Wikipedia:GLAM/NLS/4thMonth Report

Institution Resident's Name Period Covered Date of Report
National Library of Scotland Ally Crockford 8 October 2013 - 8 November (Fourth month of residency) 14 November 2013

Projects delivered edit

Metrics edit

Accounts Created

14 new accounts created during 2 training events and 1 edit-a-thon, of which approximately 60% users are female. Usernames of new accounts:

Objectives and outcomes edit

National Library of Scotland's Mission Wikimedia UK's Mission
Enrich lives and communities.
Encourage and promote lifelong learning, research, and scholarship.
Provide universal access to information by comprehensively collecting and making available the recorded knowledge of Scotland.
Promote access to the ideas and cultures of the world.
To help people and organisations build and preserve open knowledge, to share and use freely.

Public outreach edit

Objective: Delivery of 3+ public workshops for editors (i.e. edit-a-thons); help organise and host other Wikimedia related events for members of the public, Wikimedians, researchers and librarians such as workshops, Edit-athons, meetups, backstage pass tours

4th Month Outcomes:
  • The public edit-a-thon on Early Photography in Scotland had to be rescheduled from 19 October to 2 November due to illness; unfortunately, the change in schedule meant that most of the participants were unable to attend the new time, and so the event was converted to a drop-in Wiki&Biccy session. An alternate collaborative edit-a-thon is now being discussed with the University of Edinburgh's PhotoSoc (Photographic Society)
  • A number of public events and outreach events have been recently proposed or are in the early stages of being organised. There are also a number of confirmed outreach events upcoming in the new year or later in 2014 (see table for details).
  • A number of Scot Wiki events have also been put in motion by User:Graeme Arnott, in particular around the Glasgow area, including an edit-a-thon on Scottish Women Bookbinders to correspond with the National Library of Scotland's Elizabeth Soutar Bookbinding Competition awards ceremony in January/February 2014, as well as a possible event at the Mitchell Library in Glasgow and one with media studies students at the University of West Scotland, Ayr campus.
  • User:ACrockford and User:Graeme Arnott have also been asked to jointly present an online Wikimedia and libraries information session to CILIP's Multimedia Information and Technology Group (MmIT); prospective date is currently February.
Known or Prospective Date Event Name or Description Host or Partner Organisation Scope of event or talk
16 November 2013 Women on Wikipedia Edit-a-thon Glasgow Women's Library (organised by User:Graeme Arnott) To improve content about significant women on Wikipedia using GWL resources, but also to introduce a new audience of women to the experience of contributing to Wikipedia.
21 November 2013 #OpenDataEdinburgh OKFN Scotland WiR should be able to attend to make further connections, discuss events upcoming in the new year, and hopefully get some new sign-ups for the mailing list.
30 November 2013 Book Week Scotland 2013: Wikipedia in your Hands National Library of Scotland, Scottish Book Trust Family-based event; groups given brief introduction to editing, then compete to contribute a piece of new and interesting knowledge from the NLS's reference works to a WP article found using 'random article' within the time given; best contribution wins chocolate/ gift card. As contributions will be from NLS IP address, edit summaries for all contributions will be the same to allow tracking and identification.
1 December 2013 Glasgow meetup/3 (organised by User:Graeme Arnott) Location TBC The usual.
late January 2014 Anybody But Burns Edit-a-thon National Library of Scotland, Scottish Poetry Library (organised by User:Graeme Arnott, User:ACrockford, and User:Lee Bunce) In anticipation of Burns Night (or shortly after), an edit-a-thon focusing on Scottish poets will aim to improve the profile of any significant Scottish poet who isn't Robert Burns.
late January, early February 2014 'Wha's Like Us' Backstage Pass event(s) National Library of Scotland As part of the NLS's Winter exhibition, 'Wha's Like Us: A Nation of Dreams and Ideas', which also corresponds with Scottish Homecoming in 2014, a backstage pass will focus on adding content on Scotland's people, history, and culture drawn from the remit of the exhibit itself.
mid-February 2014 Scottish Women Bookbinders Edit-a-thon Glasgow School of Art Library (organised by User:Graeme Arnott) Taking advantage of the NLS's Elizabeth Soutar Bookbinding Competition, which announces its awards on 21 February 2014, the Glasgow School of Art Library would like to hold an edit-a-thon focusing on Scottish women bookbinders. They have expressed an interest in uploading both content and images from their archives, which cover the topic extensively. The NLS has also discussed contacting previous Soutar award winners to see whether images of their work could be released as well.
February 2014 Wikimedia & Libraries Information session (by User:Graeme Arnott and User:ACrockford) CILIPS MmIT General introduction to Wikimedia, background to GLAM:Wiki collaborations, details about NLS WiR programme, ScotWiki network of volunteers, aims and goals, specific examples of successful projects, etc.
February 2014 Wikipedia Training Capture session (by User:ACrockford) Jisc Scotland, CILIPS MmIT? Following from the Jisc 'Tales of a Wikimedian in Residence' webinar and the forthcoming CILIPS MmIT online info session, Adobe capture would be used to provide a simple but thorough introduction to contributing to Wikipedia for Librarians and FE/HE educators. This would be released under CC-BY-SA license and uploaded to Commons, and also made available by Jisc as a wider learning resource for educators.
27-27 February 2014 EDGE Conference 2013 Wikimedian in Residence talk (by User:ACrockford) Edinburgh Central Libraries Discussing the potential benefits to GLAM and other organisations of collaborating with Wikimedia projects; focusing on increasing awareness and impact, sharing knowledge/resources, opening up to new audiences; case studies from GLAM:Wiki Collaborations at NLS and elsewhere; etc. Audience will consist of representative from a wide range of GLAM organisations as well as the political, health, educational, and corporate sectors.
March 2014 'The Women Who Shaped Scotland' Series National Library of Scotland, Museums Glasgow?, Museums Galleries Scotland? University of Edinburgh PhotoSoc? + Series of edit-a-thons and other events will look to improve information on women in medicine, women artists, women in literature, women photographers, women in politics etc., focusing on Scotland.
19 March 2014 Stirling University Wiki event University of Stirling (organised by Greg Singh) Raise awareness of Wikimedia projects amongst students/researchers/staff at University of Stirling - User:ACrockford will be delivering a talk.
April/May 2014 EduWiki symposium - Venue TBC (Edinburgh, Dundee, Stirling?) Wikimedia UK etc. It has been (informally) suggested that a one-day symposium to be held in Scotland will replace the EduWiki conference since WikiMania will be in London in 2014.
June 23-24 2014 Library Science Talks 2014: Wikimedians in the Library CERN Library, Swiss National Library Swiss National Library in Bern, the CERN Scientific Information Service in Geneva and the Association of International Librarians and Information Specialists organise an annual series of 'Library Science Talks'. Talk would bring together international and Swiss Wikimedians as well as Librarians to discuss the Wikimedian in Residence programme: possibilities, benefits, difficulties, experiences.

