Mike Dickison is this year's recipient of the Paul Reynold's 'No Numpties' grant.
Mike was a Digital Discovery Librarian at Westland District Library from Nov 2020 to June 2022, on an 18-month NZLPP contract, and was most recently West Coast Wikipedian at Large.
He used the Wikisource website to digitise out-of-copyright obscure works hiding away in a cabinet, recruiting a small group of volunteers—the West Coast Task Force—and training them to use Wikisource, with the help of a Wikisource administrator who lives in New Zealand, and they began digitising works. These digital books were then exported as ePublications and made available for loan through the library’s OverDrive catalogue. They discovered that some of these books subsequently received more loans in six months than they had in the previous ten years on the shelves.
The grant will enable Mike to attend the world Wikimedia Summit in Berlin as the New Zealand delegate on 9–11 September and to meet with GLAM institutions in Europe where he will learn skills and tools that can be brought back to Aotearoa for use by the GLAMMIR sector. He has approached museum and library workers in Europe who have been working with open data, Wikimedia projects, and the data-cleaning tool OpenRefine, all areas that are useful and relevant for New Zealand.
The selection panel said of Mike's application:
"He has clearly demonstrated a commitment and contribution to the GLAM sector through his recent work on the West Coast." They felt that his attendance at the Wikimedia Summit in Berlin as the New Zealand representative, and his connections with GLAMMIR institutions in Europe to discover and share skills and tools with the NZ sector will be widely beneficial to the sector.
We look forward to learning more about the summit and the tools and information he learns about in his travels when he returns.
Mike was a Digital Discovery Librarian at Westland District Library from Nov 2020 to June 2022, on an 18-month NZLPP contract, and was most recently West Coast Wikipedian at Large.
He used the Wikisource website to digitise out-of-copyright obscure works hiding away in a cabinet, recruiting a small group of volunteers—the West Coast Task Force—and training them to use Wikisource, with the help of a Wikisource administrator who lives in New Zealand, and they began digitising works. These digital books were then exported as ePublications and made available for loan through the library’s OverDrive catalogue. They discovered that some of these books subsequently received more loans in six months than they had in the previous ten years on the shelves.
The grant will enable Mike to attend the world Wikimedia Summit in Berlin as the New Zealand delegate on 9–11 September and to meet with GLAM institutions in Europe where he will learn skills and tools that can be brought back to Aotearoa for use by the GLAMMIR sector. He has approached museum and library workers in Europe who have been working with open data, Wikimedia projects, and the data-cleaning tool OpenRefine, all areas that are useful and relevant for New Zealand.
The selection panel said of Mike's application:
"He has clearly demonstrated a commitment and contribution to the GLAM sector through his recent work on the West Coast." They felt that his attendance at the Wikimedia Summit in Berlin as the New Zealand representative, and his connections with GLAMMIR institutions in Europe to discover and share skills and tools with the NZ sector will be widely beneficial to the sector.
We look forward to learning more about the summit and the tools and information he learns about in his travels when he returns.
About the Paul Reynold's 'No Numpties' grant
The grant was established in 2010 from donations made by the National Library of New Zealand, Internet NZ and friends of Paul Reynolds, which are held in trust by LIANZA. The grant is intended to be used to enhance the knowledge and development of those working in the New Zealand GLAMMIR sector
The grant was established in 2010 from donations made by the National Library of New Zealand, Internet NZ and friends of Paul Reynolds, which are held in trust by LIANZA. The grant is intended to be used to enhance the knowledge and development of those working in the New Zealand GLAMMIR sector
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