Wikimedia Argentina/GLAM Program Evaluation 2016/Digitizing program

Digitizing Program: activities

April

Participation in IV International Meeting of Conservation (museums, archives and libraries)

Date: 7th of April 2016
Activity: Participation and content/ Empowering the community
Program: Community Support Program
Description:The Museum of the Cabildo y de la Revolución de Mayo, along with the Library Esteban Echeverria of the Legislature of the Autonomous City of Buenos organized for the fourth consecutive year a meeting with cultural and professional organizations in Argentina, Chile, Mexico, Italy, Spain and Uruguay. The same was held at the Palace of the Buenos Aires City Legislature, and in the province of Misiones.

It was sponsored by more than 20 local prestigious institutions such as the Ministry of Culture, the Embassy of Spain in Argentina, the Italian Cultural Institute, the University of Argentine Social Museum, the magazine Lucas of Leyden, the Embassy of Mexico in Argentina, the LibrariansSociety ABGRA, the National Institute of Industrial Technology,the CONICET, and the General Archive of the Nation, among others.

The meeting was held from April 4 to April 8, three days dedicated to conferences and 2 workshops and seminars. Monday 4th the congress was focused on conservation of books and documents, on Tuesday the subjet were artworks and Wednesday 6th was dedicated to photography and interventions.

During the three days, it became clear the interest in preserving the cultural heritage, as well as the lack of budget and knowledge of the main policies regarding local programs for digitizing. During the congress it became clear that the Wikimedia projects could prove vital for the dissemination of the cultural projects to preserve the argentine heritage carried out in Argentina.

During the last day, April 6, the Digitizing proect manager of Wikimedia Argentina, Mauricio V. Genta, gave a brief talk about Wikimedia and its projects. Focusing on the three most critical projects for this community and attendees: Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons and Wikisource, we focused the subject in the importance of the work that can be achieved with Wikimedia Argentina as partner to highlight these institutions and their heritage for a common benefit.

Staff involved: 2
Volunteers involved: 1
Total of participants:82
Gender approach: 72 women

Empowering Cultural institutions: Archivo Histórico de la Provincia de Buenos Aires

Date: 8th of April 2016
Activity: Empowering cultural institutions
Program: Community Support Program
Description:We started working on our annual planning of 2016 along with the Historical Archive of the Province of Buenos Aires.

During 2016, the project will be lead by Mauricio Genta , who assumed its leadership at the end of 2015.

While WMAR has been working continuously with the institution, the Executive Director changed after the national elections, and it is right now when we are starting to work normally together.

The main goal of our visit, was to train the former and new staff in the use of the scanner that has been loaned by WMAR.

First they showed us the archive facilities again, which confirmed the few resources and significant lack of equipment and budget they have to ensure an adequate work for digitinzing the cultural and historial heritage; per example there are no elements to regulate the temperature or huminity , which is essential in an archive.

Once the staff was ready, Giselle Bordoy (WMAR) gave an introductory talk regaring Wikimedia Commons; while the rest of WMAR's staff checked the scanner and its configuration and the camera's calibration to be able to explain the archive's staff how to use it.

We test with different materials provided by the insitution, being very pleased with the result of the images, though it was clear they could not scan documents longer than 30cm as records.

We explained to the staff that would be in charge of digitizatizing project, how to use the post-processing software.

Finally we exchanged ideas and we agreed to make some changes to the scanner to suit the needs required for the conservation of material, such as the use of LED lights; as well as changing the camera support screws and provide a more durable shutter.

Staff involved: 1
Volunteers involved: 1
Total of participants:8
Gender approach: 6 women

DIY Scanner upgrade for "Archivo histórico de la Provincia de Buenos Aires"

Date: -
Activity: Hardware and software upgrades.
Program: Digitizing program
Description: We upgraded and performed maintenance on the DIY Scanner, before signing the new agreement.
Staff involved: 1
Volunteers involved: -
Gender approach: -
Result: Improved quality and reliability of the scanner.

DIY Scanner upgrade for "Academia Argentina de Letras" (AAL)

Date: -
Activity: Hardware and software upgrades.
Program: Digitizing program
Description: We upgraded and performed maintenance on the DIY Scanner, before signing the new agreement.
Staff involved: 1
Volunteers involved: -
Gender approach: -
Result: Improved quality and reliability of the scanner.

May

Organizing the digitizing work within the cultural institutions

Date:
Activity: Empowering cultural institutions
Program: GLAM Program.
Description:
Staff involved:
Volunteers involved:
Total of participants:
Gender approach:

Empowering Cultural institutions: Archivo Histórico de la Provincia de Buenos Aires

Date: 8th of June2016
Activity: Empowering cultural institutions
Program: Community Support Program - GLAM Program.
Description: We continued working on our annual planning of 2016 along with the Historical Archive of the Province of Buenos Aires.

Wikimedia Argentina signed a new agreement with the Historical Archive of the Province of Buenos Aires. In this agreement the cultural institutions has to dedicated 8 hours of digitizing for Wikimedia Argentina. Another goal of the visit, was to continued training the staff in the use of the scanner that has been loaned by WMAR.

