GLAM/Newsletter/August 2012/Contents/USA report
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GLAM US Mid-Year Report, Philadelphia Museum of Art updates, Society of American Archivists
US GLAM Coordinator Mid-Year Report
The Mid-Year Report for the position of US Cultural Partnerships' Coordinator is now available for review. The report includes highlights from the past months, details on the GLAM-Wiki US Consortium, challenges, and implications. Please share any questions or feedback on the report's talk page.
A cooperation with the Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMA) has moved forward this month, thanks to the efforts of Ocaasi and Jessica Milby, Collections Information Project Manager at the PMA, who attended Wikimania in July. Jessica was looking for ways to improve articles on Wikipedia about the Museum and its artists/collections. Ocaasi and Jessica met a few weeks later at the Perelman building in downtown Philadelphia where they discussed ways to increase participation in the GLAM:PMA project. The first idea is to increase outreach to the GLAM:PMA project members, including a mass message updating them about plans and seeking feedback about ideas they have. The next step is a drive to improve the main Philadelphia Museum of Art article on English Wikipedia. The article is currently 'B-Class', but Jessica was confident that with the abundance of high quality sources about the Museum that it could be improved even further. Another idea that came out of the meeting was a project within the Museum to assess which PMA-related topics are missing articles on Wikipedia. Jessica also shared her idea to have the knowledgeable curators of the Museum provide recommended reading lists for PMA-related articles. That should be a great first step to guiding editors towards the information they need to expand and improve that content. Also raised for discussion were some hypothetical ideas about how to engage the broader community. There is interest in setting up a tour/edit-a-thon, but this remains in the preliminary stage. It's encouraging to have a partner in Jessica Milby and there should be a lot of good work coming out the collaboration within the next 3-6 months.
Society of American Archivists presentation
Wikipedians and archives professionals gave a joint presentation on August 10, at this year's Society of American Archivists Annual Meeting in San Diego, CA. The talk, titled "80,000 Volunteers Can't Be Wrong: The Case for Greater Collaboration with Wikipedia, was presented by Sara Snyder of the Smithsonian Archives of American Art, Pamela Wright of the National Archives, and the National Archives' Wikipedian in Residence Dominic McDevitt-Parks; Karen Weiss, of the Archives of American Art, moderated. The presentation by unique in allowing professionals from the field to hear directly from their colleagues on the benefits of Wikipedia collaboration. There were over 40 audience members, and there was a lively question-and-answer session (including the suggestion from one audience member that an "Archivist in Residence" on Wikipedia might help build understanding between the two groups). Wikipedia was also mentioned elsewhere during the conference, including in David Ferriero's opening plenary and references to OCLC's authority control efforts in other sessions. Finally, in the annual meeting of SAA's Visual Materials section, Helena Zinkham, Chief of the Prints and Photographs Division of the Library of Congress, gave a short talk on her proposal for citation of archival imagery used in Wikipedia articles in the article text itself (quote: "this is not about making a link farm... it's about historical practice, to follow their own criteria that the more you can cite your sources, the more authoritative, or authentic, or reliable [Wikipedia will be]"; recording here [part 5).
In brief
- GLAM-Wiki US has started a blog that will be used to direct visitors to the GLAM:US portal and to broadcast information and updates on GLAM partnerships in the US. This blog was the result of suggestions from GLAM professionals in the ongoing discussion around useful platforms for the newly-created GLAM-Wiki US Consortium. The Consortium also recently announced its list of Advisory Group members.
- WikiProject Public Art was featured in the New York Times ArtsBeat column this month in the article Project Enlists the Public to Document Outdoor Sculpture by Tony Smith. The article highlights a recently launched project in which the public is encouraged to document Tony Smith artworks in Wikipedia.
- On August 13, Dominic gave an hour and a half-long talk at the Library of Congress, attended primarily by staff, titled "Cultural Institutions and Wikipedia: a Mutually Beneficial Relationship". The presentation sought to provide a broad overview of past experiences and possibilities for GLAM collaborations. The invitation was facilitated by Ed Summers, and Dominic was introduced by Kristin Anderson, both Wikimedians and LOC staff members.
