KB-Wiki-Stats-Graphs
Reuse indicators for KB images in Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons, the 2023 update
Olaf Janssen, 24 January 2024
A year ago I wrote an extensive article about three related indicators that showed the reuse and public reach of KB collection images via Wikipedia in a historical perspective (2013-2022). This article showed that Wikipedia is a very effective way to make images from our (heritage) collections visible all over the world. It also showed that over the years our collection images have gained steadily growing global audiences.
Three reuse indicators for KB images, 2023
At the beginning of January 2024, I measured these three indicators again, this time covering the year 2023. These are:
- The number of KB collection images on Wikimedia Commons
- The number of unique Wikipedia articles that use those KB collection images
- The number of requests for those Wikipedia articles per month.
In this article I share the results and insights from these measurements.
1) The number of KB collection images on Wikimedia Commons
At the beginning of January 2024, there were 30,626 images available in the KB Commons media repository. This means that 3,330 KB files were added in 2023. This is an increase of 12.1% compared to last year. This can be partially explained by the addition of all pages of the first 4 volumes of the Flora Batava to Commons. See these notes for more details.
The table below shows the historical growth. See this page for a more detailed explanation of these historical figures.
Translation of column headers:
1. Datum meting = Date of measurement
2. Aantal KB-gerelateerde media-bestanden op Commons = Number of KB related media files on Wikimedia Commons (=this KPI)
3. Groei t.o.v. vorige meting = Growth compared to previous measurement (absolute numbers)
4. Groei in % = Growth in %
2) The number of unique Wikipedia articles using those KB images
Wikipedia’s content creators use our images to illustrate articles. At the beginning of January 2024, I measured the number of unique Wikipedia articles (in all language versions) that use our images:
- of the 30,626 available KB collection images (see above)
- a total of 1,872 unique images were used 6,615 times (6.1% reuse)
- in 5,135 unique WP articles (= this KPI)
- in 145 language versions, lead by the Englis version (1,125 articles), followed by the Dutch (708), French (366), German and Russian Wikipedias.
See this page for a further analysis of these figures.
If you want to know exactly which Wikipedia articles and which language versions our KB images are used in, you can view this full overview. Did you know, for example, that an image of the Fort on Goeree from the Atlas of Mutual Hertitage illustrates the article about Senegal in ChiTumbuka?
The table below shows the historical growth of this indicator. See this page for a more detailed explanation of these historical figures.
Translation of column headers:
1. Datum meting = Date of measurement
2. Aantal unieke Wikipedia-artikelen waarin KB-mediabestanden opgenomen zijn = Number of unique Wikipedia articles that include KB media files (=this KPI)
3. Aantal taalversies van Wikipedia waarin KB-mediabestanden opgenomen zijn = Number of language versions of Wikipedia that contain KB media files
4. Aantal hergebruikte KB-mediabestanden in al die taalversies van Wikipedia = Number of reused KB media files in all those language versions of Wikipedia
5. Totaal aantal KB-mediabestanden op Wikimedia Commons, zie KPI2 = Total number of KB media files on Wikimedia Commons (see first KPI above)
6. Percentage hergebruik van KB-mediabestanden in Wikipedia = Percentage of reuse of KB media files in Wikipedia
3) The number of requests for those Wikipedia articles per month
Very nice, all those Wikipedia articles with KB images, but if they are never requested, then our images will never be seen. Fortunately, this is not the case: in the period November 2022 to December 2023 (i.e. 14 months), there have been an average of 12.9 million such page requests every month, as the table below (source) shows.
For (the 12 months of) the year 2023, this results (by interpolation) to 153 million requests. If we compare this number to the 123 million requests in 2022, this means a growth of 24%. See this page for a more detailed explanation of the historical development of this KPI.
Translation of column headers:
1. Datum meting = Date of measurement
2. Meetperiode in maanden = Measurement period in months
3. Totaal aantal opvragingen van Wiki-pagina’s met KB-beelden in deze periode = Total number of requests of Wiki pages containing KB images during this period
4. Gemiddeld aantal opvragingen per maand in deze period = Average number of page requests per month in this period (=this KPI)
5. Groei t.o.v. vorige meting in % = Percentage growth compared to the previous measurement
More details and data
More extensive analyzes and all underlying data from this article can be found on the KB project pages on the Dutch Wikipedia:
- KPI 2: The number of KB collection images on Wikimedia Commons
- KPI 4: The number of unique Wikipedia articles that use those KB collection images
- KPI 8: The number of requests for those Wikipedia articles per month
About the author
Olaf Janssen is the Wikimedia coordinator of the KB, the national library of the Netherlands. He contributes to
Wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons and Wikidata as User:OlafJanssen
Reusing this article
This article is available at Github, Zenodo and Wikimedia Commons. The text has been released under the Creative Commons Attribution CC-BY 4.0 License. The preferred attribution is: KB, national library of the Netherlands / Olaf Janssen .
