GLAM/Newsletter/April 2013/Contents/USA report
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First GLAM Boot Camp; Consortium meeting; GLAMout; plus workshops and editathon
GLAM Boot Camp DC
- See also: en:Wikipedia:GLAM/Boot_Camp
Starting on April 26, 2013, 17 Wikipedians gathered in the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration to gain more knowledge about the GLAM movement. The first day started with visits from David Ferriero, Archivist of the United States and Michael Edson, the Director of Web and New Media Strategy at the Smithsonian. The rest of the day we discussed the GLAM movement and the different types of GLAM events and activities. Saturday morning we did a series of groups to work on reorganizing content on the English Wikipedia about various GLAM materials, check out some of the new materials and organization at on English Wikipedia. Saturday and Sunday included more seasons related with the inevitable discussions of Conflict of Interest and Copyright, as well as the more practical concerns of running events, getting funding and using Wikisource for collaboration. Overall the weekend was an excellent event for community building and empowering new GLAM-Wiki volunteers.
For a more detailed assessment of the event, see the report in Signpost.
GLAM-Wiki US Consortium advisory group meeting
Also hosted at the National Archives on April 29th, the day after the conclusion of the GLAM Boot Camp, was the first formal meeting of the GLAM-Wiki US Consortium's advisory group. This is a select group of cultural and academic professionals experienced with Wikimedia projects and Wikimedians experienced in GLAM-Wiki, including roughly equal numbers of librarians, museumists, and archivists. The purpose of the meeting was to have a full-day strategy session in person to kickstart the the activities of the GLAM-Wiki US Consortium. With the Wikimedia Foundation narrowing its scope to exclude logistical support of GLAM-Wiki projects, and most of the United States being chapterless, the Consortium will fill a leadership and organization void in GLAM-Wiki in the US while also incorporating the voices of GLAM institutions themselves in the movement.
The morning was spent reviewing the current state of GLAM-Wiki in the United States and the organizational problems faced. Big-picture challenges were identified which the Consortium would seek to address in the long-term, like establishing legitimacy (of an institution within the Wikimedia community, or of Wikimedia(ns) within the cultural sphere), making the participation of online volunteers scale to demand, improving documentation, integrating Wikimedia into the everyday workflow of cultural institutions, and establishing financially sustainability. A number of action steps and outcomes were decided upon by the group to meed these needs, including an audit and update of existing documentation, establishing real-world models of institutional Wikipedia policies and practices, creating an "annotated bibliography" of publications, press, and case studies by or about GLAM-Wiki, putting out a survey to GLAM institutions and professionals about their opinions and needs regarding Wikipedia, and organizing an intensive (day-long or more) workshop modeled on the GLAM Boot Camp, but for training cultural professionals. Underpinning all of these discussions were the question of what sort of structure for the Consortium would allow it to be most useful. There was a fear that incorporating as a non-profit would not immediately be worth the effort that entails, and it was decided that official recognition of the group as a Wikimedia-affiliated user group would afford it a level a concreteness and validity in the interim. Two outcomes have already been put in motion: the first GLAMout—intended to be a more lively and discussion-based form of documentation in video format—occurred on May 3, and later that day, the GLAM-Wiki US Consortium's application for user group status was submitted to the Affiliations Committee.
ACRL 2013 workshop
- See also: en:Wikipedia:Workshop/ACRL 2013
A half-day workshop was held at the Association of College and Research Librarians (ACRL) conference in Indianapolis, Indiana on April 10 for librarians to learn more about using and teaching Wikipedia and how to edit. Around 30 librarians from both public and academic settings attended. The event was led by Chanitra Bishop, Brenda Burk and Phoebe Ayers with help from local Wikipedians Lori Byrd Phillips and Justin Knapp. Participants were particularly interested in how to use Wikipedia to help with teaching information literacy and evaluation of sources in an academic setting, as well as how libraries could share information on their collections. OCLC and IUPUI Libraries sponsored the workshop.
ARLISNA 2013 workshop
On April 26, a group of 19 art librarians and archivists took part in a hands-on workshop, "The Art of GLAM-Wiki: The Basics of Sharing Cultural Knowledge with the World on Wikipedia" (see presentation slides). The event was part of the 2013 Annual Conference of the Art Libraries Society of North America (ARLISNA), in Pasadena, CA, and was led by (Sara Snyder) of the Smithsonian's Archives of American Art. Participants learned the basics of contributing to Wikipedia--from creating an account to adding helpful citations--and how they can connect with volunteers and professional peers through WikiProject GLAM.
First edition of GLAMout
- See also: en:Wikipedia:GLAM/GLAMout
One of the outcomes of the GLAM-Wiki US Consortium advisory group meeting was a decision to hold a monthly GLAMout (using Google Hangout on Air as a platform) in order to highlight projects of interest and share information of interest to the Consortium. In the sprit of being bold, the first GLAMout was held on May 3rd. Topics included VIAFBot (at 1:32), report from the GLAM Boot Camp (at 15:20), report from the GLAM US Consortium meeting (24:40), and discussion about the upcoming exhibit on Wikipedia at the Computer History Museum (36:00).
Editathon at GWU Archives
- See also: en:Wikipedia:Meetup/DC/All Things GW
Approximately 30 editors, with a good mix of experienced Wikipedians and students, attended the "All Things GW" editathon at the George Washington University's Gelman Library on Saturday, April 20. The editathon was organized by Jennifer Kinniff, Public Services and Outreach Librarian for Special Collections, in order to expose the university archives' local and university history collections. As well, many students showed up in conjunction with a GWU course on D.C. history in which editing Wikipedia to add content related to their research topics was required, and so they came away from the event more literate in how Wikipedia works, while improving it at the same time. The event included a new user tutorial led by Dominic McDevitt-Parks and a show and tell of some of the university archives' most interesting treasures with assistance from Bergis Jules, University Archivist. Attendees listed a number of outcomes, including a new German-language article on Foggy Bottom and nearly tripling the size of Snows Court from 600 words to 1700.
The event was covered in the school's student newspaper, the GW Hatchet. According to the article, "Freshman Jerrel Catlett said he had prepared for the event for weeks as part of his D.C. History, Culture and Politics course. He said he liked the idea of the editathon because it allowed him to share his new knowledge. 'Here you’re actually contributing your information to something larger that other people can use,' Catlett said."
