Grants:Project/Smallison/Music in Canada @ 150: A Wikipedia and Wikidata Project/Final

This project is funded by a Project Grant

proposal

people

timeline & progress

finances

midpoint report

final report

Welcome to this project's final report! This report shares the outcomes, impact and learnings from the grantee's project.

Part 1: The Project

Summary

In a few short sentences, give the main highlights of what happened with your project. Please include a few key outcomes or learnings from your project in bullet points, for readers who may not make it all the way through your report.

Project Goals

Please copy and paste the project goals from your proposal page. Under each goal, write at least three sentences about how you met that goal over the course of the project. Alternatively, if your goals changed, you may describe the change, list your new goals and explain how you met them, instead.

• Create opportunities and mechanisms within GLAM (galleries, libraries, archive, museum) community for the use and creation of structured data in Wikipedia and Wikidata
• Expand collaborations between librarians, scholars and students in the Wikimedia project sphere in Canada through links with classes, research projects
• Increase the visibility of important collections and content in GLAM collections, with the possibility of integration with Wikicommons
• Understand the coverage of Canadian musical activity in Wikipedia to get a picture of priority areas and align the areas with local communities and potentially drive research projects
• Significantly expand content in specific priority areas
• Build local communities of expert users and support for ongoing work in Wikipedia and Wikidata and create a culture of sustained engagement by the GLAM and music communities
• Propel project goals through finding opportunities and alignments with activities related to the 150th anniversary of Canada's confederation in 2017

Project Impact

Important: The Wikimedia Foundation is no longer collecting Global Metrics for Project Grants. We are currently updating our pages to remove legacy references, but please ignore any that you encounter until we finish.

Targets

1. In the first column of the table below, please copy and paste the measures you selected to help you evaluate your project's success (see the Project Impact section of your proposal). Please use one row for each measure. If you set a numeric target for the measure, please include the number.
2. In the second column, describe your project's actual results. If you set a numeric target for the measure, please report numerically in this column. Otherwise, write a brief sentence summarizing your output or outcome for this measure.
3. In the third column, you have the option to provide further explanation as needed. You may also add additional explanation below this table.

Planned measure of success (include numeric target, if applicable)	Actual result	Explanation
improving target articles (250) with info boxes, structured citations and other modes of structured data	187 articles were edited through the outreach dashboard tool	this number does not reflect the total number of articles edited as the tool did not capture Wikidata edits. While overall our number was below our target number, the organizers were satisfied with the engagement and involvement of the participants. We also had fewer overall participating organizations than originally anticipated.
expand the conversation and knowledge around open access, open data, open source and linked open data	the project team was able to have a number of successful conversations on this topics and gain traction within the Canadian music library community for ongoing involvement	the project team held a panel discussion on the topic at the one-day workshop in May where the issues of openly available data was discussed and debated in detail. The participants also received training on editing Wikipedia and Wikidata where these topics were covered.
post-event assessment activities	a short survey was conducted after the workshop, but no other assessments were done	the project team found it challenging to organize assessment during the distributed campaign.
GLAMWiki Summit event to activate and unite community	several GLAM orgs are now moving ahead with plans	the event proved to be a good way to communicate and connect.

Story

Overall the project proved to be both more challenging and more rewarding than originally anticipated. One of the most rewarding outcomes of the project was changing the way music librarians and music academics understand Wikipedia and its potential powerful role within the landscape of music information in Canada.

The discussions during the May workshop were unexpectedly lively and frank as some participants did not see the value of editing Wikipedia, especially given there are other standard information sources for music in Canada which are written by professionals. Because most of the participants formed part of the same small professional circle of music librarians and because we know each well we were able to have this discussion in a way that would be impossible in a group of strangers, or even mixed professionals. The conversation also highlighted the challenges of finding source material about music in Canada given the shrinking coverage of arts in major newspapers and the demise of many publications. While were were unable to solve this problem, it does highlight the challenges of writing articles on Wikipedia about music and the challenge the arts face in Canada more generally. Another lively conversation took place around why one should put information about music on Wikipedia rather than in a close system like LibGuides. It was pointed out that the information on Wikipedia reaches a wider audience and has the advantage of allowing for reuse. By the end of the workshop many of those who had been doubtful or unsure about the role of Wikipedia in our work now had a more positive outlook on the work. This proved to be a huge success and seems it could be a model that could be followed by other small professional associations. Having a whole day of structured programming allowed for intensive discussion and the building of a learning community.

The project team decided to use the grant surplus to build on the success of the May workshop. Holding in-person activities for professionals proved to be an effective means of demonstrating the usefulness of the platforms and also providing a space for discussion.

