GLAM/Newsletter/December 2013/Contents/USA report
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University of Colorado Museum of Natural History; GLAM-Wiki in New York City
Backstage Pass at the CUMNH
On December 14, Wikimedians were invited to a Backstage Pass tour of the invertebrate collections of the University of Colorado Museum of Natural History in Boulder, Colorado. Six participants were given a tour of the wet and dry collections given by Collections Manager Heather Robeson, and were provided with several boxes of specimens from the teaching collections to photograph. Despite some limitations in the photographic resources available, we took several hundred photographs, which are being uploaded to the Wikimedians at the CUMNH 2013 category on the Wikimedia Commons. The event was generally a success, and we hope to organize similar events with the museum in 2014. You can read feedback from the event on the event page itself.
Wikimedians at the CUMNH for a Backstage Pass tour
A box from the CUMNH Invertebrate teaching collections
GLAM-Wiki Updates in NYC
New York GLAM-Wikipedians were busy in the month of December. On December 6th, the Queens Library Central Branch held its first Wikipedia Edit-a-Thon, which was attended by over 20 participants. Participants made use of materials from the Queens Archive, adding citations to rare books, articles, and ephemera to pre-existing Wikipedia pages. Librarians gathered research materials from the Archive on flash drives and provided paper research files so that participants could be helped with the research and citation finding that is necessary to write Wikipedia articles.
Dorothy Howard continues at METRO as Wikipedian-in-Residence and has been working with Wikimedia NYC on hosting staff trainings and advising GLAM projects using Wikipedia. In December a staff Wikipedia editing training was held at NYPL Mid-Manhattan Library and the Center for Jewish History started up its own Wikipedia subcommittee. Lane Rasberry also continues his WiR Residency at Consumer Reports in Yonkers, NYC.
The Metropolitan Museum's Thomas J. Watson Library also continues its institutional editing activities. Last month it created an article for the Brummer Gallery because it recently digitized over 13,000 Brummer Gallery records. The Watson has also most recently edited articles and added citations on the Apocalypse, African art pages and Japanese art pages. With the help of METRO, The Frick Art Reference Library's GLAM WikiProject jump started by completing six articles as part of the 'Propose and Article' project, including entries for the Bignou Gallery and Joseph Whiting Stock. The Frick created an article on Westmoreland, the private railroad car of Henry Clay Frick; illustrated articles with Frick images uploaded to Wikimedia Commons; and linked relevant Gilded Age articles to Gilding the Gilded Age content.
Coming up, Wikimedia NYC is organizing a Harlem Renaissance Edit-a-Thon at NYPL’s Harlem Library at 9 W. 124th St. in the coming month (date to be announced). Librarians from the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture will be in attendance, and the public will be invited. More information is available on the meetup page.
Wikimedia NYC and METRO, in conjunction with Eyebeam Art and Technology Center, will also host an Art + Feminism Edit-a-Thon at Eyebeam’s gallery space in Chelsea, New York on February 1st, 2014. The Edit-a-Thon will also be participated virtually by at least fifteen other groups from Toronto to Austin.
