Wikipedia:GLAM/MGS/Secondment Summary and Reflections Report

Background
A Wikimedian in Residence is a Wikimedia editor based with an organisation or group of organisations, usually a GLAM (Gallery, Library, Archive or Museum) with the aim of increasing the quality and volume of content on the encyclopedia and associated Wikiprojects concerning the organisation(s) collection.

Wikimedia UK had been working with MGS for several years discussing a potential project, and finally in 2014 set the project up, after MGS had applied to Wikimedia UK to partner on this activity. The process was successful and Wikimedia UK was happy to partner with MGS to deliver a year long residency. The overarching idea for the project was to use the network of the MGS to reach many institutions and help them engage with open knowledge. We felt, however, that the project would be more successful it if starts with a secondment in a particular institution, so that the resident can first engage with an organisation on the ground level, and then use the learnings in the network.

As a networked residency, working across multiple museums, the Glasgow Museums project was a four month secondment which took place at the beginning of the year-long residency with Museums Galleries Scotland. The Resident, Sara Thomas was embedded with the Kelvin Hall team at Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum for 2.5 days per week during the period 26 January 2015 - 30 May 2015.

Glasgow Museums is comprised of 9 museums plus the Glasgow Museums Resource Centre, with the entire collection cared for by Glasgow Museums holding Recognised Collection status. . The post was overseen by Glasgow Museums' Digital and New Media Manager John Ferry.

Aims and objectives of residency
As the residency was of a much shorter duration than that normally undertaken, it was understood that what could be achieved in this time would differ from that of other residencies. The residency would act as a kick-start for further work in Glasgow Museums, and thus a particular emphasis was placed upon sustainability in the project. Work during the residency was focused on the following areas:


 * Dedicated training for museum staff & facilitation of content upload
 * Advocacy within the organisation for the benefits of open working and working with Wiki
 * Encouraging sustainability within the project
 * External advocacy and engagement with other communities

Outcomes
WMUK outcomes relevant to this Residency as set out in the WiR Agreement:


 * G1: Develop Open Knowledge
 * G2a: Develop, involve and engage WMUK volunteers
 * G3: Reduce barriers to accessing open knowledge
 * G5: Develop, support & engage with other Wikimedia & Open Knowledge communities

It became clear early on in the residency that G2.a, G3 and G5 would likely be those where most success would be gained, whereas achievements under G1 would likely be limited due to the brief nature of the project. A large proportion of the success of the residency should be attributed to the openness of the host institution to the project, as detailed below.

Positive influencing factors for success in the residency

 * High level of staff interest and buy in for the project
 * Staff champion identified: Tracey MacDonald
 * Resident embedded within a very supportive staff team (Kelvin Hall project)

Negative influencing factors against success in the residency

 * Very short residency
 * Barriers to image donation will likely take a long time to overcome

Outputs
During the 4 month period of the residency:
 * 7 internal presentations delivered
 * 4 conferences attended (presented at 3)
 * 22 curators trained to edit Wiki over 5 training sessions
 * 3 meetings of the Wiki Working Group held
 * 1 editathon organised
 * 3 other editathons attended

Further details can be found below in the Statistics section.

Statistics
Events organised or training run by WiR:

 Events organised by others with WiR support: 

 Talks and other events 

 Contacts for future collaborations 

Contact details have not been listed for privacy reasons; all contact details have been forwarded to WMUK for any future collaborations.

Presentation slides

''Most presentations have not been included due to similarity in content, or use of content (partner organisations logos or screengrabs) that are central to the presentation, but are not available on an open license. ''

Image Statistics
Image stats cannot be provided. A request was made in March 2015 to add the relevant categories to BaGLAMa 2, however this has not yet been actioned.

The Wikicommons categories and  were added for images created in the course of the GLAMWiki Partnership, and images donated by Glasgow Museums respectively.

16 images have been added to the category, no images have yet been added to the  category. The latter was added in anticipation of an image donation, it is anticipated that the former will be used at upcoming events.

Scottish Fairground Culture Editathon
The Scottish Fairground Culture Editathon took place on 7 May at the Riverside Museum, bringing together museum curators, members of the public and the Showpeople community, a key stakeholder community with whom Glasgow Museums are in contact, and with whom they worked on the Fair Glasgow Intangible Cultural Heritage project. In one of our early meetings, we identified a gap on Wikipedia surrounding Fairground Culture, and the community were keen to work to correct that.