Survey(s)

A pre-event and post-event survey was issued ahead of the GLAM Wiki Summit. The purpose of the survey was to gauge the level of experience of attendees, reasons for attending, as well as ascertain the topics of interest for "Birds of a Feather" session. Most respondents rated their experience with Wikipedia at a "4" out of 10 with just of 60% of respondents having never participated in a Wikipedia event or project. Respondents were interested in finding out how to use Wikimedia projects in their work in the cultural heritage sector. Surprisingly, the topic with the most interest was Wikidata, followed by campaigns and using digital images.

Other

Blog post communicating the results of the GLAMWiki event. It includes links to notes and the schedule. The Twitter hashtag #GLAMWikiTO provides relevant content.

Methods and activities

Campaign Logo

• The project team held monthly meetings and used Google docs to track and organize the project
• The project team send messages out via the CANMUS-L email list to seek interesting participants. An invite message was sent out 3 times. The project team also contacted individuals from potential organizations.
• A mailing list of those who had expressed interested was developed
• The project developed a website hosted by York University Libraries. The website was used to communicate information about the campaign and was used in conjunction with other communication mechanisms such as the outreach dashboard and individual meet-up pages. We weren't sure which method was going to be best.
• A logo was commissioned through a contact and was used on various posters and email and a the project team decided on a hashtag to use for the event.
• The project team committed to using the annual #1lib1ref campaign to practice their editing skills.
• A workshop was held as a preconference to the annual meeting of the Canadian Association of Music Libraries. The program can be found here. The full day session was held at the University of Toronto. Several local Wikimedians attended. The full program can be found here.
• Two online training sessions were held in September. Invitations to the webinars were sent to the CANMUS-L as well as the targeted mailing list. One session was held on editing Wikipedia for music and one session was held on Wikidata and music.
• National distributed edit-a-thons were held during Open Access week.
• The project was reported out through presentations at the Wikidata conference in 2017
• The subgroup of the original project team put together a Summit which included presentations and discussion for GLAM professionals in the Toronto area.

Project resources

GLAM Wiki Summit Toronto Breakout Session

Please provide links to all public, online documents and other artifacts that you created during the course of this project. Even if you have linked to them elsewhere in this report, this section serves as a centralized archive for everything you created during your project. Examples include: meeting notes, participant lists, photos or graphics uploaded to Wikimedia Commons, template messages sent to participants, wiki pages, social media (Facebook groups, Twitter accounts), datasets, surveys, questionnaires, code repositories... If possible, include a brief summary with each link.

Communication

• The main project website: https://wikimusic.library.yorku.ca/
• The project outreach dashboard
• Project meet-up page.

Training materials

• Music in Canada @ 150. Introduction to the Project" Wikipedia Pre-Conference, CAML Conference, University of Toronto, May 2017. Stacy Allison-Cassin, Slides.
• "How to Edit Wikipedia for Music Biographies." Stacy Allison-Cassin, Wikipedia Pre-Conference, CAML Conference, University of Toronto, May 2017. Slides.
• Wikidata for Workshop for Librarians, Dan Scott, Webinar, September 2017. Blog post.
• "Wikipedia & Music: Infoboxes, Categories, and Authority Data." Stacy Allison-Cassin, Webinar, September, 2017. Slides.

Presentations

• Conference presentation: Canadian Association of Music Libraries, Toronto, May 2017. Slides Blog post by Dan Scott.
• Interviews. CBC PEI online news story on the PEI editing event. Included interviews with: Stacy Allison-Cassin, Dale Sorenson, Rosie Le Faive.
• Lightning Talk. Wikidata Conference, Berlin, October 2017. Stacy Allison-Cassin Slides.
• GLAM (Galleries, Libraries, Archives & Museums) and the Power of Campaigns. Dawn Bazely & John Dupuis.Slides.

Edit-a-thons

• Disbributed edit-a-thons were held at nine sites across Canada during Open Access week 2017.
• There was an overall meet-up page which listed all the activities as well as links to training materials.
• Distributed edit-a-thon sites each used different mechanisms for managing their events. Some sites chose to use a meet-up page, or an eventbrite page or both and some sites just used the outreach dashboard. The choice depended on the comfort level with running events.
  • Edmonton eventbrite site. University of Alberta, Library news item.

Other outputs

• Project member Dan Scott developed code for the Everygreen Library Catalogue system to draw contextual information about musical artists from Wikidata. His blog write up provides information on how others can replicate this in their own catalogues.

Learning

The best thing about trying something new is that you learn from it. We want to follow in your footsteps and learn along with you, and we want to know that you took enough risks in your project to have learned something really interesting! Think about what recommendations you have for others who may follow in your footsteps, and use the below sections to describe what worked and what didn’t.

