"US National Archives To Upload All Holdings To Wikimedia Commons"

From TechCrunch:

Ever since the National Archives and Record Administration launched the Open Government Plan in 2010, it has increasingly been uploading content to Wikipedia to digitize and gain a wider reach for its holdings. But all this time, uploading its digitized holdings to the Wikimedia Commons was a side project. Now, as mentioned in the 2014 Open Government Plan published earlier this month, the project is a core part of the NARA, according to The Signpost.

Dominic McDevitt-Parks, digital content specialist at the NARA who was also the Wikipedian-in-residence, said the purpose of uploading files from the “record-keeper” of the federal government to Wikimedia is to provide a broader reach to the public.

In 2012, the NARA experimented and uploaded 100,000 digital images to Wikimedia Commons. This then allowed Wikipedia editors to use these files to be incorporated into projects and articles.

“The 4,000 Wikipedia articles featuring our records received more than one billion page views in Fiscal Year 2013. Over the next two years we will work to increase the number of National Archives records available on Wikimedia Commons, which furthers our strategic goal to ‘Make Access Happen’ and expands re-use of our records by the public,” according to the Open Government Plan 2014.

By providing access to their holdings, the NARA is also better represented through Wikipedia, as its content is reaching more viewers. And any item from the NARA catalog that gets digitized will now be uploaded to Wikimedia.

Anyone can upload files through Wikimedia Commons, but McDevitt-Parks said there was no easy drag-and-drop feature to upload bulk files, which was the first hurdle the NARA had to contend with....MORE