GLAM/Newsletter/March 2012/Contents/USA report
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Latest Wikipedian in Residence at Smithsonian; paid Wikipedian in Residence positions listed
Wikipedian in Residence at Smithsonian Archives
The Smithsonian Archives announced Sarah Stierch as their Spring 2012 Wikipedian in Residence (press release) from March to June. Stierch previously served as the first Wikipedian in Residence at the Smithsonian's Archives of American Art last year, and takes on the position while completing her Master's degree in Museum Studies, and serving as a Wikimedia Fellow.
Stierch kicked off the residency by hosting an edit-a-thon, “She Blinded Me with Science,” held Saturday, March 30th. The to-do list for the event provides a window into the kind of content the Archives can offer, and lists some of the article improvements from the edit-a-thon.
Wikipedian in Residence opportunities
Two paid opportunities for Wikipedians in Residence were posted in March, by non-profits Consumer Reports and the Online Computer Library Center (OCLC). OCLC serves libraries, with offerings like the well-known WorldCat catalog; Consumer Reports publishes the eponymous magazine, among other services to provide useful, unbiased information to consumers. Because neither organization exactly fits the "GLAM" designation, these opportunities reflect an exciting expansion of the Wikipedian in Residence concept to encompass other kinds of organizations that share Wikimedia's core values. (Wikimedia Australia has also been breaking ground in this area, engaging with organizations like the Australian Paralympic Committee.)
Read more about both positions on the Wiki Strategies blog, or go straight to the listings at Consumer Reports (based in Yonkers, New York) or OCLC (based in San Mateo, California).
New partnerships with Indianapolis organizations
In mid-March, The Indiana State Library and Historical Bureau hosted US Cultural Partnerships Coordinator Lori Phillips for a Research Roundtable about Wikipedia. A cooperative project is now in the works that will utilize the cultural research that goes into the creation of the state’s historic markers. A unique community initiative is being discussed that will solicit feedback from the Wikipedia community for updates to the existing historic markers; this potential project would be further supported through the use of QRpedia codes.
A second Indianapolis historical institution, the Indiana Historical Society, has also embarked on a new GLAM collaboration. In early March Lori Phillips met with the newly titled Wikipedian of the Society, who is also the former Director of Education for IHS. Together they discussed methods for the long-term cooperation with Wikimedia that this position will support. The core goal of the project is to cooperate with the Wikimedia community in order to distribute the IHS's abundance of digitized and on-site resources throughout the encyclopedia. The Wikipedian of the Society will also be on hand to take requests for information that can be found within the institution's vast archives. Further details on this cooperative effort will be available as this ongoing project progresses.
Children's Museum begins "Wikipedia Image of the Week" series
In an effort to bring awareness to collections images uploaded to Commons, The Children's Museum of Indianapolis has begun a blog series titled "The Wikipedia Image of the Week." The concept was inspired by the "Open Access File of the Day" series managed by Wikipedian in Residence on Open Science Daniel Mietchen. Through this blog series, curators provide further contextual information that can be used to knowledgeably distribute the images throughout Wikipedia. In addition to sharing the museum's Wikipedia collaboration, the blog challenges the online community to think of articles that the images belong in.
US Cultural Partnerships report
In addition to work mentioned throughout the This Month in GLAM report, additional work by the US Cultural Partnerships coordinator included...
- In early March, a guest talk was given to Andrew Lih’s USC Online Journalism Seminar discussing the role of citizen curation and cultural narratives in Wikipedia and museums.
- Assistance has been provided to a number of cultural institutions, including the Birmingham Museum of Art. GLAM-Wiki volunteers will soon be facilitating an image donation with this art museum and library. Other partnerships are not yet public knowledge.
- Coordination continued for the American Association of Museums conference, Wikimania, and MuseumNext in Barcelona. The MuseumNext organizers requested a US delegate to be a part of a Wikipedia Lounge, an informal space for conference attendees to mingle with five Wikipedians from the five top-represented countries at the conference. A talk about QRpedia is also included in the program, to be led by Alex Hinojo with support from Lori Phillips.
- The GLAMcamp DC report was completed and is now available for review. It includes details on the planning process, the outcomes of the event, feedback from attendees, and lessons learned from the event's successes and challenges.
News in brief
- 56 GLAM proposals submitted to Wikimania. The Wikimedia movement's active engagement with the GLAM universe has grown at an astonishing pace since the first Wikipedian in Residence position was established in 2010. This year, the annual Wikimania conference will have a GLAM track; submissions closed this month, and there are 56 GLAM-related talks and panels being considered for inclusion. Browse the submissions and add your support to the ideas you like best.
- Updates to the GLAM:US portal. Updates have continued on the GLAM-Wiki US portal on the English Wikipedia. Cultural professionals and Wikipedians have updated the GLAM Connect page with information by state, individual GLAM contacts, and online and outreach Wikipedians available for assistance. If you're interested in assisting US-based cultural institutions, please add yourself to the list of volunteers!
- Wikipedian in Residence, QRpedia featured in the Technology in the Arts blog. Lori Phillips was interviewed for a two-part series in Carnegie Mellon University's Technology in the Arts blog, discussing the concept of Wikipedian in Residence and the role of QRpedia in the museum setting.
- Wikipedian in Residence panel ranked top pick for AAM conference. The Wikipedian in Residence panel at the American Association of Museums conference was listed among the top “futurist” picks by the Center for the Future of Museums.
- The volunteers of WikiProject Oregon have been active in outreach lately, exploring opportunities with the Oregon State Archives (OSA) and the Oregon Historical Society. Their crowning achievement this month: after some discussion revealed that the license applied by the OSA to the Oregon Historical County Records Guide was almost, but not quite, compatible with Wikimedia Commons policy, LittleMountain5 persuaded them to make a modification. Discussions have begun about a mass upload. See the discussion, or check out the photos that have been uploaded so far.
- A very Wikipedian March for Simmons College library students. In March, the NARA Wikipedian in Residence, and current student at the Simmons College Graduate School of Library and Information Science, Dominic McDevitt-Parks hosted two events on campus.
- On March 13, he gave an informal talk and question-and-answer session in front of other students.
- March 27 saw local Boston Wikipedians and a few GSLIS students come together for a Women's History Month editathon ([1]). Outcomes included 8 new or expanded articles, including first edits by new contributors.
Both events were hosted with help from the Student Chapter of the Society for American Archivists and co-chairs Amanda Strauss and Camille Torres, and Wikimedia NYC helped fund the editathon.
- Wikipedian in Residence speaks at the New England Archivists spring conference. Dominic McDevitt-Parks served on a panel about various publishing methods available to archives, from the traditional to the unconventional. His talk addressed how "to leverage the power of Wikipedia and Wikimedia to provide wide access to archival materials" (session descriptions). At least one tweeter in the audience was a fan of the idea.
- GLAM-Wiki social media takes off. Don't forget to follow the GLAM-Wiki US Facebook page and the @glamwiki Twitter, which serves the global GLAM-Wiki community.
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