Staff involved: 1
Volunteers involved: 1
Total of participants: 3
Gender approach: 1 women

New agreement "Academia Argentina de Letras" (AAL)

Date: may 30th
Activity: Signing new agreement until 2018 (two years).
Program: Digitizing program
Description: We signed a new agreement to extend the digitizing of books with our DIY scan until 2018.
Staff involved: 1
Volunteers involved: -
Gender approach: -
Result: 95 books digitized on the first semester.

New agreement "Archivo Histórico Provincia de Buenos Aires"

Date: May
Activity: Signing new agreement until 2018 (two years).
Program: Digitizing program
Description: We signed a new agreement to extend the digitizing of books with our DIY scan until 2018.
Staff involved:
Volunteers involved: -
Gender approach: -
Result: 85 books digitized on the first semester.

New GLAM conections

Date: May
Activity: One of our goals for this year is letting know to local institutions about our project. We have established new contact among museums and archives to work with them in the future.
Program: Digitizing program
Description:
Staff involved: 1
Volunteers involved: -
Gender approach: -

Digitized books from "Academia Argentina de Letras"

Date:may 29th
Activity: Files uploading
Program: Digitizing program
Description: We received a new batch of 30 books scanned by the Academy of Letter, most of them from the XIX century.
Staff involved: 1
Volunteers involved: -
Gender approach: -
Result: 30 new books in Wikimedia Commons and 30 new entrys in Wikidata.

June

DIY Scanner upgrade for "Archivo Histórico de la provincia de Buenos Aires"

Date: -
Activity: Hardware and software upgrades.
Program: Digitizing program
Description: We upgraded and performed maintenance on the DIY Scanner, before signing the new agreement.
Staff involved: 1
Volunteers involved: -
Gender approach: -
Result: Improved quality and reliability of the scanner.

Digitized books from "Academia Argentina de Letras"

Date:june 8th
Activity: Files uploading
Program: Digitizing program
Description: We received a new batch of 38 books scanned by the Academy of Letter, most of them are rare books from the XIX century.
Staff involved: 1
Volunteers involved: -
Gender approach: -
Result: 38 new books in Wikimedia Commons and and 38 new entrys in Wikidata.

Digitized books from "Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes"

Date:june 22th
Activity: Files uploading
Program: Digitizing program
Description: We received the first batch of 6 books scanned by the National Museum of Fine Arts, the objective for this year is digitize all the catalogs between 1896 and 1930, and work with them not only in Commons and Wikisource, but they will also provide a large and reliable source of references and bibliography for Wikipedia.
Staff involved: 1
Volunteers involved: -
Gender approach: -
Result: 6 new books in Wikimedia Commons and 6 new entrys in Wikidata.

Wikisource contest

Date: june 10th to july 14th
Activity: Participation and Content
Program: Digitizing and creation of content
Description: Wikimedia Argentina is fostering its work with other projects apart of Wikipedia, Even though and according to the surveys conducted +80% of our editors work in Wikipedia, the 20% left would like to work with Wikisource, Wikivoyage or Wikidata. We truly believe that working with other project must be one of our main goals. In this sense, during 2015, we create +17,000 new articles in Wikimedia Commons. During this first semester of 2016 and after signing new agreements with our cultural stakeholders (after the national elections, the people in charge of these institutions changed) we focused our strategy in putting in value the heritage already released. In this sense, we launched the 1st WikiSource contest to created and improve all the materials already released by Wikimedia Argentina; this mean +140 books, +6 books and the Mundo Peronista collection.
Staff involved: 2
Volunteers involved: -
Gender approach: 33%
Result: 1238 pages, 10 books traslated and 3 wikidata entrys.

Empowering Cultural institutions: Archivo Histórico de la Provincia de Buenos Aires

Date: June
Activity: Empowering cultural institutions
Program: Digitizing and creation of content
Description: We continued working along with the Historical Archive of the Province of Buenos Aires, so we provided a computer to do the post processing of the digitized material.
Staff involved: 1
Volunteers involved: -
Total of participants: -
Gender approach: -

July

Digitized books from "Academia Argentina de Letras"

Date:july 1th - 31th
Activity: Files uploading
Program: Digitizing program
Description: We received a new batch of 38 books scanned by the Academy of Letter, most of them are rare books from the XIX century.
Staff involved: 1
Volunteers involved: -
Gender approach: -
Result: 238 new books in Wikimedia Commons and 38 new entrys in Wikidata.

August

Digitized books from "Academia Argentina de Letras"

Date:august 1th - 26th
Activity: Files uploading
Program: Digitizing program
Description: We received a new batch of 28 books scanned by the Academy of Letter, most of them are rare books from the XIX century.
Staff involved: 1
Volunteers involved: -
Gender approach: -
Result: 28 new books in Wikimedia Commons and 38 new entrys in Wikidata.

