Wikipedian-in-Residence at the

Metropolitan New York Library Council

Thoughts on scaling local GLAM

initiatives

Dorothy Howard, New York, NY

Twitter @DorothyR_Howard

<dorohoward {@} gmail.com>

#glamwiki

Friday April 10, 2015 15:30

Multi-Institutional Residency

“Open Data Fellowship” – allow flexibility in the job description

Consortium offers Wikipedia special projects and expertise as a member-service at library organizations

Other potential models

• Higher educational social science research groups

• National health or science institutes

• “Co-host” a Wikipedian-in-Residence among a few institutions

Metaphors: Wikipedian-in-Residence

as Switchboard

• Role as a resource communicator

• Compile a global resource directly for different potential interest among your target audience – i.e. WMF contacts, WikiData, sister-projects

Wikipedian-in-Residence

as Advocate

• Emphasis on changing institutional culture also requires re-conceiving of information as political – Anti-surveillance / Right to privacy

– Opening up government data / open-data initiatives

– Fostering more programming academies / makerspaces / hackerspaces, places for creative collaboration

– “Gender Gap” and multicultural gaps cut across related projects

• Resident as vocal advocate and communicator for other open-access projects

• Emphasize writing and media component of the position – hire someone with experience working with the press

Local demands: New York

• “Too much interest” problem

• Local Chapter capacity

• Growing interest in WikiData and data projects

– finding the right expertise

• Manage stakeholder’s expectations

• 1 staff person is trained at each institution

• Wingspan / “plant the seeds”

• Focus on small scale donations / changing

institutional culture

• Maintain a presence at relevant local conferences

• Virality as a goal

• To do differently: Edit-a-thons were strong focus

but potentially not best way to begin engagement

Our scale and goals:

Some outcomes

• 9 institutional consultations in the past 6 months –over 30 in past 20 months.

• 15 Edit-a-thons held over past 20 months – 5 in the last 6 months.

• Wikipedia webcast series

• Best-practices materials for libraries

• Small scale image donations

• Wikimedia PEG Grant for event funds and technology, printed materials

• Press coverage in some of the major U.S. publications

– 60 minutes, the New York Times, the Huffington Post, Colorlines

Engaging Institutions

• Barnard College

• The Center for Jewish History

• Columbia University Libraries

• The Frick Collection

• The Guggenheim Museum

• The Józef Piłsudski Institute of America

• The New York Public Library

• Pratt Institute School of Information and Library Science

• Southeastern NY Libraries Resources Council

• Thomas J. Watson Library

• Queens Library

• Westchester County Library System

• And more!

Gugg-a-thon Museum Architecture

Edit-a-thon / October, 2014

Strategies

Compile training materials relevant to

your specific audience

• Put local directory of editing resources specific to audience on your GLAM page or a sister-project page

• Create a packet of current research on Wikipedia

GLAM Resources Annotated Bibliography(in progress)

• https://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/GLAM_consortium_meeting_agenda_ideas,_2015/GLAM-US_Resources_Annotated_Bibliography

Strategies for working with

multiple institutions

• Never underestimate the power of one-on-one

meetings

• Keep up-to-date on recent Wikipedia research

and editor statistics

• Personal tone makes a huge difference

* Not all institutions will want a staff t

Make or break: The institutional pitch

• Standard format for initial engagement

– One-pager with basic information about local WP

activities

– Standardized Edit-a-thon “packet”

– Report of institution’s current coverage

• Show them a few Wikipedia pages of items

they hold

• Follow up the next day with a list of links to

things you’ve talked to

Staff trainings

• “Train-the-Trainers”

• Regularity / monthly

hub

• Staff from any

department participate

• Have the point person

at the institution help

run the training

• Take group photos!

Planning for “virality”

• WikiData and DBPediaWorkshop for librarians Growing interest among libraries for structured Data sets

• #BlackLivesMatterWikipedia Edit-a-thon Be in touch with the channels and trends of your local media environment

Virality: What we achieved

#BlackLivesMatter Wikipedia Edit-a-thon • Cassano, Jay. "Black History Matters so why is Wikipedia Missing so Much of it." FastCompany.

January 29, 2015.

• Solis, Gustavo. "Schomburg Center Hosts Wikipedia Edit-a-Thon for Articles on Black Culture."

DNAInfo. January 30, 2015.

• Gebreyes, Rahel. "Wikipedia Edit-A-Thon Reinforces The Value Of Digitizing Black History,"

Huffington Post Blackvoices. February 2, 2015.

• Lewis, Taylor. "Wikipedia Is Getting a Lesson in Black History." Essence.com

• Noisette, Thierry. "Un éditathon pour rédiger des pages Wikipédia sur la culture noire." Rue89.

February 04, 2015.

• Mccalister, Jared. "BLACK HISTORY MONTH 2015 : New York celebrates African-American

culture and heritage with an abundance of events." NYDaily News. February 05, 2015.

• Murphy, Carla. Can ‘Black Wikipedia’ Take Off Like ‘Black Twitter’?. Colorlines. February 14, 2015.

• Allen, Jessica. "Best eating and drinking events this weekend." CBS Local. February 6, 2015.

• "Participate in an Edit-a-thon Observing Black Wiki History Month." Ethnic Studies, University of

Utah.

• Gedeon, Kimberly. “Where are the Black Pioneers on Wikipedia? A Black History Edit-a-thon will

fill in the gaps.” January 30, 2015

• The Root. February 2, 2015.

Press: #BlackLivesMatter Wikipedia Edit-a-thon

Link to Video:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/02/02/wikipedia-edit-a-thon-black-history_n_6598974.html?1422916989=&utm_hp_ref=black-voices&m=true

Tip: Target diverse media outlets

Set up mini “Wikipedians-in-Residence”

among current institutional volunteers

• Re-train existing institutional volunteers

• University-sponsored Wikipedia internships

– EX: Jozef Pilsudski Institute of America

• Partnership with NYU History PhD program

• Wikipedians in Residence (1) Piotr Puchalsk, Adam

Granatowski, Lukasz chelminski, Adam Staszczuck.

• What I would re-do: Work to get these students

university credit for Residencies

What’s next?

• Transitioning out of my role as Wikipedian-

in-Residence

GLAM-Wiki U.S. Consortium

• Creating standard materials for new

Wikipedians-in-Residence “orientation

packet”

• Edit-a-thon in a box

• Annotated bibliography

Thank you

Dorothy Howard, New York, NY

Twitter: @DorothyR_Howard

<dorohoward {@} gmail.com

#glamwiki

Friday April 10, 2015 15:30