Wiki Working Group
The Working Group had three meetings during the residency, and is made up of curators and other museum staff who are interested in working with Wiki. At the third meeting on 28 May it was decided that the group will meet every two months, and also discussed areas of priority and activity. These included a content audit to identify areas of Wikipedia where curators could contribute knowledge; the desire to find ways for Wiki to be integrated into work plans; to run more events involving volunteer communities with which the museums are involved, and suggesting areas of the collection suitable for an image donation so that those conversations could be progressed. This group will be headed by Tracey MacDonald, one of the Assistant Curators working on the Kelvin Hall project, with whom the resident was embedded during the residency.

The Working Group structure gives internal legitimacy to the Wiki project within Glasgow Museums, as well as giving a structure likely to encourage sustainability. It is perhaps the major achievement of the Residency, and offers a template for sustainable Wiki working in GLAM organisations.

Curator Training
During the course of the residency 22 curators and museum staff were trained in the basics of Wiki editing, representing around 50% of the curatorial staff of the museums. Of these 22, a few key members of staff were identified who are keen to continue editing, and learning more about the technical aspects of Wikipedia. At the Wiki Working Group, it was suggested that at least one member of staff be able to take on that training role, so that further sustainability could be ensured.

Advocacy around open knowledge
Although not a great deal of press was gained around the secondment, the resident presented at a number of internal and external events which allowed access to key stakeholder groups. The opportunity to present at Friday briefings, the Curatorial Forum, and the Insight Cafe meant that the project gained significant internal traction, which bodes well for sustainability. These presentations gave the resident a number of good opportunities to illustrate the benefits of open knowledge and open working for Glasgow Museums.

Attendance at Museums Galleries Scotland Digital Transformation Network, and Digital Transformation Conference, as well as Be Good Be Social and EMYA2015, gave the resident a number of opportunities to introduce the residency to the wider museum and third sector community. These occasions afforded good networking opportunities.

The benefits of the advocacy work can be seen in the desire and enthusiasm of the Wiki Working Group not only to pursue an image release, but also to develop opportunities for staff to contribute to Wikipedia.

Responses from Glasgow Museums
Shahana Khaliq, Assistant Curator, Kelvin Hall Project, 26 March 2015

"The Edit-a-Thon was a great opportunity for the Showpeople community of Glasgow to put out the correct information about their heritage and culture by creating new and improving wiki articles. They found that they can improve articles to display how Showpeople have been and still are involved in many aspects of local and national life and are not an isolated community. They found this to be a very positive experience and are happy to use wiki as a platform for them to share their heritage with others as it is such a widely used website which will help their identity to be recognised better. For Glasgow Museums, this has been a very positive experience as it was another way that we were able to strengthen our support of a community, and their support for us. Working with Sara and utilising Wikipedia illustrates the evolving relationship of this working group between Glasgow Museums and the Showpeople, a group that we have been working in collaboration with for a number of years."

Tracey MacDonald, Assistant Curator, Kelvin Hall Project, 27 March 2015

"The Wikimedian in Residency programme is a brilliant opportunity for cultural institutions to learn about the benefits of using Wikipedia as a conduit for collections awareness, research and participation. With the residency starting at Glasgow Museums, staff already had a few ideas of what we could do; however being part of such a large organisation, which is part of a wider local authority means things take can take time. Four months is a short time span for us, however, we did achieve a lot. Staff from across all departments attended the various excellent training sessions and were interested in how wiki was working with cultural organisations. The discussions and ideas that came out of these sessions are really a starting point for us. Without the Residency, these discussions and staff would not have usually come together. We also ran a great Editathon session with the Showpeople of Glasgow where the knowledge and gaps in information about these communities on Wikipedia was added to. The newly formed Wiki Working Group will be exploring ways to continue what has been started and we look forward to developing the relationship between Glasgow Museums and Wikipedia."

Recommendations for WMUK

 * Objectives for a secondment position should be set out more clearly at the start; this was unclear.
 * Secondment positions could have a particular set of objectives, tailored towards kickstarting work and sustainability, rather than achievements such as policy changes during a short period. Expectations around content upload should be carefully managed.
 * The ability to add categories for monitoring on BaGLAMa2 should be more widespread, we currently rely far too heavily on one volunteer.

Recommendations for Glasgow Museums

 * The Wiki Working Group be continued and supported to encourage Glasgow Museums to further increase the volume and quantity of open content/knowledge available concerning Glasgow Museums' collection.
 * Further training be undertaken to enable at least one member of staff to train others to edit
 * Wiki Working Group continue work to secure an image release; GLAMWiki Toolset training be undertaken following this.
 * Further funding be sought to resource the project if at all possible
 * Wiki Working Group update the project page to reflect ongoing work.