Wikipedia talk:Meetup/Portland/Wiki Loves Libraries/2012

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The current collaborations of the month are Women's History Month: Create or improve articles for women listed at Oregon Women of Achievement (modern) or Women of the West, Oregon chapter (historical).

This event has been mentioned by a media organization:

Cizmar, Martin (2012-10-24). "Headout: (citation needed)". Willamette Week. Retrieved 2012-10-24. Wikipedia is, for better or worse, "the largest collection of shared knowledge in human history." No library can compete; the Multnomah County Library isn't trying. On Saturday, Oct. 27, the Central Library stages an Edit-athon where you are encouraged to "write, edit and improve" entries related to Multnomah County. "Occasionally, Wikipedia gets stuff wrong, or an important topic doesn't appear in its millions of virtual pages," the library says. "You can help to change this!"

Past discussion at WikiProject Oregon talk page: Wikipedia event at Multnomah County Library

For the record, here is related discussion from the WikiProject Oregon talk page leading up to the edit-athon. Please do not add comments here... this is for archival/reference purposes only. Further edit-athon discussion should take place in one of the sections below, or by creating a new section. Thanks! --Another Believer _(Talk) 22:33, 3 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Looks like this event, perhaps, has not been announced here?

http://events.multcolib.org/event/wikipedia-loves-libraries-multnomah-county-edit-athon

-Pete (talk) 23:35, 6 August 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I have a work event scheduled that weekend, but I will do everything in my power to be there! Pete, are you organizing this event? Let me know if you require assistance... I was just thinking about having an edit-athon at the Central Library! --Another Believer _(Talk) 23:52, 6 August 2012 (UTC)[reply]

As a matter of fact, I really don't know anything about it beyond what I posted..User:Pharos alerted me, and I think even he only stumbled on it with a Google search. But he's a good rabble-rouser at pointing people at each other, so I imagine he will unearth the organizers before long! -Pete (talk) 00:09, 7 August 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Greetings WikiProject Oregonians from Multnomah County Library – We are delighted that you ferreted out news about our upcoming Wikipedia Loves Libraries event on October 27 because we were wondering how to find you! Apologies if I’m not contacting you correctly, since I am not a registered editor of Wikipedia. I see we are already listed in the Wikipedia Loves Libraries calendar of events! Thanks! We would love your help and guidance at this event. While we have a vision, it is extremely casual and can be changed if you think it would work better another way. We were inspired by the Edit-athons at NYPL’s Performing Arts Library and the one held at the British Library, although we are starting off somewhat smaller in scale. We plan on reserving a room in the Central Library, set it up with laptops for research and writing, have available reference staff to help folks get started with using library resources, and set everyone loose on Wikipedia stubs that deal with any topic relating to Multnomah County (not the government entity, but any subject that fits under the geographic umbrella that is the County). If Portland’s Wikipedians could be there to conduct their own research and/or help others get registered and researching, we would consider it a successful day. If it goes well and there is enough interest, we may have these on a semi-regular basis. Several Librarians at Central are working on this event (all @multcolib.org): me - Lee Catalano (leec), Jon Chess (jonch), Emiy-Jane Dawson (ejd) and Phoebe Wayne (phoebew). We would love to hear from you, either through this forum or via email. Again, not sure how to sign and date this (does it do it automatically?): Lee Catalano, 16:30, 21 August 2012. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 192.220.135.42 (talk)

(And part of my ignorance is not knowing how to format the above properly so it is a little more readable!). Lee. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 192.220.135.42 (talk) 23:24, 21 August 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks, Lee. I have marked my calendar (October 27, 2012 14:00–16:00) to attend and help however I can. Certainly you have given enough advance notice! You can learn a little about me by looking at my user page and my contributions (editing history). I expect several others will attend too, so there will be plenty of representation who can knowledgeably help with and answer questions about most facets of Wikipedia:

mechanics of editing
structuring an article
Wikipedia policies and guidelines
Wikipedia administrators
wikiquette, and
successful interaction with other editors

