Seeing Wikipedia articles for Ayrshire pre-steam-locomotive waggonways, I tried querying Wikidata to map these and other known ones at Tranent and Alloa.
The map is unsatisfactory because of various Read more
Archives: 2026
Bothy band
I noticed an item for Rowchoish bothy and wondered how many others are on Wikidata. A query on Bothy and Wilderness Hut items in Scotland gives this map. I wouldn't plan a trip relying on this, but Read more
Tracing epidemics
Adding basic Wikidata info for "Edinburgh plague of 1585" got me looking at the level of data for other infectious outbreaks, and finding it a wee bit bare. Even the relatively recent "1964 Aberdeen Read more
Memory loss
A recent International Journal of Digital Curation article discussed the longer term threats to archives, not least what happens to an asset created under project funding? For digital as for physical Read more
Detriment to the built environment
After noting the Union Street fire in Wikidata, I revisited the previous query on disasters in the Glasgow area. It is now capturing more of the disastrous fires on the 1960s. A potential extension Read more
Neeps and tatties
At Burns Night, I noticed a strange phenomenon: the Wikidata item labels neeps as the Scots for turnip but the linked article on the rather challenged sco.wikipedia is to an article entitled Swade Read more
Disentangle and expand
Yesterday I spent some time distinguishing and expanding Wikidata on the various magazines named Edinburgh Review published over the past 280 years. There had been one portmanteau item but with a Read more