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War Memorials Online

 
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spoons



Joined: 09 Jan 2007
Posts: 4991
Location: St John's Town of Dalry

PostPosted: Wed Nov 21, 2012 8:35 pm    Post subject: War Memorials Online Reply with quote

War Memorials Online is a new UK wide initiative by the War Memorials Trust using data from the UKNIWM (now the War Memorials Archive of the Imperial War Museum) http://www.warmemorialsonline.org.uk/.
Supported by English Heritage, the site includes data from the UKNIWM online data but regrettably does not include photos etc sent to them but not put online. The main idea behind the site is that volunteers (or anyone actually) can sign up, add new memorials or details about existing ones including photos.
Rather than me paraphrase their aims and objectives (and current status of the project), there is a thread on the GWF and you can find a statement by the Director of the War Memorials Trust – Frances Moreton at http://1914-1918.invisionzone.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=186831 but I have repeated the text of her statement (with her permission) below:

I thought it might be helpful for War Memorials Trust to add to the discussion and hopefully provide some answers. Apologies for the length of this posting and I hope it isn’t breaching rules but I thought you might prefer a detailed response – I have broken it down into sections so if you have a key interest in one point you can, hopefully, find that quickly.

Firstly I would like to apologise. I had hoped to post information about the project on forums such as GWF earlier but unfortunately the very tight timescales we are working to meant I just ran out of time. I have also been aware of this posting for a few days as some of you have been kind enough to email us directly – I had intended to respond earlier but I have been waiting to check some points with our developers.

But hopefully if I go through and address some of the points I can provide something helpful to you all and I hope that some of you may be willing to get involved if you have the time. We greatly appreciate all contributions you might make.
• Project purpose
The driving force for this project is to generate a greater understanding of the condition of war memorials. This will assist as we approach the centenary in identifying the overall condition of the UK’s war memorial and help ensure we have adequate resources in place to support repair and conservation.

Therefore two of the key messages on each page is the ‘report a concern’ so people can easily highlight issues and the ‘condition’ tab where we hope people can tell us if the memorial is currently Good/Fair/Poor/Very bad.

Generating this information will help us show that the many war memorials are well cared for but also demonstrate the extent of problems which can be used to help ensure that adequate resources are in place to help communities who need to repair and conserve their war memorials. English Heritage, which funds a war memorials grant scheme, is supporting this project.

2. Stages
The current website offering is stage 1 of the project with a more substantial offering due by March 2013. We wanted to get something up for November when we could get wider interest and start the project to then build upon it over the next few months. We don't expect, for example, all locations to be corrected by March but we hope with people's help and our efforts we can improve data.

3. Location / Map markers being wrong
We know the pins are wrong on most records (wrong, place, in the sea, etc) and one of the key aims of this project is to correct this. The website was initially populated with a cache of data from IWM’s War Memorials Archive (formerly UK National Inventory of War Memorials). The location data held by the Archive is OS based and often just relates to an OS square. Therefore when it was converted to long/lat references it isn’t precise. But by going onto a memorial record and editing address you can create a new pin in the precise location and update that information. With around 60,000 odd records getting location correct can be challenging and we hope people on the ground with knowledge of the local area can help ensure accuracy.

Any help you can provide in improving this data would be very welcome. As we note on the Get involved page www.warmemorialsonline.org.uk/get-involved location, images, condition and other sources of information are key at this stage of the project.

4. View larger map – Kazakhstan/Russia
We apologise for this bug which has been widely reported. I am looking into removing the option to 'view larger map' until this is sorted

5. IWM’s War Memorials Archive
War Memorials Online is focussed on the condition and concerns. It isn’t looking to replace IWM’s War Memorials Archive and the plan is for integration to be put in place. Full information was not offered due to the timeframes we are working to.

6. Photos
With condition and concern being important to this project getting dated images submitted is important in developing an understanding of condition.

Both IWM’s War Memorials Archive and War Memorials Trust have photos but there are issues of copyright to consider and also the resources around scanning/uploading thousands of photos. We are hoping that if people in the local community can upload a photo of their local war memorial this will achieve the objective far more quickly. We are uploading photos where they are available.

