GLAM/Newsletter/May 2014/Contents/USA report
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New Edit-a-thons; GLAM at Wikiconference USA; Activities in New York City
Big Turnout for Smithsonian #WikiAPA Edit-a-thon
Over 100 people across seven cities participated in WikiAPA on May 10, the first-ever edit-a-thon for adding Asian American and Pacific Islander-related content to Wikipedia. This was spearheaded by the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center, based in Washington, D.C. and in New York, the edit-a-thon included guest speakers Nancy Bulalacao (principal of the new Filipino American Museum), Jordan Alam (who read her fiction and poetry for the group), and Patricia Lee (Eastern Director of FWD.US), who all touched upon the importance of documenting and sharing the diverse experiences of immigrants in this country.
The WikiAPA event brought together students, scholars, activists and seasoned Wikipedians to enrich one of the most widely-used resources for general information with APA history and culture. According to the NYC organizer Jenny Ye, "Our best articles include ones on Cambodian deportees, the 1970s radical Marxist collective Wor Kuen, and additions to the history of Asian American studies. News of ABC television network green lighting Fresh Off the Boat (TV show) came during the afternoon, and we quickly added that to Wikipedia as well. One of the pages we edited was even featured on the front page of Wikipedia."
- For the full list of articles that were edited, and suggestions for more edits, check out the wiki meetup page: en:Wikipedia:Meetup/Wikipedia APA
- Writeup on AsAm News: First ever #WikiAPA brings Asian America to the masses by Jenny Ye
- Writeup at the Smithsonian APAC blog: Live from the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center
National Archives Federal Register Edit-a-thon
May 23 was the edit-a-thon at the National Archives and Records Administration to increase the breadth and quality of information about the United States government on Wikipedia, via NARA's Office of the Federal Register. The event focused on improving Wikipedia entries related to government publications administered by the Office of the Federal Register, and articles which cite those publications. The day started with training, a tour and new articles added by staffers and volunteers.
Wiki meetup page: en:Wikipedia:Meetup/DC/Federal Register
GLAM-Wiki tour of the Metropolitan Museum
Before the start of Wikiconference USA in New York City, on May 28, a dozen representatives from the US GLAM community were treated to a backstage tour hosted by The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Neal Stimler, digital asset specialist, William Blueher, T.J. Watson Librarian, and Sree Sreenivasan, chief digital officer.
Starting the tour off, William Blueher gave a tour of the Watson Library, the Met’s largest research library. William has been contributing to Wikipedia at the Watson by adding references and links to the Met’s digitized resources. The tour group saw the book conservation laboratory, stacks, and scanning facilities.
Next, Neal Stimler took the group on a Wikipedia themed tour of the Met. Each of the four paintings he showed the group, from a portrait of Benjamin Franklin to a painting of the ‘muse of history’ told the story of human’s search for knowledge and its depiction in art.
GLAM at Wikiconference USA
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The main program of Wikiconference USA from May 29-June 1 saw a number of entries related to GLAM, including:
- Where would I find time for it? Scalable Wikipedia editing for GLAMs - Leanora Lange
- If we build it, will they come? Bringing library collections to the people through Wikipedia - William Blueher
- Image_by_Wikipedia - Jonas Öberg (Mathias Klang will be presenting in his stead)
- Remixing metadata from libraries and archives with the RAMP editor - Timothy A. Thompson and Mairelys Lemus-Rojas
- Signalling Open Access References - Matt Senate and Max Klein
- Art + Feminism Edit-a-thons - Michael Mandiberg
- Forward to Libraries: Tools and data for connecting Wikipedia and local library resources - John Mark Ockerbloom
- The Future of Libraries and Wikipedia - Jake Orlowitz
- A Year in Residence at the Chemical Heritage Foundation - Mary Mark Ockerbloom
- Wikipedia, Medicine and Language - James Heilman, et al.
- Wikipedia, GLAM and Edit-athons in the Classroom: How We Did It - Andrew Lih
- Wikipedian-in-Residence at UC Berkeley - Kevin Gorman
On the Sunday after the conference was over, Sarah Stierch hosted a Drinking About Museums happy hour near the New York Law School venue that saw about 20-30 attendees from the conference and the local GLAM community.
WikiConference USA 2014 was made possible by a Wikimedia Foundation grant to WikimediaNYC and WikimediaDC.
Wikipedia Activities in New York City
American Folk Art Museum hires Wikipedian-in-Residence
The American Folk Art Museum in New York has begun a new Wikipedia initiative, having created positions for two new summer staff members to contribute to Wikipedia. The first step will be getting these staff up-to speed on Wikipedia’s GLAM-Wiki guidelines and connected to the community, and then to begin contributing to articles about American Folk Art.
Training at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation
On Wednesday, June 4th, the Guggenheim held a Wikipedia training for around 10 of the Guggenheim’s summer interns. The trainees will be writing new articles, contributing to reference, and fixing dead links to the Guggenheim’s digitized collections.
