I gave a presentation and workshop about Wikisource at the LIANZA librarians conference in November, and there was quite a bit of interest. We finished proofreading Old Westland (1939), released it into the library catalogue as a e-book, and it was almost immediately borrowed by 15 people (the physical book had only gone out three times in the last few years). Newly-uploaded books needing work are George Marriner's The Kea: a New Zealand Problem, the 1886 edition of Rambles on the Golden Coast of New Zealand, and Horatio Robley's Pounamu: notes on New Zealand greenstone.Wikisource ☞
With the help of the Left Bank Art Gallery we've been focussing on pounamu (greenstone) carving and hei tiki over the last month, with the goal of negotiating with copyright holders to get decent photos of different types of stone and some carving styles. There is lots to do! Let me know if you're keen to help with pounamu. Arts ☞
User:Paora has made some great improvements to Lake Wahapo, which made me wonder if there was interest in a small project in the New Year to improve articles on the West Coast's lakes and rivers.
Meetups: we had a small Wikiblitz at Byte Digital Hub in Greymouth on Sat 4 Dec, which improved the Greymouth article and led to the creation of Floods in Greymouth • There'll be an online meetup of the West Coast Task Force, Sat 15 Jan 1pm (link to join). • In February we're planning a Wikiblitz on the Westland Petrel and the Barrytown Flats, to take place somewhere around Punakaiki – watch this space.
An invitation to help the West Coast Wikipedian at Large[edit]
News from the West Coast
Development West Coast have kindly agreed to support another short Wikipedian at Large contract on the West Coast, to cover areas that were missed the first time around: Lake Brunner, Te Wahipounamu, Ōpārara Arches, and Punakaiki. From June 20th to August 26th I'll be improving articles, Wikidata, and photo collections on these areas, and would love some help. I'm inviting you to sign up on the project page; there'll be a fortnightly "postcards from the Coast" of to-dos and updates, and prizes for the most and best contributions by volunteers. Hope to see you there! —Giantflightlessbirds (talk) 23:05, 4 June 2022 (UTC))[reply]