7. Sharing information
War Memorials Online recognises that many people have done a great deal of research on war memorials. For that reason it was really important for us to include the links option on each record. If you have, or know about, a war memorial website which provides lots of info then you can link it into that memorial page and that way users of War Memorials Online will be able to find more information via the links if they haven’t already found it via their own research. War Memorials Trust is currently getting one our our volunteers to go through and link memorial records to our Grants Showcase where we feature information on grants we have given.

We fully recognise that people may have concerns about another website showing their information but we hope that by offering the links information you can see that we are keen to show the wonderful websites out there. On the comments field you can also add books etc.

If you upload a photo it currently says who uploaded it but this should be changed in due course to show the copyright holder so due recognition will be given on the site to the copyright holder.

8. Missing memorials
When searching for a memorial you will find more records listed under Listings view rather than map view. We are working on an improved map results page which we hope to release next week.

If you can’t find the memorial at all then please add it. Part of this site is looking to ensure everything is recorded.


I hope that addressed some of the issues and provides some background. I apologise for the length but as I said I wanted to be helpful. I am happy to discuss this if anyone has further issues or I have missed anything.
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spoons



Joined: 09 Jan 2007
Posts: 4991
Location: St John's Town of Dalry

PostPosted: Wed Nov 21, 2012 8:44 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I thought that I would post my personal take on this initiative separately from the facts above. I have to declare an interest here, in addition to my contributions to the Scottish Military Research Group including this and the Scottish War Graves Project, I am also a Regional Volunteer for the War Memorials Trust.

It is a dialogue which we have not yet had with WMT but my personal hope for the future is that all Scottish Memorials will have a simple basic entry on the WMT site, including name, location and perhaps a single photo but then a link to this project where much more detail will be available.

I for one have signed up to War Memorials Online, firstly to find a home for my photos of English and Welsh memorials but also (as I find time) to add and update entries there with a single photo and the link back to the entry on this project.

It's not for me to say what others should do but I feel that this is potentially a significant improvement on what the IWM working alone was likely to achieve and it deserves support, especially for UK memorials outside of Scotland which have no other home.

\Paul
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Adam Brown
Curator


Joined: 14 Dec 2006
Posts: 7312
Location: Edinburgh (From Sutherland)

PostPosted: Wed Nov 21, 2012 11:14 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Paul

I see that point 7 notes that you can add a link so if we come across any Scottish entries there will be a very good chance we already have them here and can attach the link.

I have photogrhed a few English war memorials over the years so I will be signing up.

Thanks

Adam
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Adam Brown
Curator


Joined: 14 Dec 2006
Posts: 7312
Location: Edinburgh (From Sutherland)

PostPosted: Wed Jan 23, 2013 7:35 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

From Chris Paton's genealogy Blog:

http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/iwm-withdraws-from-war-memorials-online.html?m=1

From Frances Moreton of War Memorials Online (www.warmemorialsonline.org.uk)

Between January 2012 and January 2013, War Memorials Trust, IWM’s War Memorials Archive and English Heritage worked together to develop War Memorials Online, by sharing information, data and expertise.

Following IWM’s concerns about the unmediated editing of data it was decided that, in the interests of compiling the national register which is under its care, IWM’s War Memorials Archive would withdraw from the current project and remove its data.

War Memorials Online remains as a project focussed on obtaining information related to the condition of war memorials in the UK. The information gathered on the War Memorials Online website will help build a picture of the condition of Britain’s war memorials as we approach the First World War Centenary and it will contribute to ensuring adequate resources are available to make certain our war memorials are in good repair for centenary events.

IWM’s data will be removed from the website by the end of January 2013. Content checked or submitted by Third Parties (the public) or that provided by War Memorials Trust or English Heritage will remain on the website. War Memorials Online has benefited greatly from the contribution of IWM’s War Memorials Archive and will continue to be run by War Memorials Trust with the support of English Heritage. Information on war memorials submitted to War Memorials Online is accessible to the public and will be made available to the IWM’s War Memorials Archive, Historic Environment Records and other heritage bodies to support the protection and conservation of the nation’s war memorial heritage.

Any queries on the above should be directed to Kevin Redgate, War Memorials Online Administrator on info@warmemorialsonline.org.uk.
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spoons



Joined: 09 Jan 2007
Posts: 4991
Location: St John's Town of Dalry

PostPosted: Wed Jan 23, 2013 8:18 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I have some further information on this and will be posting a considered comment in a couple of days once I have had time to spend on it that the subject deserves.

\Paul
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