User:Bdcousineau/sandbox3

Background

Visitors to the East Grand Rapids History Room, during the East Grand Rapids Public Library's first Edit-a-thon and Backstage Pass event. From left: Mary Dersch (East Grand Rapids History Room curator) and James Draper (Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum Collections Manager). October 19, 2013.

The East Grand Rapids (EGR) Public Library (a branch of the Kent District Library) has a local history room. The space is located within the EGR library, but the building and historical artifacts are owned and maintained by the City of East Grand Rapids. Throughout the KDL system, this is the same model of ownership. The EGR local history room is staffed by a volunteer curator. Of note are some materials that relate to President Gerald Ford, who grew up in East Grand Rapids. Also of note is the lack of clear legal ownership status to the artifacts and historical materials.

Theory of Change

The theory of change is based on the availability of local history assets and local historians throughout the KDL district (and ultimately the state): let's get them together on Wikipedia! Events publicizing the variety of WMF projects serve to encourage local historians to consider Wikipedia as an appropriate outlet for their research/collections. While the local historians may only contribute about their specific interest, it is clear they are interested in "getting their word out there" - local history groups in the region have monthly meetings with historical presentations, local historians self-publish and publish in fan zines statewide, and there are conferences geared towards local history activities and initiatives.

The focus is two-fold - first, encourage local historians/curators to create/edit articles in their area of expertise, and second encourage them to donate appropriate files to Commons. It's the classic "chicken-and-egg": will the expanded articles encourage local historians to open/donate more image files, or will the donated image files encourage new articles/new editors?

Furthermore, as there is no active network of open content history repositories in the state, donations to Commons could become the basis for creating an OPEN online repository (big dreams!)

As the EGR Library explores participation in a variety of Wikimedia Foundation projects, the library district’s administrators have a safe, contained “petri dish” to watch and evaluate the experimentation before any larger commitment. It is our hope that the range of activities at the EGR Library will excite other local history/library groups to consider participating in Wikimedia Projects statewide. The EGR Local History Room was chosen as the model site for what could be developed in the other 9 history rooms in the library district.

Building momentum

In the past 6 months, a Wikipedia volunteer has taught editing/image uploading classes at 3 branches of the library district as part of the district’s computer learning curriculum. The classes have been sparsely attended, and editor retention is non-existent. Greater interest in Wikimedia Commons is clearly evident in the class participants.

Several libraries hosted meet-ups, but there no attendees besides the facilitator, Bdcousineau.

Edit-a-thons are a next step to introducing the community and library staff to Wikimedia Foundation projects. An edit-a-thon can enhance the library’s position in the community as an authoritative resource of local history materials and also as an outward facing community hub, emphasizing the library’s role as a lifelong learning environment.

Several Edit-a-thons are planned for 2014, and discussions are underway for a Wiki Loves Monuments project.

Additionally, a district-wide staff in-service introduction to Wikipedia is planned for November 2013.

The library district has allowed a staff member to partner with the Wikipedia volunteer in applying for library-related conference sessions to further publicize the library’s activities. Several conference proposals are pending (relating to the Edit-a-thon activities.)

A full GLAM-partnership, a Wikipedian-in-Residence position, and the creation of an online database would be the ideal goals for the district. The volunteer-curator is now exploring external funding sources (and has been promised matching funds from the city if awarded) to create more Commons friendly files.

Event Briefing

Logic model developed prior to event.

We are a small group of fairly inexperienced editors:

Bdcousineau has 1 yr of experience (mainly in GLAM facilitation)
Chimp1cards (a library staff person) has 2 weeks
Eastgrandrapidshistoryroom (library staff and volunteer curator) created account prior to event

Early on, it became clear that we would have two events – the Edit-a-thon and a Backstage Pass event. This would allow us to highlight the History Room’s materials and give those with no Wikipedia accounts a way to participate.

Prior to event

Bdcousineau: created event page and listing on WLL 2013 page, wrote and distributed local press release, created a predictive “Logic Model” to guide group’s efforts, contacted approx 35 other editors inviting them to participate remotely, created document with suggestions for expanding “Ramona Park” article
Chimp1cards: arranged for venue donation, worked with Library pr team to create in-house posters and social media messaging, utilized FB/Twitter to spread event announcement
Eastgrandrapidshistoryroom: gathered appropriate artifacts, documents, etc for use during the event, expanded the Ramona Park article in rough form, donated personal scans of Commons friendly files for upload, created data sheet for files

Planned Day of Event

Bdcousineau: help new editors with accounts and teach basic editing skills in their sandboxes, also upload photos via Commons and place into article
Chimp1cards: edit Ramona Park article
Eastgrandrapidshistoryroom: would give visitors tours of History Room and assets there (Backstage Pass)

Actual Day of Event

Bdcousineau: edited Ramona park article, uploaded photos
Chimp1cards: announced event in library to staff and patrons (she ended up being scheduled to work in another location in the library)
Eastgrandrapidshistoryroom: gave Backstage Pass to public

Post event

Bdcousineau: uploaded event and historical images to Commons, researched citations and continued to work on Ramona Park article, event evaluation
Chimp1cards:
Eastgrandrapidshistoryroom

Results

After the event, it was clear that some “Outputs” and “Impacts” were impacted positively:

Changes in Predictive Logic Model vs Actual Logic Model
Predictive Output or Impact	Actual Output or Impact	Result
“Hidden” local editors may attend in person	We discovered a local historian interested in adding articles, although he could not attend in person	Done
Reach venue Staff not involved with event	We discovered an additional librarian interested in participating in future events	Done
Train new editors	Volunteer-curator created Wikipedia account prior to event, although she refused onsite training	Done
Expand knowledge of local history	Wikipedia volunteer learned about regional history	Done
Expand reach of local history resources	Gerald Ford Museum Collection Manager J. Draper attended event and was surprised by the variety of materials in the EGR History Room Collection	Done

… and some negatively:

Changes in Predictive Logic Model vs Actual Logic Model
Predictive Output or Impact	Actual Output or Impact	Result
Experienced editors attending remotely	No editors remoted in, despite personal invitations and promises of swag, dinner and homestays; even editors from WikiProject Amusement Park declined	Not done
Work with Media	While the media posted the press release, no one contact us to write about event	Not done
Editing skills improved	New editor refused onsite training	Not done

Next Steps

dont forget

Link to press release

Wikipedia:Wikipedia Loves Libraries/2013/East Grand Rapids, Michigan