GLAM/Newsletter/September 2012/Contents/USA report
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Cooper-Hewitt collections database links to Wikipedia; brief news
Cooper-Hewitt collections database
The Smithsonian's Cooper-Hewitt, which recently released its metadata under Creative Commons Zero, has now unveiled their new alpha-version collection database. It includes links out to Wikipedia and also pulls Wikipedia content into the collection entry.
For example, you can check out all of the people (artists, designers, etc.) that are in the Cooper-Hewitt’s collection who have a Wikipedia article about them here. When that Wikipedia content is improved, it’s updated on the Cooper-Hewitt’s collection page as soon as the team at Cooper-Hewitt Labs runs a bot (which they intend to run on a weekly basis.)
Read more at Sarah Stierch's blog post at us.glamwiki.org (from which this text was adapted).
NARA weighs in on COI
Inspired by the recent controversy surrounding Gibraltarpedia related to conflict of interest, Dominic McDevitt-Parks took to the US National Archives' own blog to weigh in on how NARA approaches the issue. He discusses how he worked with NARA to develop internal guidelines for editing which stress that staff edit Wikipedia to enhance public knowledge of and exposure to collections. Wikipedia should be viewed as part of the archival process, rather than a concern of public affairs departments. NARA's guidelines have been published on Wikipedia, and they are in the process of becoming official NARA policy. It is hoped that such transparency will help maintain the goodwill of the Wikimedia community towards GLAM projects.
News in brief
- GLAM Bootcamp US planning is underway. The US National Archives has provisionally agreed to serve as a venue for the event, planned for early next year. The concept was presented at the Oct. 6 Wikimedia DC board meeting, and the chapter agreed to assist in funding and logistics for a GLAM Bootcamp. Discussion is taking place on the mailing list.