Scanner Set-Up at "Biblioteca de la Legislatura de la Provincia de Buenos Aires"

Date:august 17th
Activity: Scanner Set-Up
Program: Digitizing program
Description: We setted-up a new scanner at the Buenos Aires province Senate library. We expect start receiving book on mid september.
Staff involved: 1
Volunteers involved: -
Gender approach: -
Result: New institution and scanner ready for work.

September

Digitized books from "Academia Argentina de Letras"

Date:september 1th - 30th
Activity: Files uploading
Program: Digitizing program
Description: We received a new batch of 37 books scanned by the Academy of Letter, most of them are rare books from the XIX century.
Staff involved: 1
Volunteers involved: -
Gender approach: -
Result: 37 new books in Wikimedia Commons and 37 new entrys in Wikidata.

Participation in "I National Meeting of Conservation and digitizing"

Date: 19th of september 2016
Activity: Participation and content/ Empowering the community
Program: Digitizing program
Description:The Museum of the Cabildo y de la Revolución de Mayo, along with other GLAM institutions organized for the fourth consecutive year a meeting with cultural and professional organizations in Argentina and Chile. The same was held at Manzana de las Luces.

It was sponsored by more than 5 local prestigious institutions such as the Ministry of Culture, the University of Argentine Social Museum, the magazine Lucas of Leyden, among others.

During the congress it became clear that the Wikimedia projects could prove vital for the dissemination of the cultural projects to preserve the argentine heritage carried out in Argentina.

The Digitizing project manager of Wikimedia Argentina, Mauricio V. Genta, gave a brief talk about Wikimedia and its projects. Focusing on the two most critical projects for this community and attendees: Wikidata and Wikimedia Commons, we focused the subject in the importance of the work that can be achieved with Wikimedia Argentina as partner to highlight these institutions and their heritage for a common benefit.

Staff involved: 2
Volunteers involved: 1
Total of participants:91
Gender approach: 73 women
Result: We have established new contact among museums and archives to work with them in the future.

October

Participation in "RBP: Ideas para el cambio"

Date: 3rd of october 2016
Activity: Participation and content
Program: Digitizing program / GLAM
Description:The network of public libraries from the Buenos Aires City goverment, invited us to a meeting with librarians, Marshall Breeding and Carol Brey (from the USA embassy) to present and discuss plans for the next years. We established new contacts, and we expect to make some partnerships soon.
Staff involved: 1
Volunteers involved: 0
Total of participants:54
Gender approach: 34 women
Result: We have established new contact among libraries and the goverment city libraries network to work with them in the future.

Digitized books from "Academia Argentina de Letras"

Date:october 1th - 30th
Activity: Files uploading
Program: Digitizing program
Description: We received a new batch of 26 books scanned by the Academy of Letter, most of them are rare books from the XIX century.
Staff involved: 1
Volunteers involved: -
Gender approach: -
Result: 26 new books in Wikimedia Commons and 26 new entrys in Wikidata.

Digitized books from "Archivo Histórico de la Provincia de Buenos Aires"

Date:october 1th - 30th
Activity: Files uploading
Program: Digitizing program
Description: We received a new batch of 2 books scanned by the Academy of Letter, most of them are rare books from the XIX century.
Staff involved: 1
Volunteers involved: -
Gender approach: -
Result: 2 new books in Wikimedia Commons and 2 new entrys in Wikidata.

New GLAM conections with the BA public librarys

Date: October
Activity: Participation and content
Program: Digitizing program / GLAM
Description: We established a new connection with the Buenos Aires City Public Librarys System, this is the first step to establish a agreement to work together en several programs with them.
Staff involved: 1
Volunteers involved: -
Gender approach: -

November

Digitized books from "Academia Argentina de Letras"

Date:november 1th - 30th
Activity: Files uploading
Program: Digitizing program
Description: We received a new batch of 31 books scanned by the Academy of Letter, most of them are rare books from the XIX century.
Staff involved: 1
Volunteers involved: -
Gender approach: -
Result: 31 new books in Wikimedia Commons and 31 new entrys in Wikidata.

December

Digitized books from "Academia Argentina de Letras"

Date:december 1th - 31th
Activity: Files uploading
Program: Digitizing program
Description: We received a new batch of 27 books scanned by the Academy of Letter, most of them are rare books from the XIX century.
Staff involved: 1
Volunteers involved: -
Gender approach: -
Result: 27 new books in Wikimedia Commons and 27 new entrys in Wikidata.

Digitized books from "Archivo Histórico de la Provincia de Buenos Aires"

Date:december 19th
Activity: Files uploading
Program: Digitizing program
Description: We received a 1 book from Archivo Histórico de la Provincia de Buenos Aires.
Staff involved: 1
Volunteers involved: -
Gender approach: -
Result: 1 new books in Wikimedia Commons and 1 new entrys in Wikidata.

Result

Activity	Result
Digitized books	268 (37000+ pages)
Wikidata entries (curated)	376
Wikisource pages	1238 (10 books completed)
Commons files descriptions (curated)	376
Files used	260

Note: Curated means the information was prepared by the institution and reflects professional work.