GLAM/Newsletter/June 2017/Contents/USA report

This Month in GLAM – Volume VII, Issue VI, June 2017

USA report

June is bustin' out all over

In the News

User:Ser Amantio di Nicola was named as one of "The 25 Most Influential People on the Internet," by Time Magazine.
Susan Barnum, of the El Paso Public Library, was interviewed in "Librarians Who Wikipedia:"

AfroCROWD at the Allied Media Conference

AfroCROWD held a meetup at the Allied Media Conference, in Detroit Michigan, June 18, 2017. Afrocrowd/AMC

Smithsonian Wikidata Training

Andrew Lih and Wikimedia DC sponsored a Wikidata training session for the Smithsonian Institution on June 29, 2017. The noontime lunch was sponsored by Wikimedia DC at the Smithsonian Institution's offices and had more than 30 participants from the Smithsonian, National Archives and other DC-based entities. Andrew walked through the basics of Wikidata, SPARQL and example projects previously discussed with the Library of Congress earlier in 2017. The hands-on training consisted of updating Wikidata items related to individual Smithsonian museums and entities.

Slides and video of the session are available.

Oak Spring Garden Foundation Edit-a-thon

Wikimedia DC and the Oak Spring Garden Foundation held an Oak Spring Garden Foundation Edit-a-thon, in Upperville, Virginia on June 30, 2017. Oak Spring Garden was the home of Rachel Lambert Mellon, an accomplished gardener and collector. The Foundation maintains Mrs. Mellon's extensive library of botanical illustrations and related biographies. Attendees used available reference materials to improve articles associated with women botanists and botanical illustrators.

Wiki Loves Pride 2017

Wikipedia LGBT, Wikimedia NYC, Black Lunch Table, and the Museum of Modern Art held Wiki Loves Pride 2017, on June 22, 2017.

Wikiconference North America proposals open

Wikiconference North America, which is scheduled on August 9-10, 2017, in Montreal, as a pre-conference to Wikimania 2017, is open for talks and panel proposals.
Wikimedia NYC has organized Wikimania Takes Manhattan II, a scenic train trip, to Montreal, prior to Wikimania.

Proposed GLAM user group

There is a user group for GLAM forming, Wikimedia GLAM User Group

Contests

The Met Open Access Artworks Challenge is over; collect your prizes.
The Connected Open Heritage Challenge has begun; edit often, win prizes.

Wikipedia + Libraries Project Updates - ALA in Chicago, Survey, and Recruiting Volunteers

Wikipedia + Libraries is at the WMF grant midpoint (but only a third of the way through the project).

The project team attended the American Library Association annual conference this year in Chicago. Successes include:

* Increased visibility of existing library involvements in Wikipedia at ALA Monika Sengul-Jones presented at an ALA Conversation Starter, the OCLC Research update, and a LearnRT for library staff trainers. The conversation starter "Leveraging Wikipedia for Libraries" was well attended. Speakers included Theresa Embrey (Chief Librarian at the Pritzker Military Museum & Library), Scott Walter (University Librarian at DePaul University) and Aaron Shaw (Assistant Professor of Communication Studies at Northwestern University and a Faculty Associate of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society, moderator and respondent). Panel emphasized that success with Wikipedia has special meaning for libraries: panelists successes included reaching new audiences for their collections, improving reliability on the internet (#1lib1ref was mentioned more than once), staff training, WIR positions and internships scaffold meaningful engagement, and libraries as institutions need strategies and staff buy-in in order to learn Wikipedia's organizational culture. Embrey highlighted ways the Pritzker uses page views driven by Wikipedia editing to measure outcomes and recently published an article about her successes. Walter described the variety of ways Wikipedia has been a part of the DePaul library community, including recent successes with the Wikipedian in Residence Cassandra DellaCorte. These presentations all made visible that libraries have been involved in Wikipedia for years, and modeled what other libraries can do.

* "Yes,I <3 Wikipedia!" Librarians at ALA say they read -- and <3 -- Wikipedia. In general, audience reception and informal conversations were positive. Most attendees the WIR spoke with (unscientific tally = 100+) were curious and enthusiastic about Wikipedia. Some were open that they had tried editing before, and were not successful. There were multiple requests for training and community-building specific to k-12 libraries and higher ed libraries. Questions included: What is GLAM? What is WikiED (does it have resources for university librarians or K-12 libraries). How does Wikipedia protect editors in cases of harassment? This interest suggests the time is right for more tailored training programs for all the different fields of librarianship.

Survey about Wikipedia for library staff

GLAMs, spread the word: the Wikipedia + Libraries team is conducting a short bench-marking survey. Open through the end of July. The main purpose of the survey is to help guide the curriculum design. At ALA, 70 surveys were administered! [Citation needed] stickers were given to respondents at ALA and will be mailed to respondents upon request - email jonesm at oclc dot org for details. Results will be shared with the project evaluation.

Librarians Who Wikipedia feature series continues

Hip hip hooray Susan Barnum! Know a librarian who Wikipedias? Sengul-Jones continues interviews.

Seeking volunteers for WebJunction online training program

GLAMs, are you interested in collaborating and sharing what you've learned about Wikipedia with public library staff? The Wikipedia + Libraries project team is seeking volunteers to be on hand to field questions, shepherd small groups through electives/special topics in Wikipedia editing culture, and more. The course will run between Sept. 13 - Nov. 15. Email jonesm at oclc dot org for details.

Technical Code of Conduct

A code of conduct for Wikimedia technical spaces community policy is now in effect for Wikimedia technical events, presentations, and virtual spaces. Other projects are encouraged to "adopt and adapt" the code. See discussion at Technical Code of Conduct in The Citation, a volunteer newsletter digest that also summarizes Wikimedia-related news inside and outside the movement.

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