Grants talk:IEG/Digitization of Important Libraries Book Catalog in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana/Midpoint

Feedback on report[edit]

It's nice to meet you onwiki! I recently started as the new Program Officer for the Individual Engagement Grants and I'm looking forward to working with you on your grant. I have very much enjoyed reading your truly delightful narrative in this midpoint report. Your enthusiasm for Telugu is contagious and it's obvious that you have been doing tremendous work.

Requests:

I'm close to accepting your report so you can receive your next disbursement to continue. Before I do, I'd like to ask if you could add a couple of things, as follows:

To help document the specifics of the progress you have already mentioned in your report in regard to digitization, could you please add a list of contacted libraries to your midpoint outcomes that contains the following:
- A bulleted list of the names of each of the libraries you have made contact with so far, with sub-bullets for each indicating:
  - location of the library
  - names and/or positions of your key contacts (librarians, etc)
  - an optional bullet, if you like, to call out briefly the main areas of importance of the library holdings (for example, some libraries may have a great history collection, others a great literature collection, etc.)
  - size of the Telugu library holdings at that library (okay to approximate)
  - briefly, in one or two sentences, summarize your progress so far in transferring the catalogue of holdings to Wikipedia
  - briefly, in one or two sentences, indicate whether you are finished, or if not, summarize what steps remain.

To clarify the reason for your request for a 10% increase in funds, could you please expand your explanation? You've provided an average budget for 3 months with your request that comes to Rs. 129,470. This is less than half of the total of your grant amount (Rs. 270,000) and appears to be within your current budget, without an increase. If I've misunderstood your request, please help me to get clear.

Additional feedback:

It looks like much of this phase has been focused on relationship-building, which makes sense. I'm glad to see a focus on digitizing for the next half!
It's great to see you are learning which libraries will be viable for your project and which won’t--and that you’re dropping some as needed. I wonder if you have learned as you've gone along about ways you might be able to find out earlier (perhaps even before you visit the library) whether it's likely to be a viable partnership or one that should be dropped?
It's great to see photos! Thank you for including them in your report.
Congratulations on the content donations you've inspired--three new Telugu books for Wikisource! That's great!
Congratulations, also, on the positive media coverage your project has attracted!
You've mentioned that you've brought on 17 new editors. It would be great to have you include information about retention of those editors in your final report.
Thank you for including a learning pattern. This will be a great example for others doing institutional partnerships.

Thank you again for this lovely report!

Mjohnson (WMF) (talk) 17:43, 17 June 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Hi Mjohnson (WMF) thanks for asking. i will add all details in midpoint report page...--విశ్వనాధ్.బి.కె. (talk) 04:33, 19 June 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Feedback updates[edit]

Dear -Mjohnson (WMF)

Annamaya library - Annamaya street , Brundavan gardens , Gunturu, Guntur district, Andhra Pradesh.
Suryaraya vidyanadha library - Pithapuram, East Godavari District, Andhra Pradesh
Veersalinga kaavi samja Library - kumudavalli, Bhimavaram, West Godavari District, Andhra Pradesh.

Annamaya library –Guntur

Peddi SambaSiva Rao -Member of the Library
Lanka Suryanarayana - Member of the Library

Suryaraya vidyanadha library-Pithapuram

Kondepoodi Sankara Rao (Former President and Member of new Trust board)
Mohan Rao (Librarian)

Veersalinga kaavi samja Library – kumudavalli

Kalidindi Venkata Krishnam Raju (President of the Library)

Annamaya library , Guntur – This Library is mainly having Devotional Collections
Suryaraya vidyanadha library, Pithapuram - this Library has Much collections of Leaf Books(Manusctipts) and literature books.
Veersalinga kaavi samja Library , kumudavalli – has old books, and mainly having collection of Authors who participated in Indian independence struggle.

2 libraries are more than 80 thousand books and 1 is more than 25 thousand and 1 is 30 thousand

Catalogs of 3 libraries already being published on wiki, process is going on in which 2 library catalogs are in final stage and remaining one is in middle of the work. Some of the wikipedians are working on these catalogs, upon which there are new wikipedians and also from library staff. In some of these libraries there is no computers till we reached them, but later on we could convince them to understand the importance of digitization and knowledge sharing, now they are buying computers to make this synergy possible. I’ve trained some of these library staff to write in Wikipedia and to digitize these catalogs, write articles, etc.,

2 awareness programs are done with good paper publicity and many people involved
3 library people are interested with us and they giving full support to use them on wiki, off wiki
There are more than 10 new wikipedians are involved in this process and continue writing on wiki
There are 3 more awareness programs and training sessions are pending
Already tied up with library people. They are asking for more help and support in order to bring their resources into wiki.

As I’ve mentioned earlier, I’m managing the libraries well and making them to accept the partnership in this project, even I’m encouraging and making them agree to help wider needs of Wikipedia. I’m about to complete work with 3 libraries and had initial acceptance with 3 more. As I said earlier engaging a new organization with our project needs patience, time and few more visits (as I’ve learned it). Some of the visits didn’t yield fruits completely. For example, Srikakulam - vijayanagaram area in Andhra Pradesh is known for its rich old libraries and schools in various art forms. We have outdated information about the richness of texts in the renowned libraries here. So I’ve made my first visit to this area. But found only one library worthy to take into this project. Many of those renowned libraries found to be lost their valuable texts due to improper maintenance and not active. I think every project will face such a challenge in order to be materialized into a successful one. You can see remaining details in my midpoint report and learning pattern.

And above this my project proposal considers only 2 visits for every library and it found to be an unrealistic estimation. So, I wanted to change the structure basing on my practical experience. Apart from this I’ve only conducted 2 awareness programs, need to conduct 3 more to fulfill my objectives and reach success measures. Unplanned training camps also have to be conducted to the remaining library staff in order to make them work for the project. Thus, I’ve requested additional funds..--Viswanath.B.K (talk) 07:29, 23 June 2015 (UTC)[reply]

reply to the query[edit]

Hi Mjohnson (WMF) i think u might read what i have given above. waiting for your reply.. thank you..--విశ్వనాధ్.బి.కె. (talk) 12:15, 27 June 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Report accepted[edit]

Dear విశ్వనాధ్.బి.కె.,

Thank you for providing the list of libraries as requested. I'm accepting this report and approving your request for an increase in funds, pending your confirmation of the amount indicated below. It makes sense that you've discovered that it takes more relationship-building than you anticipated to get the catalogs online and we want to support your success going forward.

Based on your Budget Change Request, I understand that you are asking for a 10% increase to your 3-month budget of Rs. 129,470--in other words, you are requesting a total of Rs. 142, 417 for the second payment of your grant Please confirm that this is correct.

As you head into the latter half of your grant, I encourage you to prioritize your project's primary goal, digitization of library catalogs. On its own, your work to make digitized library catalogs accessible to Telugu Wikipedians is a worthy ambition. Take care that the training and awareness programs do not divert too much of your time and money resources and thereby undermine what you are able to achieve in digitization, which I hope will be the focus of your outcomes in your Final Report.

Thank you again for all of your work and enthusiasm on this project!

--Marti (WMF) (talk) 20:12, 29 June 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Hi Marti (WMF)

10% increase amount of Rs. 142, 417 for the second payment is correct and thank you very much for quick respond..--విశ్వనాధ్.బి.కె. (talk) 04:46, 30 June 2015 (UTC)[reply]