institutions (museums of archeology, natural history, smaller local museums and so on) feature only a handful of images, while the collections are not available. Frequently these small GLAMS are interested in collaborating with Wikimedia - this way the institution gains a place to make their collection available online. However, the initial options these institutions are offered is either to use the Commons' Upload Wizard, or to set up the somewhat challenging GLAMWiki Toolset. Neither of these tools is perfect for the scale of planned uploads and the GLAM capabilities.

What is your solution?

We would like to create a simple tool that will enable the volunteer or employee working in a GLAM institution to simplify choosing and uploading selected files to Wikimedia Commons. The tool will generate an Excel/Google Docs spreadsheet, containing a list of filenames in a specific folder, chosen by the user. The users - GLAM volunteers or employees - can then manually add metadata/information about these files (eg. author, date of creation, accession number, etc.) to the spreadsheet. Each piece of information will be stored in a separate column, and before upload will be converted into wikicode.

Goals

The goal of this project is to offer many small institutions collaborating with Wikimedia chapters simple software which will be usable regardless of the institution's collection infrastructure:

easy to understand and use;
an upload of a batch of files can be made faster than using the Commons' Upload Wizard;
allowing the GLAM (or other institution) more instant control over file descriptions than the Upload Wizard
focusing on file description - an advantage for the institution and ensuring quality of description
flexibility in choosing needed fields from the artwork template

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Participants

Volunteer Research the needs and technical capabilities of small GLAMS; writing info materials; testing Marta Malina Moraczewska (talk) 08:46, 24 September 2015 (UTC)

Endorsements

great idea! (will share a learning pattern from wmde work on this soon) Sebastian Sooth (WMDE) (talk) 17:27, 18 July 2015 (UTC)
yes, if upload wizard or vicuna uploader supported artwork template, GLAMs could upload smaller batches, without resorting to GWtoolset. you could use "experienced uploader", but one at a time, needs more support. Slowking4 (talk) 19:16, 18 July 2015 (UTC)

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