Commons:Batch uploading/NPGallery

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NPGallery[edit]

  • Describe the works to be uploaded in detail (audio files, images by …):

"NPGallery supports a wide array of digital asset file types (images, MS office formats, adobe pdfs, audio files, videos)." We would, I think, be primarily interested in their photographs of national parks.

  • Which license tag(s) should be applied?

{{PD-USgov}} may apply to many images, but they need to be checked individually. This could probably be automated to some degree.

  • Is there a template that could be used on the file description pages? Do you think a special template should be created?

Standard templates such as {{Photograph}} should be acceptable.

This was spotted by Animalparty on COM:VP. BMacZero (talk) 00:12, 22 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Opinions[edit]

  • Comments by Animalparty.
  • {{PD-USGov}} would be the most inclusive template, but is rather vague. More specific templates include {{PD-USGov-NPS}} and {{PD-USGov-Interior}}. Any Photographer field that says "NPS Staff" or "NPS Photo" (e.g. [1]) should automatically get PD-USGov-NPS.
  • I think {{Photograph}} or {{Information}} are fine, ideally with detailed semi custom fields for keywords, collection, location, etc., as seen in the Library of Congress images uploaded by User:Fæ (example).
  • The more pre- or auto-categorization, or at least clearly noting collection, yeear/decade, geographic unit, etc., the better, else we dump thousands of unsorted of images into already cluttered categories like Yosemite National Park.
  • There may be overlap with some material on Archives.gov , individual National Park Flickr feeds/websites, and such material already uploaded. But I think the value of the images uploaded at their largest file size and with curated metadata outweigh the inconvenience of some duplication.
  • Many files have geographical coordinates, but I suspect that many are generic coordinates of the center of the National Park or Monument, rather than being unique to the photograph.
  • Thanks for initiating this, sorry if these comments are basic/obvious to experienced mass uploaders. --Animalparty (talk) 01:29, 22 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]


On some more inspection, certain images may be a bit problematic in terms of copyright, namely works of art (e.g. paintings and sculptures) not explicitly credited to NPS employees, but that are nonetheless labeled "Public domain:Full Granting Rights". Some of these appear to be created by Artist-in-Residence programs (e.g. this gallery and this one), and from browsing elsewhere it appears that different parks may have different rules regarding copyrights. Rocky Mountain National Park states "Artists are also required to provide the copyright for this artwork to the National Park Service. The National Park Service will not allow the commercial use of any donated artwork once it is selected and accessioned into the Park's permanent museum collection", which is a restriction against public domain. Perhaps no art from Rocky Mountain was transferred to NPGallery? These 2 images from the U.S.S. Arizona memorial are labeled PD on NPGallery, yet on a different NPS page their status is ambiguous, with the included usage disclaimer "Multimedia credited with a copyright symbol (indicating that the creator may maintain rights to the work) or credited to any entity other than NPS must not be presumed to be public domain; contact the host park or program to ascertain who owns the material" (emphasis added).

Side note: I think every photograph I've viewed on NPGallery has the Copyright disclaimer "Permission must be secured from the individual copyright owners to reproduce any copyrighted materials contained within this website. Digital assets without any copyright restrictions are public domain.", but every file is also labeled Public domain in the Constraints Information.

Another snag I've noticed, just from browsing the term "Artist", are that some images are scans/photographs from newspapers that were most likely not originally created by Federal employees (although the derivative scans/photos are): for instance Louis Grell illustration album, with cartoons by Louis Grell published in World War I.[2] These are still PD via pre-1924 publication (and possibly by {{PD-USGov-Military}}), but it hinders accurate bot-designation of PD template.

And public domain rationale is ambiguous on this vido, with Copyright" "Photo courtesy of Betty Maya Foott, Colorado Plateau Dark Sky Cooperative" (so, probably not a federal employee), yet is nonetheless labeled "Public domain:Full Granting Rights". I may have just found a relative handful of exceptions. But there are also probably a good deal of historical photographs that are PD-1923 or PD-no-notice yet not US Government works. Perhaps a generic umbrella template similar to {{Flickr-no known copyright restrictions}} could be used to encapsulate different possibilities, like {{PD-NPGallery}}.

I think it would be a good idea to contact someone at NPGallery to double check that all media labeled public domain is in fact public domain, for some reason, especially when rationale is ambiguous or lacking. We also might want to consider not transfering the somewhat intimidating, potentially misleading Copyright message "Permission must be secured from the individual copyright owners to reproduce any copyrighted materials contained within this website. Digital assets without any copyright restrictions are public domain." This may be a liability disclaimer on NPGallery's end, but ideally, everything we transfer to Commons would be in the public domain, and so no permission need be secured. --Animalparty (talk) 11:45, 25 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Working on adapting my bot to handle this. I'll contact them, and also start with only things that are obviously PD. BMacZero (talk) 17:50, 9 February 2019 (UTC)[reply]
I e-mailed NPGallery a while back about the public domain statuses of images and neglected to share here. Unfortunately got a not-too-helpful response essentially saying that the licenses and attributions are not "consistent" and "there is not a good way to assure an asset id is truly in the public domain, or not". We'll have to figure out what types of signals we can rely on to decide whether {{PD-USGov-NPS}} or other templates apply. Of course, publication pre-1924 will be a good one to start. BMacZero (talk) 04:30, 11 April 2019 (UTC)[reply]
I'm currently harvesting a list of all the images. It's going a bit slow but it should only a take a few days. After that I'll start downloading the metadata, which may take several days. BMacZero (talk) 04:45, 12 April 2019 (UTC)[reply]
Ah, a shame about the inconsistent licensing criteria. I guess pre-1924 and files credited to "NPS staff" or similar can be prioritized for now. --Animalparty (talk) 19:13, 12 April 2019 (UTC)[reply]
Started downloading the item metadata. You can check on the progress on this fun page I made. BMacZero (talk) 15:49, 13 April 2019 (UTC)[reply]
BRFA filed (Commons:Bots/Requests/BMacZeroBot 6). BMacZero (talk) 05:35, 10 May 2019 (UTC)[reply]
Started uploading last night, will probably be ongoing for quite a while. See Category:Images from NPGallery to check to help with validation and categorization! – BMacZero (🗩) 16:35, 29 June 2019 (UTC)[reply]
Assigned to Progress Bot name Category
User:BMacZero In progress User:BMacZeroBot Category:Images from NPGallery to check
See Also
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