Thanks for sharing this great news, Dominic! It's really thrilling to see the substantial progress that's been made in establishing such expansive strategy relating to Wikimedia. Our long-term projects at influential institutions like the National Archives are invaluable in illustrating how relevant our work still is. I'm personally quite proud that the GLAM-Wiki US Consortium was named, and that the Archives continues to support the efforts there.
Cheers to an even *more* fantastic National Archives Open Government Plan! Lori On Fri, Jun 6, 2014 at 1:46 PM, Dominic McDevitt-Parks < [email protected]> wrote: > Hi all, I have more NARA news to share. The U.S. National Archives' > updated Open Government Plan > <http://www.archives.gov/open/open-government-plan-3.0.pdf>[1] was just > published on Wednesday with this announcement > <http://blogs.archives.gov/online-public-access/?p=9253>. It places a lot > of emphasis on how the National Archives plans to work with the Wikimedia > community in order to help fulfill its mission, especially the flagship > "Make Access Happen" goal. This is a follow up to the 2012 version > <http://blogs.archives.gov/online-public-access/?p=8115> of the Open > Government Plan, which also mentioned Wikipedia in a less developed way. > > From the executive summary, the document notes: "*Over the next two years > we will work to increase the number of National Archives records available > on Wikimedia Commons, continue our work to engage local communities of > volunteer Wikipedians with on-site events, and collaborate on the > development of the GLAM-Wiki U.S. Consortium > <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:GLAM/US/Consortium>.*" On pages > 19-20, there is a fleshed out section about the agency's strategic approach > to Wikipedia, which I am copying below: > > *Expand Wikipedia Efforts* > > NARA has been engaging the Wikipedia community since 2011, when we > welcomed a Wikipedian in Residence and began holding events to build > awareness of the records of the National Archives. In 2013, we welcomed a > full-time employee devoted to engaging the Wikipedia community along with > NARA staff members to promote greater access, reuse, and context for our > records on Wikipedia. > > Our work strengthening digitization and description fuels our ability to > make records available on external platforms like Wikipedia. In 2012, we > shared 100,000 digital images from our holdings to Wikimedia Commons. This > work enabled digital copies of our records to be incorporated into > Wikimedia projects and Wikipedia articles. The 4,000 Wikipedia articles > featuring our records received more than one billion page views in Fiscal > Year 2013. Over the next two years we will work to increase the number of > National Archives records available on Wikimedia Commons, which furthers > our strategic goal to “Make Access Happen” and expands re-use of our > records by the public. > > We are continuing our work to engage local communities of volunteer > Wikipedians with on-site events, including skills-building workshops and > “edit-a-thons” for improving Wikipedia content related to our holdings. In > addition, we are establishing a model for “scan-a-thons” to enable citizen > archivist stakeholder groups to digitize our records for access. > > We have worked to develop policies and best practices for NARA staff and > other professionals to contribute to Wikipedia articles and NARA staff > members regularly engage in sharing our experiences and insights about > Wikipedia with other cultural institutions. We are also collaborating on > the development of the GLAM-Wiki U.S. Consortium, which brings together > archivists, librarians, museum professionals, and Wikipedians to work on > building skills and shared understandings. > > > The rest of the document touches on other open government, crowdsourcing, > and "citizen archivist" initiatives that may also be of general interest to > you all. It even cites Simple English Wikipedia's definition for "API". As > far as I know, this is likely the most prominent policy document from a > cultural or government agency to enshrine collaboration with Wikipedia in > institutional strategy (though the previous NARA Open Government Plan from > 2012 comes close), and I think we succeed in talking about Wikipedia > engagement in a way that Wikipedians will find ethical. > > Dominic > > [1] For those interested, in the United States each executive federal > agency is required > <http://www.whitehouse.gov/open/documents/open-government-directive> by > law to publish an "Open Government Plan", described as a public roadmap > that details how the agency will incorporate the principles of transparency > and open government into the core mission objectives of the agency. The > link has more information. There is no Wikipedia article on this. :( > > _______________________________________________ > GLAM-US mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/glam-us > > -- Lori Byrd Phillips Digital Marketing Content Coordinator The Children's Museum of Indianapolis 703.489.6036 | http://loribyrdphillips.com/
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