I come to Wikipedia editing in my role managing a project for the University of Otago Central Library and Hocken Collections. The project has been inspired by that of Dowse Art Museum, and also in general the recent practice of institutions (e.g. Dartmouth_College Library & the Rauner Special Collections Library) taking their collections to "where the people are". This means access to and knowledge of collections is increased, especially digitally. Important scholarly work has been and is being undertaken, and online access to this is patchy in the Wikipedia environment.
The main focus of this pilot project is editing existing content and strengthening References with the addition of links to digital collections, including archives. A prime example is the Marsden Online Archive, which is dedicated to sharing the letters and journals of Samuel Marsden, as well as the papers of other early NZ missionaries. These are held in the Hocken Collections at the University of Otago Library. The project will also add a representative selection of sketches by Sir William Fox to Wikimedia Commons which are in a sketchbook in the Hocken Collections.
There are many other digital collection candidates, and currently the project is identifying and prioritising those which may best represent the breadth and depth of these institutions' collections.
The project finishes at the end of October 2015, and will recommend various new processes and activities for the University of Otago. --Elucidata (talk) 03:31, 16 May 2015 (UTC)
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2016. Project over. Now I'm taking a different tack and hoping that bit by bit we'll build up regional experience as Wikipedians. I'm looking forward to supporting that!Elucidata (talk) 05:54, 22 January 2016 (UTC)