GLAM/Newsletter/February 2012/Contents/Israel report

This Month in GLAM – Volume II, Issue II, February 2012

Israel report

GLAM:NLI Project Report, New GLAM-IL Collaborations, GLAM-IL Mailing List

GLAM:NLI Project

The past two months have been hectic and the National Library of Israel GLAM project has progressed quite a bit.
First, we finally have a project page in English, so the international community is invited to explore it and take part.
In this project, the National Library is sharing its resources and donating media, focusing on its portrait collection, manuscripts collection and map collection.

So far, about fifty rare photos from the portrait collection have been donated to commons and are being used to enrich existing articles as well as inspire the writing of new articles related to them.

Below is a brief report of the two events held at the National Library this February.

An Editing Workshop for the NLI Staff

On January 7th, about 25 staff members at the NLI participated in an editing workshop. The day began with a lecture by our Wikipedian in Residence, Daniel-Tzvi Framowitz, who introduced the basic rules of editing in wikipedia, using a visual demonstration.

The audience, though a bit sceptical at the beginning, soon became captivated and engaged. By the end of the lecture there was a lively dialogue between staff members our WIR - many questions [and concerns] were raised and answered. The lecture finally ended on a positive note, leaving the NLI staff with a new perspective on Wikipedia.

We reconvened for the second part of the workshop, a practical editing session, after a short break.
Each Staff member opened a wiki account and took his first steps in editing articles, guided by an experienced wikipedian.
We were very lucky to have about 8 editors from the community, so it was almost one-on-one tutoring.

It was amazing to witness NLI staff realizing how much they can contribute to wikipedia and making decisions on future articles they would like to write or edit. This is exactly what we wanted - bringing the curators and experts in their field to edit themselves.

And a personal anecdote to wrap this part with:

“

Serendipitously enough, while walking through the NLI staff asking who needs help, I came across a lady sitting next to us. Hearing my question, she raised her head, gazed at me with her big green eyes and asked, "What are you teaching here?" She turned out to be *not* NLI staff, of course, but a well-published university professor, who specializes in Israeli History. She joined the workshop and got a private lesson in editing, which she highly appreciated; it so happens that not only there is a wiki article about her that she has been wanting to updated for a long time and didn't know how to, but she uses wikipedia for research all the time and will now finally be able to correct all sorts of mistakes she finds along the way. After exchaning emails, she asked that I update her on coming events and even promised to send us a photo to add to her article!

”

That was the icing on the cake for me and the perfect closure to a successful workshop.

A "Behind the Scenes" Tour at the National Library

On February 8th, a day after the editing workshop, participants from all over Israel arrived at the National Library for a "Behind the Scene" tour.

This time we did something new - we have extended the invitation not only to Wikipedians. We included -

people from related fields, mainly librarians and volunteers of open-content projects [mostly the Ben-Yehuda project]
people from the public, who might be interested in wikipedia, the Library or both [via a short "site notice" message that appeared on the pages of Hebrew wikipedia a few days prior to the event].

Around 70 people signed in - 25 wikipedians, 30 from related fields and 20 from the general public.
60 actually came to the Library, which is great [although we believe more would have come, if it wasn't for a general strike in Israel that affected transportation that day].

The evening began at the Library music hall, were participants were personally greeted by Oren Weinberg, Director General of the National Library, Ido Ivri, Digital Programs Manager and the GLAM:NLI contact person, Galia Richler from the cartographic collection [who helped arrange the tour], our WIR and yours truly.

Greetings at the Music hall
Greetings at the Music hall

We then began the tour at the Library, which included 4 stops - for the first 3 stops we were divided into 2 groups that did the same route in the opposite direction and were re-united agian at the 4th stop.

1st stop - the Restoration & Preservation department, with Mrs. Timna Elper

We witnessed various restoration and preservation techniques the library is using and have come in contact with rare books that have been damaged and restored.

Mrs. Elper lectures, near the restoration lab
the Frankfurt Jewish community Pinkas haKehila that has been recently acquired and awaits preservation
a rare manuscript from the w:Cairo Geniza awaiting preservation

2nd stop - the Storage & Logistics department, with Mr. Moshe Kener & Oren Weinberg

After learning about restoration and preservation, we moved to the storage rooms, which are never* opened to anyone (not even VIPs).
One group received an explanation about the storage rooms.

Oren Weinberg explains about the storage rooms
Moshe Kener explains about working at the storage rooms
Moshe Kener explains about working at the storage rooms

3rd stop - the Israel Collection, with its curator, Dr. Hezi Amiur

Back at the Music hall, we have met with Dr. Hezi Amiur, who explain about the library's special collections, specifically the manuscripts collection and the ephemera collection.

Dr. Amiur lectures about the library's collections
Examples from the Ephemera collection
an example from the personal archive of w:Uri Zvi Grinberg.
], along side the final book

4th stop - the Cartographic Collection, with Mrs. Galia Richler

Learning about the library's collections, we ended the tour that the Laor's Cartographic collection, which included books with maps along side old, rare maps.

Galia reveals old maps and scriptures
Galia reveals old maps and scriptures
Galia shows off the w:Tabula Peutingeriana
Galia reveals old maps and scriptures

The tour, which began at 17:30, finally ended at 20:30 with a group photo. All participants felt educated and inspired by the library's sources and almost all participants expressed their wish to continue their involvement with the project.

Newcomers from the general public were invited to the Edit-a-thon that will be help at the library on March 21st, in order to learn how to edit in Wikipedia.

New GLAM-IL Collaborations

In the past month we got a "green light" for three new collaborations with major GLAMs in Israel -

The Israel State Archive
University of Haifa's academic library
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs - the division for cultural & scientific affairs.

We are ecstatic and grateful, but mostly very excited about the overwhelming potential each and every project holds. Of course, now the hard work begins. We will be carefully defining the scope of each project during March, in order to make sure we can have a successful collaboration, so keep your fingers crossed for us & stay tuned!

GLAM-IL Mailing List

To help us better manage the growing GLAM activity in Israel, we have created a new GLAM-IL mailing list! The list will serve as a tool to

get updates on the progress of the various GLAM projects
get updates on GLAM-related events
keep in touch, especially with newcomers
share experiences, thoughts and ideas on improving GLAM in Israel
facilitate a strong and supportive community for Wiki/Art lovers in Israel.

The list will be opened to wikipedians, GLAMers, GLAMs and newcomers from the public, and will officially be announced to the Hebrew Wiki community at the beginning of March.

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