I’ve been working on linking Commons items to Trove. It’s not complicated, on the surface, but of course once you get into it things get more annoying. I’m trying to just figure out the basics, and not get too deep into the weeds.

Basically what we want is for every file on Commons, that has been sourced from an institution that’s aggregated in Trove, to have a P10044 statement (‘Trove Work ID’), and for that to be displayed in the |source= parameter of the Information template. But we also want to say which library (etc.) it came from, and to link to that library’s catalogue (because that’s where the actual image file is stored). This means, I think, that we’ll want to stick to the SLQ, SLWA, SLSA, AWM-image, etc. templates that have institution-specific information and links, and just add a simple line to those that explains that the file’s metadata is also on trove and what its ID there is.

The (fairly terrific) locator-tool now has aerial imagery available as a map layer, making geolocating photos even more fun.

I can’t believe there’s no ‘Ghost signs in Western Australia’ category on Commons!

I added a newly-scanned photo to ArchivesWiki yesterday, and none of its images were loading (via InstantCommons). I think I was probably a bit tired, because I immediately assumed that I’m a crap sysadmin who has no business trying to run a wiki.

Coming back to it this morning, it turns out that it was some transient issue with retrieving info from Commons, and it’s now resolved and everything’s working normally again. Like it has for a decade or so. I’ll guess I’ll put off Giving Up till tomorrow.

Pattypan is a great tool for uploading lots of files to Commons. I’m using it today for a set of scans of airgraphs. I scanned them all yesterday, and gave them hopefully-useful filenames that contain a prefix, date, and bit of info about each. These documents all look pretty much the same when viewed as thumbnails, so it’s important to be able to determine at least something by glancing at the filename. That said, it’s never good to ‘‘rely’’ on metadata being in the filename nor on all files having the same structure to their names.

Anyway, after creating the spreadsheet for these files, I did some tweaking to the data columns:

1. Filled the source column based on the name column:
   • Formula: =CONCAT("{{HMW|wiki=",B2,"}}")
   • Result: {{HMW|wiki=Airgraph 1943-12-30 Adele to Murray}}
2. Extracted the date:
   • Formula: =REGEX(B3,"[0-9]{4}-[0-9]{2}-[0-9]{2}")
   • Result: 1943-12-30
3. Crucially, any column that uses a formula needs to be copied to a new column with ‘‘values only’’ (i.e. “Edit / Paste special / Values only”). Otherwise Pattypan can’t see the formula result.

This is a fun way to add ‘depicts’ statements to Commons files: https://hay.toolforge.org/depictor/

Today I made my ten-thousandth edit on Wikimedia Commons, with this photo: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Empty_dining_marquee_at_Wikimania_2016.jpg (I’ve been going through some old photos and uploading anything that’s useful for Commons; a couple of Italian railway stations didn’t have any photos yet!)