Wikipedia:GLAM/SocAntScot/fifteen Month Report
| Institution | Resident | Residency period | Period covered | Date of report |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Society of Antiquaries of Scotland | Doug Rocks-Macqueen | Feb 2019 - Feb 2021 | Jan 2020 - March 2020 | July 2020 |
Overview
[edit]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. In 2019 they started hosting a Wikimedian-in-Residence. The Wikimedian-in-Residence post was a one day a week and 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
[edit]The residency was meant to come to an end in February of 2020. However, the Society believed that it would be beneficial to keep the post going to help implement some of the recommendations created during the first year of the residency. A proposal was put forward to WikiMedia UK to continue the work. The introduction to that proposal is as follows:
INTRODUCTION
The Society of Antiquaries of Scotland (SoAS) recently hosted a twelve-month Wikimedian-in-Residence supported by Wikimedia UK (WMUK). One of the main outputs was a report detailing ten policy recommendations and twenty-five project ideas that would help the SoAS better achieve its strategic objectives, whilst also aligning with those of Wikimedia. We want to build on this platform, implement policy recommendations, and explore the viability of individual projects, and the SoAS is seeking support to do this.
PROPOSAL
A year-long residency designed to achieve three outcomes:
1. Supporting policy implementation across the SoAS and helping staff in delivering policy, edit-a-thons, and the Newsletter Header and Newsletter Meet a Fellow and Resource projects
2. Exploring the viability of the Rhind Lecture +, Data the Society and Data Visualisation projects
3. Developing a delivery, funding and open access plan for the Scots Musical Museum project (see below), including building on existing partnerships with the National Library of Scotland and St Cecilia’s Hall Concert Room and Music Museum
MEETING STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES
By implementing best practice, the SoAS can better meet its objectives as a Scottish Charity, as well as increasing awareness of its work and history. Implementing the policy proposals would also help unlock the usage of Society resources, and in turn, make available more resources for the Society itself. This approach would also address WMUK Strategic Objectives, through addressing the lack of information and sound recordings of resources such as the John Glen collection (see appendix) and other music of that era, thus contributing to Increase the engagement and representation of marginalised people and subjects. The post would work to build on the residency to both upskill and support staff and create more links between organisations through the Scots Musical Museum project helping to Work with partners to develop digital, data and information literacy through Wikimedia. An important component of this post would be to help support the SoAS’ staff in implementing a suite of recommendations, helping Create changes in policy and practice that enable open knowledge to flourish. The process of implementing policy across a range of SoAS activities (including research funding and publication) would not only lead to an increase in open knowledge, but an instructive case study helping WMUK to Develop our capacity and profile as a leading organisation for open knowledge.
This proposal was accepted and the position extended for another year.
There were two events that impacted meeting the goals this WiR during this period. The first was the WiR becoming a parent for the first time in January and taking some paternity leave. The second was the COVID-19 outbreak in March. The SoAS' offices are based in the National Museum of Scotland. In October, the Museum shutdown to all visitors and staff which meant that the SoAS' offices were also closed. The last few weeks of March were thus spent transition from office to home working. Some progress had started with the goals, such as working on the newsletter idea but that all stopped with the COVID-19 disruption. Between these two events very little was accomplished in trying to meet the WiR goals during this quarter.