GLAM/Newsletter/February 2012/Contents/USA report

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

USA report

GLAMcamp DC, Princeton Edit-a-Thon, new social media

GLAMcamp DC

Wikimedians and cultural professionals from across North America and the world met at GLAMcamp DC in Washington DC to build a foundation for US efforts in GLAM. Hosted by the National Archives and Records Administration, this tightly-coordinated camp focused on serving the increased appetite for Wikipedia engagement among GLAM organizations and institutions across the US and North America. Work focused on two main areas:

1. Outreach

To ensure that reaching out to GLAM organizations was as easy as possible, several Wikimedians contributed case studies and presentations (targeting both museum professionals and Wikimedians interested in outreach) to the GLAM-US Bookshelf.
To ensure that GLAM organizations could find us without difficulty, participants redesigned the Wikipedia GLAM portal page for the US to make it attractive and informative for people new to GLAM. Museum professionals, Wikipedians interested in GLAM, and other interested parties will be able to find each other on the Connect page.
One of the key outcomes of the camp was a two-sided handout aimed at museum professionals, to be distributed as a brochure at events.

2. Technical projects

The need for an easy-to-use bulk uploader was keenly felt at the start of the camp. The Walters Art Museum stepped up as the first cultural organization to directly work with Wikimedians to develop a documented process for uploading images to the Commons. An ongoing project to upload the Walters collections to the Wikimedia Commons is documenting effective practices and producing improved tools, to simplify bulk uploading for other GLAMs around in the world.
The Wikipedia citation tool was developed as a web browser extension that allows users to obtain a citation from any online MARC library catalog, and in that specific language version of Wikipedia.

Outreach basics & networking

In addition to documentation and tool development, GLAMcamp also included a GLAM Outreach Basics orientation that introduced all participants to current practices in GLAM cooperative projects. Participants also had the opportunity to attend multiple networking events and tours of local institutions, including the National Archives itself. GLAMcamp attendees went on a private tour of the Archives rotunda and the stacks, as well as guided tours of the Smithsonian American Art Museum Luce Center and Lunder Conservation Center. Creative Commons hosted a GLAM-Wiki meetup at Chinatown Coffee, providing an opportunity for participants to meet local GLAM professionals and museum studies students interested in their work.

The conference was organized by Lori Byrd Phillips (in her second month as US Cultural Partnerships Coordinator), Sarah Stierch, and Pete Forsyth, and was funded by a grant from the Wikimedia Grants program.

Princeton's Mudd Library Edit-a-Thon

On Saturday, 18 February 2012, a group of sixteen enthusiastic volunteers—including Princeton University undergraduates, Wikipedians from Wikimedia New York City, Princeton community members, and Mudd Library staff—gathered for an edit-a-thon at Princeton University’s Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library. GLAMcamp DC attendee and technical services student worker Q Miceli organized the event. The goal was to write and update Wikipedia articles about Princeton University. Q also created an edit-a-thon how-to after organizing this event.

By the numbers, there were 16 attendees, six usernames created, four articles created, and nine articles expanded. Mudd Library is considering hosting another edit-a-thon around Princeton’s Reunions in late May. Feedback from University Library staff has been favorable, and participants and Princeton alumni who could not attend were eager to be notified if another edit-a-thon occurred.

US Cultural Partnerships report

While the majority of the month was spent preparing for and carrying out GLAMcamp DC (see above), other work carried out by the US Cultural Partnerships Coordinator included:

A consolidated master list of GLAM contacts was further compiled at GLAMcamp DC, which is now maintained by a small “GLAM Contacts Committee” that is made up of volunteers representing regions across the US.
Ongoing follow-up on leads and interest from GLAM institutions.
Coordination has continued for upcoming conferences including the American Association of Museums (Minneapolis, May), Communicating the Museum (New York City, June), and Association of Midwest Museums (Indianapolis, July), in addition to Wikimania.
Coordination talks between local museum technology contacts and Europeana, who will be collaborating on GLAM tools over the coming year.
Upcoming blogging interviews will include the Library of Congress blog and the Technology in the Arts blog.

News in brief

GLAM-Wiki hits social media. The GLAM-Wiki US community now has a Facebook group that will share US-based GLAM-Wiki news and resources for both Wikipedians and cultural professionals. This is in addition to the now active @glamwiki Twitter account, which represents the project as a whole.
GLAM gets a shout out on National Public Radio In a news story titled Truth and the World of Wikipedia Gatekeepers, the GLAM initiative and GLAMcamp were mentioned live on the National Public Radio (NPR) program Talk of the Nation regarding the recent debate on "Undue Weight of Truth in Wikipedia." In an interview alongside Wikimedia Foundation community organizer Steven Walling, Wikipedia author, journalist, and commentator Andrew Lih pointed to the GLAM movement as one potential answer to issues surrounding scholarly contributions to Wikipedia.
Minneapolis Central Library holds first successful Edit-a-Thon The Minneapolis Central Library was covered by news stories in the Star Tribune and in the Twin Cities Daily Planet, detailing its first Edit-a-Thon on Minneapolis history.
US Cultural Partnerships Fellow Lori Phillip's second feature at the Center for the Future of Museums In her second guest post for the Center for the Future of Museums blog, Lori Phillips had an opportunity to discuss the role of Wikipedia as a platform for museums to more broadly engage community discourse in an article titled Open Authority and the Future of Museum Ethics.
GLAM-Wikipedian Gaurav Vaidya writes first post about collaboration and museum archives for Center for the Future of Museums Also on the Center for the Future of Museums blog, GLAMcamp DC attendee Gaurav Vaidya co-wrote a post titled, The Curator of Collaboration: Experiments in Mobilizing Museum Archives. The post describes a transcription/annotation project on biologists' field notebooks at the University of Colorado Museum of Natural History. Searching for a platform on which to share and improve their transcriptions and annotations, they settled on Wikisource; side-by-side transcription and easy-to-extend Mediawiki templates were a huge help in annotating their content. They are now reaching out to the community for further help.
WikiWomen's History Month is being celebrated in conjunction with Women's History Month in March. GLAMs around United States are collaborating with Wikipedians to develop content online through offline events, including the Smithsonian Archives. Learn more about getting involved here.