Staff workshops and events edit

Objective: Organise and host workshops for Library staff to explain how they can directly contribute their knowledge and expertise to develop Wikipedia articles; deliver 7+ workshops for National Library of Scotland staff and researchers or related institutions

4th Month Outcomes:
  • Two training events were held for staff in October, with 7 attendees overall. Three more are planned for November, two in Lawnmarket and one in Causewayside - the training events appear to be gathering more interest so the hope is to organise them more frequently (outwith the holidays) to build on this.
  • Met with NLS's Events & Outreach team (officially) to discuss Wikimedia events, in particular the Women Who Shaped Scotland series and the 'Wha's Like Us' backstage pass event(s).
  • Held staff edit-a-thon 'Forgotten Places and Absent Faces' on 5 Novemeber; over the course of the day approximately there were approximately 8 attendees, of which 6 were women. Six users created new accounts, including 5 women. Due to staff workload and time constraints, contributions beyond training were unfortunately minimal, although 50% of participants expressed an interest in future editing events.

Contributor communities edit

Objective: Help establish relationships with the Scottish Wikimedia community, editors and projects

4th Month Outcomes:
  • Organised first Edinburgh Wikimeet since 2011; six Wikimedians attended and there was interest from others who were unable to attend. Plans were discussed to alternate Scottish meetups between Glasgow and Edinburgh for the time being, with the next to be held in Glasgow in early December (unless it would make more sense to conflate this with the board's trip).
  • Launch of the ScotWiki mailing list in late October; list currently has 28 members and will be promoted at all future events and outreach initiatives.

Material for future digitisation edit

Objective: Explore adding digital resources such as digitised books, articles, photographs and posters to Wikimedia Commons; work with staff, including librarians and curators, to identify areas of Wikipedia and sister projects that could be enriched with resources and knowledge from the Library’s collections

4th Month Outcomes:
  • Conversations with the NLS's Digital Access Manager and Head of Access indicate progress on the initiative to release all of the images uploaded to the NLS's Flickr account to Wikimedia Commons under a CC-BY-SA license, as part of a trial to demonstrate the positive impact of an open access policy currently under consideration.