Digital maps Halloween tagathon, October 2014

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A digital maps Halloween tagathon, at the British Library
Tagathon invitation.png

The British Library and Wikimedia UK invite you to a day-long Digital maps Halloween tagathon event on Friday 31 October. The event will kick off a weekend-long online campaign we hope to conclude by Monday 3 November.

The aim is to use an an online index we have created to systematically go through the images the British Library has uploaded to Flickr and add the Flickr tag map to every image that represents a map or a ground-plan.

Identifying the maps means they can be included in the next round of the BL Georeferencer, to start as soon as the tagging has been completed, which is the key to locating them on the globe, making them findable and meaningfully uploadable en-masse to Wikimedia Commons.

3,000 maps have already been found and georeferenced, including the map on the right of Cerro de Pasco in Peru from a 1868 book. But an estimated 10,000 more maps in Flickr are still undiscovered. Starting at the Library on Friday, and continuing online over the weekend, we want to find and tag them all.

Also included through the day will be short talks about various digital mapping activities, a special tour of the BL's maps area, and free Halloween entry to the Library's atmospheric current major exhibition, Terror and Wonder: The Gothic Imagination (normally £9).

The adventurous may wish to stay on for the Library's special Halloween night event, The Sorting (19:30–22:30, Cost: £15).

  • Date: Friday 31 October 2014, 10:00am–4.30pm (Maps area tour 09:30; continued tagging or exhibition visit possible until 6pm)
  • Venue: Foyle Suite, Centre of Conservation, British Library
  • Participants: All welcome! Space is limited to about 30 people, so please do let us know
  • Registration: Please sign up via Eventbrite.
  • Cost: Free.
  • Full programme: here
  • Contacts: Any questions? Please contact Jheald

Further information: commons:Commons:British Library/Mechanical Curator collection/map tag campaign