Grants:PEG/Dominic/GLAM NARA Events fund

Funded

This submission to the Wikimedia Foundation Grants Program was funded in the fiscal year 2011-12. This is a grant to an individual.

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This Wikimedia Foundation grant has a fiscal sponsor. WM US-DC administered the grant on behalf of Dominic McDevitt-Parks.

Legal name of chapter or nonchapter group

Grant and Project Lead contact name

Dominic McDevitt-Parks

Grant and Project Lead contact username or email

Dominic (dmcdevittparksnara.gov)

Grant and Project Lead contact title (position)

Wikipedian in Residence

Full project name

Backstage Pass events at the US National Archives

Amount requested (in USD)

400

Provisional target start date

2011/10/01

Provisional completion date

2012/01/01

Budget breakdown

• Example single event with about 15 attendees:

  $5 — utensils, paper dishes, napkins

  $8 — drinks (liter bottles of soda/juice)

  $12 — snacks (chips, pretzels, cookies, etc.)

  $60 — food (pizza, sandwiches, etc.)

  Total: $85

Total funds requested: $400

This would be enough to host several DC-area events through the fall and winter (which I can definitely make happen), or to cover several Wikipedia Loves Libraries events at various locations in October, depending on whether they agree to host them (under negotiation). The scheduled October 8 event, with the Archivist of the United States headlining, is expected to draw more attendees, and may cost $150-$200 on its own.

Project scope

I am seeking funding for expenses related to hosting Wikimedia meetups and backstage pass-type GLAM events at the United States National Archives. This is a request for a fund that would be drawn on primarily for food at the events, which we intend to hold on a regular basis in the DC area, and possibly in other facilities around the country as well.

In January, the National Archives hosted WikiXDC, and the Wikimedia Foundation awarded a grant for catering. In August, we held the first backstage pass at the National Archives in College Park, Maryland (see follow-up blog post). For that event, we found out at a late stage that NARA policy prevented funds for food and beverages because it is not a NARA staff event, and so a few attendees generously donated the money out-of-pocket for the whole group's pizza on the spot. Two NARA staff members and myself also purchased snacks and drinks at a local grocery store beforehand with our own money.

Food is considered important because we would like to enable attendees to stay the whole day, through talks, tours, and an editathon. In addition, having an existing food fund for events will make it easier for me to get people from the other facilities (especially presidential libraries) on board with hosting an event for their local Wikipedia communities, as I am already in talks with them about for Wikipedia Loves Libraries. The National Archives is already making the most significant monetary contribution to the event, by allowing use of its lecture room and equipment free of charge, as well as pay for several staff members to come in for most of the day on a Saturday.

Project goal

The goal of this project is to host backstage pass-type events held at US National Archives facilities. These are events in which local Wikimedians are hosted by the institution for presentations, tours, and use of the research rooms and archival materials for scanning and editing purposes.

In particular, the first such event in August produced many high-quality archival images. Since we are working with NARA on this project, new documents scanned by us were (and will be) cataloged by staff and added to the National Archives' online catalog, making these documents available to NARA researchers as well. The money will fund events at the main DC-area National Archives locations in the DC-area, and having funding on-hand will also be useful in reaching out to the presidential libraries dispersed across the country in hosting their own such events.

Non-financial requirements

There are no extra requirements, though swag to give out at events would be nice!

Fit to strategy

• Quality: We aim to contribute many high-quality never-before-scanned archival documents to Commons. Many will be useful illustrations for Wikipedia articles or texts for Wikisource transcriptions. They are also likely Featured Pictured material.
• Credibility: Projects like these help us build trust and goodwill internally within the National Archives as well as within the wider GLAM community.
• Organizational maturity and effectiveness: Collaborations with the National Archives mean being associated with a high-profile cultural institution, especially for the new Wikimedia DC chapter (which, incidentally, will also be hosted for a board meeting at the National Archives prior to the October 8 event). The same could be true for the Wikipedia communities in many other regions with NARA presidential libraries or facilities.
• Participation: One of our aims is to increase participation at Wikisource by using it for transcribing Natonal Archives documents and teaching it to Wikipedian attendees unfamiliar with it.

Other benefits

This events will deepen our ties with the National Archives, an important collaboration. It will also serve as a model for other GLAM events. There will certainly be blogging related to the events, and potentially media attention (particularly if there is an AOTUS blog post).

Measures of success

The events' success can be measured by turnout, as well as by content produced. $400 should allow us to fully fund one larger event (25-40 attendees) and 3 smaller ones (10-15). Judging by past experience, this should lead to the digitization of hundreds of new documents for Commons/Wikisource and other edits.

Team members (optional)

1. Dominic 16:48, 13 September 2011 (UTC)

For grantees

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