Maybe you could give a little more detail about the goals and organization of the event? —EncMstr (talk) 23:57, 21 August 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Hi, Lee. Thanks for stopping by! Like EncMstr, you can view my profile for a bit of detail about my interests. I will try my hardest to attend this event and help in any way possible--I will be sure to post a note as soon as I know whether or not my work event will conflict. By the way, you can sign your posts by typing "~~~~" after your comment. Please continue stopping by and participating in this discussion, among others! --Another Believer _(Talk) 03:40, 22 August 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Oh, and one more thing! Wiki Loves Monuments, the international photo contest, takes place in September. I wonder if the Central Library might be interested in hosting an event one weekend in the month, or at least providing a space for Wikipedians to meet and organize a photo trek? The purpose is to photographs sites on the National Register of Historic Places, lists of which can be found here on Wikipedia, then upload them to Commons for use on Wikipedia. Details can be found here: http://wikilovesmonuments.us/ There are TONS of sites on the Register in downtown Portland, which makes the Central Library an ideal location to meet. If you'd like to learn more information or discuss the possibility of having the library provide a meeting space, feel free to leave a note on my talk page or shoot me an e-mail (you can find my address on my user page). Thanks! --Another Believer _(Talk) 03:45, 22 August 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Hello! It's Lee again. I'd like to address EncMstr's questions about goals and organization. Our goal is two-fold: We'd like to reduce the number of Mult.Co.-related article stubs and we'd like to introduce/remind Wikipedia contributors the breadth and depth of our local information. Organization will be extremely informal. We'll have laptops set up in the 3rd floor Map Room, some books, perhaps a couple of how-to-get-started guides, along with you and us (librarians) available to help folks get started -- either in making Wikipedia entries or in research.

The staff planning this event have scheduled a meeting on October 2 at 3 p.m. at Central Library. We would welcome your attendance ... or we'd be happy to find another time that works better for you, if you think we should meet in person. Please email me at leec [at] multcolib.org and let me know. Thanks again for your warm welcome. 192.220.135.42 (talk) 22:37, 28 August 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Hi, Lee. I jotted the October 2nd meeting down on my calendar. Please let me know if the time changes. I'd be happy to attend, assist with planning, etc. I recently created stubs for each of the Multnomah County Library branches and fully expanded the Woodstock Library article (which should provide a great example for other branch library articles once it has finished going through the "Good article" nomination process). Looking forward to meeting in person (BTW, I will respond to your other e-mail ASAP). --Another Believer _(Talk) 23:38, 28 August 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I, too, added the date+time to my calendar. Where in the library will it be? —EncMstr (talk) 23:56, 28 August 2012 (UTC)[reply]

MCL is very excited to have you join us at our work session on October 2. We'll be meeting on the 5th floor, so just stop at the Welcome Desk (first desk on the right as you come in) and we'll escort you up there. Lee. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 192.220.132.99 (talk) 20:34, 12 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I created the following page specifically for this event: Wikipedia:Meetup/Portland/Wiki Loves Libraries/2012. Please add your name to the list of participants if you are interested in attending. Lee, looking forward to meeting you in the near future. --Another Believer _(Talk) 20:43, 12 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Let me re-extend an invitation for you to join our planning meeting this Tuesday, October 2 at 3 pm at Central Library. I know that Another Believer plans to come. If anyone else is, please email me [leec@multcolib.org] so I'll know to wait for you. Look for me at the Welcome Desk (first desk on the right as you come in). Here's an informal agenda: Review the stubs that we've been collecting, Go over a resource guide in light of the stubs and add/subtract some topics/items Share some ideas about how to increase participation, Parcel out some jobs for the event day. I'd be happy to show you the space where we'll be on Oct. 27 as well. Thanks! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 192.220.129.146 (talk) 21:45, 29 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Today, Another Believer and I attended a planning meeting for this event; three library personnel were in attendance: Lee, Phoebe, and John.

In summary, they recently held an Oregon Encyclopedia-related event which sought to involve the public in gathering sources (or similar), but was in the format of a multi-hour lecture with the audience simply leaving when it ended. Result: Zero apparent involvement. They want to do better on the Wikipedia event.

The library staff are in unfamiliar territory and open to suggestion. They have done some good preparatory work:

Identified 150-200 Multnomah County-related stub articles which WP:ORE assessed as high priority to use as suggested articles for expansion. AB will be posting the list (perhaps at Wikipedia:Meetup/Portland/Wiki Loves Libraries/2012).
Collected ideas for promoting the event: library event calendar, prepare a flier, notify associated librarians throughout their system, skywriting, etc. (Just kidding about skywriting, though if anyone has a connection, it sure would be appreciated.) They are open to additional ideas for attracting and involving more editors, from newbies to experienced Wikipedians.
Plan to reserve the "map room", which has two large tables with electric outlets and can comfortably seat perhaps up to 30 people with laptop computers. They will provide a half dozen or so laptops. Food and talking are allowed in this area!
They have set expectations nice and low: success would be for a few editors to show up and improve a few articles. Especially if library's reference materials are called for (as sources). I gather that librarians will be present to help find sources.
This event is intended as a first step (if all goes well) at initiating regular events. Learning from what happens is anticipated.

