Contribute to Wikimedia

What is Wikimedia Commons?

With tens of millions of files, Wikimedia Commons is one of the largest online repositories of media files. Built from the works shared by thousands of volunteers, Commons hosts educational images, videos, and audio files that are used by Wikipedia and the other projects of the nonprofit Wikimedia Foundation. All of the works on Commons are under a “free license.” That means they can be used and shared by anyone, for free, just by following the license rules – usually by giving credit to the author and preserving the license so that others can re-share the work as well.^[1]

Harvard-Yenching Library, Harvard University

Why Contribute?

Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in the sum of all knowledge. Your contributions can be part of that. When you share your photos and other files on Commons and illustrate Wikipedia articles with them, your work might be viewed by thousands – even hundreds of thousands – of people all over the world. And you’re helping to build a common resource that reaches an even wider audience; media from Commons are used by educational websites, news media, bloggers, artists, filmmakers, students, teachers, and many others.^[2]

Track your Contributions

Please use the Wikimedia Content Uploader Tracker spreadsheet provided by the organizers to track what images you're planning to upload, so that you don't accidentally duplicate your colleagues' work.

Additionally, some Harvard images have been batch-loaded in the past by large projects such as Google Arts & Culture, so please search carefully to make sure there isn't already a high-resolution image with Harvard metadata for what you were planning to load!

If you see images have already been loaded that you wanted to work on, consider improving their metadata instead.

How to Upload Images

The Wikimedia Commons Upload Wizard is sufficient for most uploading projects. It has extensive documentation you can refer to with questions, and it guides you through the step-by-step process.

Make sure you don't skimp on the File Information, and choose Public Domain for the licensing status. (You can do this by typing {{PD-US}} in that section.) For sample Permission text, see this file.
The Upload Wizard allows you to upload up to 50 images at a time, and you can copy information over multiple files in a batch.

Talk to the project organizers if you want to upload a collection of more than 50 items. There are tools that do this, but we don't recommend embarking alone.

Where to get the images from

The most traditional way to upload images is by having the files on your computer already. (Loading from URLs is possible in some cases, but if you have questions or suggestions about that please talk to the organizers.)

We recommend using high-resolution files whenever possible.

If you have DRS Admin privileges, you should download the images you want to use from the DRS in order to ensure image quality. Talk to the organizers about this if you have questions, and talk to your manager if you believe you should have DRS Admin privileges.
A great tool for downloading images at large size is Dezoomify. To use it:

Open the Harvard Library image viewer with the file you want to use
Click the download button on the right side of the page
Choose the IIIF Manifest option, which will open a frightening-looking JSON file
Copy the link you see for this manifest, which will look something like https://iiif.lib.harvard.edu/manifests/drs:123456789
Paste it into your Dezoomify window, keeping the radio button on Select automatically, and then click Dezoomify!
Right-click on the resulting image and choose Save Image As or whatever equivalent wording your browser uses
Now you're ready to load this image into Commons using the Upload Wizard!

How to load images without having to download them

If you would prefer to load images into Commons without downloading them, there is an option using Harvard's IIIF manifests with the URL2Commons tool.

Note: this will not work for a multi-page item. If you need to upload a multi-page item, download the images and use the Upload Wizard. If you're attempting to download something with more than 50 pages, talk to the project organizers.

Steps

Open the URL2Commons tool and click the authorise link near the top of the page. You will need your usual Wikimedia account login information to do so.
In another tab, you will need to open the IIIF manifest to the image you want to load. How you do this depends on how you have accessed the image.
- If you're accessing the image from its HOLLIS record, click the VIEW ONLINE link to open the image in the Harvard Library Image Viewer. The link at the top of the page should be in the format https://iiif.lib.harvard.edu/manifests/view/ids:11111111 OR https://iiif.lib.harvard.edu/manifests/view/drs:11111111. The section you need is the string of numbers after the colon, represented in this example as 11111111.
- If you're accessing the image on a page where it has been embedded, such as in Harvard Library Digital Collections, you can still obtain the manifest link. Click on the info button on the right side of the viewer, which will open a window containing the Harvard shield and several links. The bottom one, labeled MANIFEST, is the one you want. Open it in a new tab. It will open as a JSON file rather than as a viewable image, but don't be alarmed. The link should be in the format https://iiif.lib.harvard.edu/manifests/ids:11111111 OR https://iiif.lib.harvard.edu/manifests/drs:11111111. The section you need is the string of numbers after the colon, represented in this example as 11111111.
Now that you have the information from the manifest you need, you can reformat it as a link that the URL2Commons tool will be able to understand as an image. To do this, open a new tab and paste the following link formula: https://ids.lib.harvard.edu/ids/iiif/11111111/full/full/0/default.jpg. Substitute the number you retrieved in the previous step for the string represented in this example as 11111111.
Press enter. You should now have a link to an individual image, and since it ends in .jpg it will be recognized by the loading tool as a link to an image file.
Copy and paste this link into the URLs box of the URL2Commons tool page. Add a space, the file name you want, then | with a short description.
Fill out the Information template in the Description box as you would using the Upload Wizard. Note that the Descriptor and URL fields are automatically populated with what you put into the URLs box and you should not attempt to edit them in this section. (You can always edit this after it has loaded, if you make a mistake.)
Click the Simulate button, which will test to be sure that the file is recognized and that the file name you've chosen is available.
If there is no error, click the Upload button. Follow the link that appears when the loading is complete, to check that your file has loaded as you wanted it to, and complete any editing (along with adding structured data) on its page in Commons.

Resources

Introduction to Uploading Files
Upload Wizard for Wikimedia Commons files
Harvard Library Policy on Access to Digital Reproductions of Works in the Public Domain
Wikimedia Search Tool
Wiki Commons Main Page
How to add metadata to Wikimedia using Wikidata and Depicts (for more information about adding structured data on Commons, see our page about that)

How to Identify Items in the Public Domain

Here are Wikipedia’s Guidelines for What is in the Public Domain. Excerpt: In the US, any work published before January 1, 1925, anywhere in the world is in the public domain.

Browse Harvard's digitized collections to start off your search.

Collections to Add

These collections have been identified as being potential starting points for uploading. You will need to evaluate each image against Public Domain guidelines while you upload to confirm their status.

Add links to digitized Harvard University collections that are in the public domain to help others know where to start.