This document discusses extracting data from historical documents through crowdsourcing annotations on Wikisource. It describes a project to digitize the field notebooks of Junius Henderson, a early 20th century curator at the University of Colorado Museum of Natural History. Volunteers helped transcribe and annotate the notebooks by adding images, text, and metadata templates on Wikisource. This allowed the data within the notebooks to be extracted and linked to other online resources. The project demonstrates how small incremental steps over many years, like initial scanning and transcription efforts, enabled the fully digitized, annotated, and data-linked version of the notebooks.

1. Extracting Data from Historical
Documents: Crowdsourcing
Annotations on Wikisource
Andrea Thomer, Gaurav Vaidya*, Robert
Guralnick, David Bloom, Laura Russell

2. http://data.gbif.org/
GBIF (389 million records!)

3. http://www.mappinglife.org/Sayornis_saya
Where species are, where species aren’t

4. Chronhorogram (Ariño & Otegui, 2010), extracted using BIDDSAT (Otegui & Ariño, 2012)
http://www.unav.es/unzyec/mzna/biddsat/recsperyear.php?prov=10&dataset=all&db=GBIF_201202
The big picture (AKN)

5. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tent_in_montane_field_site.tif
An expedition into the Rockies, 1904

6. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Step_Valley_Lake_near_Arapahoe_Glacier.tif
The Great Outdoors

7. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Four_field_biologists_on_glacier.tif
Exploration time

8. http://pinterest.com/cumnh/
http://media-cache-ec3.pinterest.com/avatars/ucmnh-1346976471_600.jpg
University of Colorado Museum of Natural
History (CUMNH) -- founded 1909

9. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Junius_Henderson.jpg
Junius Henderson
CUMNH Curator, 1902-1933

10. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Four_field_biologists_on_glacier.tif
Exploration time

11. Henderson’s notebooks

14. “This entire project was only possible
because people had been making small
steps towards digitization over the last 10
years” -- Andrea Thomer

15. Wikisource: a transcription platform

16. Step 1: Scanning (1996)

17. The Process
1. Images on the Wikimedia Commons.
2. Images + text on Wikisource.
3. Images + text + annotations on Wikisource.
4. Data using the MediaWiki APIs.
• Full details: http://dx.doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.209.3247
• Short URL: http://bit.ly/henderson-paper

18. #1. The Wikimedia Commons

19. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Licensing_tutorial_en.svg
Copyright?

20. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Template:PD-scan
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Template:PD-US-unpublished
Copyright!

21. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Field_Notes_of_Junius_Henderson,_Notebook_1.pdf
Result #1: Images

22. http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Index:Field_Notes_of_Junius_Henderson,_Notebook_1.djvu
#2. Images + text

23. http://en.wikisource.org/w/index.php?
title=Page:Field_Notes_of_Junius_Henderson,_Notebook_1.djvu/3&oldid=3528371
Just like Wikipedia

24. http://cumuseum.colorado.edu/about/newsdetail.php?newsID=3
Dr. Peter Robinson
CUMNH Director, 1971-1982
Transcribed Henderson’s notebooks, 2000-02

25. Step 2: Transcription

26. http://en.wikisource.org/w/index.php?
title=Page:Field_Notes_of_Junius_Henderson,_Notebook_1.djvu/3&oldid=3528371
Result #2: Images + text

27. http://en.wikisource.org/w/index.php?
title=Page:Field_Notes_of_Junius_Henderson,_Notebook_1.djvu/3&oldid=3528371
Result #2: Images + text

28. Combining multiple pages

29. http://en.wikisource.org/w/index.php?
title=Page:Field_Notes_of_Junius_Henderson,_Notebook_1.djvu/3&oldid=3528371
#3. Images + text + annotations

30. Wikipedia templates

31. Wikipedia templates are everywhere

32. The “Neutrality” template

33. The “Neutrality” template

34. Examples of templates

35. Examples of templates

36. Examples of templates

37. An template of our own
{{element|formal name of this element|
element as written by Henderson}}
Examples:
{{taxon|Sayornis saya|Say Phoebe}}
{{taxon|Carduelis pinus|siskins}}
{{taxon|Siskin|siskins}}

38. An template of our own
{{element|formal name of this element|
element as written by Henderson}}
Examples:
{{dated|1905-07-28|July 28, 1905}}
{{place|Boulder, Colorado|Boulder,
Colo}}

39. #3. Annotations

40. #3. Annotations

41. #3. Annotations

42. Calling all volunteers!

43. Calling all volunteers!

44. Result #3. Image + text + annotations!

45. Volunteers arrive

46. Volunteers arrive

47. http://www.mappinglife.org/Sayornis_saya
#4. Data

48. Simple algorithm

49. Simple algorithm

50. Simple algorithm

51. Simple algorithm

52. Simple algorithm

53. Complicated script

54. Complicated, open source script

55. Result #4. (T + Images + Annotation)
ext
= Data!

56. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bighorn_sheep_skull_at_Arapaho_glacier,_1904.tif
Where do we go from here?

57. More books to upload

58. More books to transcribe

59. http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/
More books to transcribe

60. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikisource_2012_-_Aubrey.pdf?page=19
A better Wikisource

61. “This entire project was only possible
because people had been making small
steps towards digitization over the last 10
years” -- Andrea Thomer

62. Thanks!
Find out more at http://bit.ly/jhfnblog

64. The following slides were
not used in my presentation

65. Museum collections

66. 240. Physa anatina Lea .......................................... Identified by Bastsch
Creek 1 mile north of Loveland, Colo. June 9, 1906. Junius Henderson
Museum records

67. 240. Physa anatina Lea .......................................... Identified by Bastsch
Creek 1 mile north of Loveland, Colo. June 9, 1906. Junius Henderson
Museum records

68. 240. Physa anatina Lea .......................................... Identified by Bastsch
Creek 1 mile north of Loveland, Colo. June 9, 1906. Junius Henderson
Problem: context