Uploading one of the Library's out-of-copyright PhDs

A Wikisource Case Study at the University conducted by Gavin Willshaw, Digitisation and Digital Engagement Manager.

Case study by Gavin Willshaw,  Digitisation and Digital Engagement Manager

“One area we have worked on is Wikisource, Wikimedia’s online library of digitised, out-of-copyright texts. We wanted to upload one of our out of copyright PhDs to see how the software works and also to understand whether it increases use and awareness of our collections. So we uploaded a thesis which ticked all our boxes: out of copyright, typed (so could be OCR-ed), not too long, notable author".

This is the thesis that was transcribed:

Some Problems in Variation and Heredity by Thomas Jehu

The item was run thourgh the OCR process and transcribed within one day. The transciption was then validated by another Wikisource user for quality assurance.

Impact

Hosting the text on Wikisource greatly increased awareness of and engagement with the item: "views are about 20 times higher than downloads from our repository.”

The thesis has also been linked to from Thomas Jehu’s Wikipedia page, which is only one click away - increasing the reach of the item.