Dear Wikimedia Australia list, I just received this from the National Library of Australia newspaper digisation project - they're moving out of Beta and into "real project" mode. All very exciting...
What I find particularly cool about their interface is the way that they have permanent links to not only each page but also the specific article. Furthermore there is a wiki-like interface for people to improve the OCR'd text. For the purposes of Wikipedia this project is a real boon as 1) Everything they publish is out of copyright and 2) It gives us invaluable citation material. Previously we could write articles about old events and refer to them only in the print edition (which requires great difficulty to check references). Now we can cite the original edition of the newspaper and link directly to the article for all to see! I've worked with Rose Holley in my capacity at the Dictionary of Sydney and she (and the project) are keen for Wiki-folk to jump in and use their important service. As you can see by the title of the first research paper listed below, they're also helping improve the understanding in the academic/library sector of the values of mass-collaboration which is great. All the best, -Liam [[Witty lama]] ------------------------------ *From:* Rose Holley [mailto:rhol...@nla.gov.au] *Sent:* Wednesday, 25 March 2009 3:48 PM *To:* undisclosed-recipients *Subject:* National Library of Australia - Newspaper digitisation - articles published Dear colleagues *Australian Newspapers Digitisation Program* I've recently published 2 articles which you may be interested to read: 1. Many Hands Make Light Work: Public Collaborative OCR Text Correction in Australian Historic Newspapers. ISBN 978-0-642-27694-0 *http://www.dlib.org/dlib/march09/03clips.html#HOLLEYBK*<http://www.dlib.org/dlib/march09/03clips.html#HOLLEYBK>(reviewed in D-Lib) *http://www.nla.gov.au/ndp/project_details/documents/ANDP_ManyHands.pdf*<http://www.nla.gov.au/ndp/project_details/documents/ANDP_ManyHands.pdf>(document here) 2. How good can it get? Analysing and Improving OCR accuracy in large scale historic newspaper digitisation programs.(NLA) Just published in this months D-Lib Magazine. *http://www.dlib.org/dlib/march09/holley/03holley.html*<http://www.dlib.org/dlib/march09/holley/03holley.html> All other project documents including feedback on the Australian Newspapers beta service are on the main webpage here: *http://www.nla.gov.au/ndp/project_details/*<http://www.nla.gov.au/ndp/project_details/> We are now nearing the end of the 2 year project 'setup' and software development. The Australian Newspapers service will be officially launched this year and be managed in an ongoing operational mode with the newspapers digitisation program ongoing indefinitely. Thanks Rose ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rose Holley Manager - Australian Newspaper Digitisation Program (ANDP) National Library of Australia e-mail: rhol...@nla.gov.au website: *http://www.nla.gov.au/ndp* <http://www.nla.gov.au/ndp> Phone: +61 2 6262 1224 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ___________________________________________________________________________________
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