GLAM/Newsletter/February 2020/Contents/USA report
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Black History Month and Open Access Anniversaries
Open Access: Smithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Institution officially launched their Open Access initiative on February 25, 2020, with the participation of many Wikimedians involved.
The initiative provides CC0 access to "3 million 2D and 3D digital items" across the organization's 19 museums, nine research centers, libraries, archives, and the National Zoo. Wikimedia District of Columbia and the community has worked with Smithsonian for more than a decade on Wikimedia-related projects, and has been a consistent partner in pushing for this initiative. At the launch event at the National Museum of American History, Wikimedia Foundation chief executive officer Katherine Maher gave opening remarks, and Wikimedia DC had a booth with Kelly Doyle, Open Knowledge Coordinator with the Smithsonian's American Women's History Initiative, and Andrew Lih, who has partnered with Smithsonian on the Wiki Art Depiction Explorer, operated a demonstration booth at the launch event. Wikimedians who have worked with the Smithsonian in the past included Sarah Stierch and Dominic Byrd-McDevitt who served as Wikimedians-in-residence with the Smithsonian over the last decade.
See the on-wiki Smithsonian Open Access page to interact with the demos Andrew and Kelly showed.
Effie Kapsalis, the Senior Digital Program Officer at the Smithsonian, helped get Smithsonian Open Access off the ground. A longtime Wikimedia contributor and open access supporter, Effie used a newly open image from a 1900s eclipse to create her outfit for the launch event. A creative way to kick off the multiple uses for the 3 million newly released items!
The Smithsonian used the occasion to publish their collection information via a new API and a dump of their collections data in Github, both of which are available through their open access portal. A new Wikidata property wikidata:Property:P7851 was created for a new Smithsonian-wide identifier to prepare for this open access release.
Readings
- Smithsonian Releases 2.8 Million Images Into Public Domain - "The launch of a new open access platform ushers in a new era of accessibility for the Institution" - Smithsonian Magazine, February 25, 2020
- 21st-Century Diffusion with Smithsonian Open Access - Effie Kapsalis, February 25, 2020
- The Smithsonian Puts 2.8 Million Images in the Public Domain - WIRED, February 27, 2020
- A landmark Smithsonian decision could change the way we see history online. What it means for Wikipedia and women’s stories - WMF Blog, February 25, 2020
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Effie Kapsalis, senior digital program officer, Smithsonian Institution -
Lonnie Bunch, secretary of the Smithsonian Institution -
Katherine Maher of the Wikimedia Foundation -
Event at the National Museum of American History -
Andrew Lih, Dominic Byrd-McDevitt (former Wikimedian in Residence), Sara Snyder (Smithsonian American Art Museum), Effie Kapsalis (Smithsonian Institution) -
Andrew Lih and Kelly Doyle demonstrated Wikidata Knowledge Graphs and Wikidata Game to attendees -
Demonstration table -
Wikidata Knowledge Graph demonstration -
Wikidata Game interface
Open Access: Metropolitan Museum of Art
On February 20, 2020, The Met celebrated three years of its open access initiative with a salon at the museum that included a presentation by Andrew Lih on the Wikimedia collaboration over the last three years, starting with Wikipedian in residence Richard Knipel's work from 2017 to the present day. Andrew described three phases of engagement - contribution, collaboration and co-creation, highlighting projects to upload The Met's content to Wikimedia Commons and Wikidata, to creating knowledge graphs of connections to other domains, to using artificial intelligence and machine learning to help predict image tags for other artworks.
Readings
- Engaging the Data Science Community with Met Open Access API by Jennie Choi, February 13, 2020
- Celebrating Three Years of Open Access at The Met by Sofie Anderson and Spencer Kiser, February 19, 2020
Black Lunch Table
Black Lunch Table and College Art Association Annual Conference held a meetup, CAA 1
Black Lunch Table and Rutgers University held a meetup, RutgersFeb2020
Black Lunch Table and Flaxman Library at the School of the Art Institute Chicago, held a meetup, SAIC Feb2020
Smithsonian Wiki Summer Internships
Along with the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History and the American Women's History Initiative, Kelly Doyle will host a paid internship around Wikimedia this summer. The intern will work with the Museum of Natural History to uncover notable women in anthropology from the archives and work to add those women to Wikimedia. Together, they'll help plan an edit-a-thon in June at the Museum. The intern will learn on and off Wiki skills from this experience.
There's also a wiki-related summer internship available at the National Museum of the American Indian.
The internships are paid and housing in DC is provided. Travel to and from DC is reimbursable. The intern must be a current undergraduate student and be a US citizen. The deadline to apply is March 15th. Please share within your networks!
American Folklife Center’s Wikipedia Meetup
Wikimedia DC and American Folklife Center held a meetup, Biographical Entries on Women Folklorists, Ethnomusicologists, and Fieldworkers
Santa Margarita Ecological Reserve
Wikimedia San Diego and Railroad Bronies, held a meetup at Santa Margarita Ecological Reserve. San Diego/February 2020
From Field to Lab: Writing Histories of the USDA's Women
Wikimedia DC and National Agricultural Library held a meetup, From Field to Lab: Writing (Wikipedia) Histories of the USDA's Women
Black History Month Wiki-a-thon at Prelinger Library
Prelinger Library and Bay Area Wiki Salon held a meetup, Black History Month Wiki-a-thon at Prelinger Library
Enhancing the Narrative of DC Public Schools
Wikimedia DC and Charles Sumner School Museum and Archives held a meetup, Enhancing the Narrative of DC Public Schools: A Wikipedia Editing Workshop 2020
Climate at the National Academies meetup
National Academy of Sciences, Credibility Coalition, and Wikimedia DC held a meetup, Climate at the National Academies Wikipedia Edit-a-thon
KC African American Artists 2020
Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art and Kansas City Meetup held a meetup, KC African American Artists 2020
Smithsonian Hirshhorn Library Presents
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Libraries, and Art+Feminism held a meetup, Wikipedia Edit-a-Thon: Art+Feminism DC2020