They will be monitoring this discussion, as well as doing (at least) a fishbowl discussion at Wikipedia talk:Meetup/Portland/Wiki Loves Libraries/2012, hopefully with new user accounts. Please chime in with suggestions and comments. —EncMstr (talk) 06:56, 3 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Best practices for photo galleries

There is a note on this page that lots of photos were taken of the library in conjunction with Wiki Takes Monuments. This is good, but I see a problem in not immediately knowing how to deliver those photos to people who want them. There is a practical limit to how many photos one may fit on a page and I am not sure what the practice is in Commons for sorting photos. I put this template Template:Sister project links on the Multnomah County Library page and I think that is the easiest way to introduce photos, but I was wondering if there was a precedent for curating photos somehow on Commons. It might be nice, for example, to have a single page somewhere with representative photos of the best of the library at a glance. Blue Rasberry (talk) 13:07, 25 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Keep in mind the many images taken this past weekend were of the Central Library solely. Users interested in viewing images of the Central Library at Commons would likely access the gallery from the Central Library article. ~~Perhaps I should create a Commons category for Multnomah County Library, which would then direct readers to subgalleries for individual branches?~~ --Another Believer _(Talk) 15:00, 25 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I went ahead and created a Commons category for Multnomah County Library--images of MCL branches can go here or within any of the applicable subcategories (currently just Central Library or Woodstock Library). I replaced the Sister project links template with the Commons category template since this was the only parameter being used. The Sister project links template can return if additional MCL-related resources appear on other sister projects. --Another Believer _(Talk) 15:27, 25 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Also, I agree it might be worth creating subcategories of the Central Library category on Commons. The problem is creating subcategories that are applicable to both the history of the building and its future use (in other words, hypothetically, don't create a category of the Music Library Room, which once may not have been the Music Library Room and/or one day may not be the Music Library Room). Perhaps interior vs. exterior? --Another Believer _(Talk) 15:13, 25 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Edit-athon at Multnomah County Library

We had a very productive meeting with MCL staff and Another Believer and EncMast, who helped us get over our fears about signing up as users! So I did! Let me just extend another invitation to anyone who wishes to join us in our upcoming Edit-athon at Central Library on Saturday, October 27 from 2-4 pm. We'll have a list (which will be posted here) of potential articles to work on and we'll have expert Wikipedians and librarians to help you. We'll check in here to see if you have any questions. Lee. Pdx.leecat (talk) 21:41, 3 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Welcome to Wikipedia, Lee! Feel free to use this page for additional discussion. Our planning session was very productive and I look forward to the edit-athon. FYI, I posted invitations (duplicates of the one posted on the page for the edit-athon) to ALL WikiProject Oregon members. Hopefully this will attract at least a few more participants! (Also, remember, you are welcome to click on the 'star' at the top of any page to add the page and its associated talk page to your watchlist. Changes made to flagged articles will appear on your watchlist, which you can view by clicking on the "My watchlist" link at the top of the page. Let us know if you have any other questions!) --Another Believer _(Talk) 22:16, 3 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Oh, and feel free to add your name to the list of edit-athon participants--the more, the merrier! --Another Believer _(Talk) 22:17, 3 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

We're in Willamette Week!

Which always feels like a bit of a double-edged sword to me. It looks good though ... page 23 (print version). Featured event in the Headout section: http://www.wweek.com/portland/article-19794-headout_%5Bcitation_needed%5D.html. We are looking forward to seeing you all on Saturday.

Oops! (Three tildes not two!) Pdx.leecat (talk)

(And, it's actually four tildes!) Pdx.leecat (talk) 20:51, 24 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for sharing the link, Lee! Looking forward to this weekend. --Another Believer _(Talk) 20:56, 24 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

@Pdx.leecat: The WW article is definitely a net positive mention. They make fun of the drama that goes on in some pop culture articles, but most people by now know that, by and large, Wikipedia gets it right. They explicitly say so (just before making fun).

@AB: Any luck with the geonotice? —EncMstr (talk) 05:16, 25 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, it is unfortunate the article is not more favorable. That being said, I am still glad the event was mentioned, and as such I included the press template to note the coverage. As far as I know, the geonotice is in effect. --Another Believer _(Talk) 05:49, 25 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]