Wikipedia:GLAM/SocAntScot/Twelve Month Report

Overview
The Society of Antiquaries of Scotland (SAS) was formed in 1780 and has been producing information ever since, including books, journals, excavation reports, lectures (which are now video recorded), and the Scottish Archaeological Research Framework. They have over 2,700 members worldwide. The history of the Society tells the story of many of Scotland’s Cultural Institutions.

The Wikimedian-in-Residence post is one day a week and is designed to:

●	Assess how the work of the Society could be best aligned with Wikimedia and ensure that staff and members are enabled to directly contribute their knowledge and expertise to develop Wikipedia articles; provide training on Wikimedia editing, best practice, and volunteer engagement, to staff; and identify opportunities for content improvement/image releases.

●	Work with the Dig It! project team on a programme of events (including two edit-a-thons) and activities within the Society and with partner organisations, establishing links between Society staff and members, Wikimedia volunteers and others and identifying areas of Wikipedia and sister projects that could be enriched with resources and knowledge from the Society.

●	Be an advocate for open knowledge within the Society, developing policies, systems and processes which would allow greater collaboration between Wikimedia UK and the Society, and creating best practice documents as needed.

Progress narrative
The Wikimedian-in-Residence (WiR) began the process of writing up the Society's Open strategy, which was mostly completed during this period. This aspect of the project took up the majority of the time but other events and activities were undertaken such as interviewing and choosing the Scottish Graduate School for Arts & Humanities (SGSAH) intern and an edit-a-thon. The WiR also had the opportunity to promote Wikimedia projects to an international audience at the at the European Heritage Days Assembly in October. Participants from over 45 countries were in attendance and a mini-edit-a-thon was held afterwards for a dozen of the participants.

Progress narrative
The policy document makes several suggestions on how Society can work with marginalised groups, especially language groups, and several training events took place throughout this period, with more are in the works for 2020.

Events
A Wikimedia training for the library network of Edinburgh was held the 26th of October at the Edinburgh Central Library with 10 participants. This has led to a request to work with the libraries to help add more local history to Edinburgh, especially from marginalised communities that in the past were their own towns, villages, etc. that were swallowed up by Edinburgh. Specifically focusing on their resistance to being incorporated into the city.

On the 18th of October I delivered a talk and training to the European Heritage Days assembly. About 45 countries in attendance - pointed them to their own wikimedia organisations. Talked with some countries afterwards about doing a cross border wiki heritage project - Latvia and Estonia.

Partnership interactions
Partnerships were built with Edinburgh Libraries and European Heritage Days. The policy document has also made recommendations on 25 potential projects that the Society could undertake with recommendations for partner working, especially with the minority language groups in Scotland - Scots and Scottish Gaelic.

Wikimedia Commons
Some of the images from out Women in Scottish Archaeology Edithon were removed and we are working to get them reinstalled.

Wikisource
The policy document has recommend that the Society put up some of their publications on Wikisource so that they can be translated into other langauges e.g. Scots and Scottish Gaelic

Other Projects
N/A

Progress narrative
More training has been undertaken with members of the staff - especially on WikiCommons. The report makes several suggestions on changes to how the society operates in terms of being Open and it is anticipated that some staff training will need to be undertaken to implement that.

We, Sara Thomas (Scotland Coordinator) and the WIR, interviewed to candidates for the SGSAH internship and choose one, who accepted. The intern will be working on increasing archaeological representation in Wikicommons, including encouraging and training others in how to upload resources, teaching them about licencing and running an image competition. This is a joint project between Wikimedia UK, the Society, Archaeology Scotland and Open Past.

Social media
One of the suggestions in the report is:

"One Grant, One Post

It is also recommended that along with the ‘One Grant, One Edit’ requirement grants receipts be required to participate in a social media campaign to highlight their work, the society and their contribution to Wikimedia projects, like the #1lib1ref social media campaign. #1lib1ref is when the Wikipedia Library team and affiliates from around the world, usually on the birthday of Wikipedia, ask librarians to engage by "adding one more reference to Wikipedia". They create memes (see image) and do general promotion. A #1grant1edit campaign would see the grant receipts post on social media (any platform) about what they have contributed to Wikimedia projects as part of the Society’s grant. This should not be a burden on grant holders and can be just a single social media post."

Progress narrative
One of the main outputs of this project, a draft of this report was completed detailing ten policy recommendations and twenty-five project ideas that would help the Society better achieve its strategic objectives, whilst also aligning with those of Wikimedia.

This is currently being circulated among staff for feedback. The Society has approached Wikimedia UK about continuing this project to help implement the 35+ actions recommend in the report. While the details still need to be worked out both parties have agreed in principal to continue this project.

Events
On the 21st of October I presented to the SAS board and they liked the idea of requiring some sort of engagement with Wikimedia projects as a condition of their grants.

Press/Media about the residency
N/A

Personal Reflects on the Project
As we come to the end of this phase of the project (it is likely to continue into an implementation of the policy recommendations phase) we would like to reflect on how this project went.

The idea of having a WiR working on creating policies document went quite well. The draft of the report has been well received and the Society is excited about taking its suggestions forward. It has created a road map/blue print of actions for the Society to work on for years to come. The general feeling is that this sort of WiR would be valuable to other organisations and recommend it.

The only critique is that one day a week over a year may not be the right distribution of time. Small reoccurring events and activities such quarterly reports, monthly staff meetings, etc. while not taking up a significant amount of time by themselves, a couple of hours, cumulatively ate up a lot of time. A single meeting could take up a morning which is roughly an 1/8th of the work time for that month. A shorter period for the WiR such as two days a week over six months would reduce the impact of these reoccurring events/activities, which while important take away from the main objectives.