GLAMWiki Summit Panel

What worked well

This project engaged an existing community of content specialists who did not necessarily have much experience with Wikipedia or running edit-a-thons. Because we were very familiar with each other and had ongoing professional and personal relationships we were able to use this project to not only expand content on Wikipedia, but to think more broadly about how we can as librarians and educators use Wikipedia to meet the needs of our local communities. It also have us an opportunity to work together on a project and to think about how Wikipedia fits into our professional landscapes.

The one-day pre-conference workshop was extremely effective in giving adequate space and time for a professional-level conversation about the potential role of Wikipedia in the music library as well as giving time for hands-on learning. It was effective in that the conversation could extend to matters that would not be possible in a more public and general setting.

Following on the success of the one-day pre-conference another event was organized. This event was more focused more on specific GLAM opportunities, including more information about project like Wikimedia Commons. Effie Kapsalis was invited to speak about the work at the Smithsonian to give an example of the kind of work that could be done.

Relevant learning patterns

• Engaging non-Wikipedia academic experts to identify content gaps.
• Presenting wiki at an academic conference.

What didn’t work

• The length of the project proved a challenge. The project was first discussed in May 2016 and was not completed until January 2018. While this gave space for a range of activities it would have been easier to have a shorter campaign
• The geographic distribution of the participants made it a challenge was were isolated from each other for most of the project.
• It was challenging to engage such a nascent community in organizing events without much editing experience and it was challenging to support interested individuals who were not in close geographic proximity

Next steps and opportunities

• Several members of the project team are continuing to examine the role of Wikidata in the professional library space.
• Three project team members hosted an edit-a-thon at the Ontario Library Association Superconference in February, 2018.
• There have been some initial discussions about conducting another edit-a-thon as a follow-up
• Several workshop participants are continuing to edit Wikipedia.

After the GLAMWiki Summit

• Several participants have created GLAM Wiki pages, have hosted Wikipedians-in-residance, and taken on a role in the community
• Three of the organizers presented at the Ontario Library Association Conference

Part 2: The Grant

Finances

Actual spending

Please copy and paste the completed table from your project finances page. Check that you’ve listed the actual expenditures compared with what was originally planned. If there are differences between the planned and actual use of funds, please use the column provided to explain them.

Expense	Approved amount	Actual funds spent	Difference
Music and Belonging in Canada Wikipedia full-day Workshop and Summit	$2,200	$954.82	+$1,245.18
Overarching project expenses	$1,500	0	$1,500
National edit-a-thons	$4,125	$963.04	+3161.96
GLAM Wiki Summit Total	-$54250 *budget extension not included in total	-$4341.51	$1061.53
National edit-a-thons part 2	-$350 *budget extension not included in total	$0	$350
Total	$7825 CAD	-$6259.37	$1565.63

Remaining funds

Do you have any unspent funds from the grant? Yes

Please answer yes or no. If yes, list the amount you did not use and explain why.

• Remaining funds = $1565.63

• Ryerson University covered the costs of the Wikimedia Canada speaker
• We did not run a second set of music edit-a-thons
• We did not use funds to record the sessions as the quoted costs exceeded the budgeted amount

If you have unspent funds, they must be returned to WMF. Please see the instructions for returning unspent funds and indicate here if this is still in progress, or if this is already completed:

Documentation

Did you send documentation of all expenses paid with grant funds to grantsadminwikimedia.org, according to the guidelines here?

Please answer yes or no. If no, include an explanation.

Confirmation of project status

Did you comply with the requirements specified by WMF in the grant agreement?

Please answer yes or no.

Is your project completed?

Please answer yes or no.

• Yes

Grantee reflection

We’d love to hear any thoughts you have on what this project has meant to you, or how the experience of being a grantee has gone overall. Is there something that surprised you, or that you particularly enjoyed, or that you’ll do differently going forward as a result of the Project Grant experience? Please share it here!

This project proved to be a catalyst for numerous Wikimedia initiatives by involving librarians who had not previously worked with Wikipedia and energizing a community of practice. A number of the original participants remain engaged in the projects.

A surprising outcome was the usefulness of the face-to-face meetings for library workers and other involved in cultural heritage. The initial conference pre-conference session and the GLAM Wiki Summit both proved to be useful as spaces to engage in critical conversation and training. The grantees have gone on to organize similar kinds of events and a number of GLAM Wiki Summit participants would like to hold another event. Organizing events in conjunction with conferences is a useful way to engage a co-located group.

Some of the outcomes, such as the work on Wikidata has continued to provide areas of active engagement for a number of project members. And training materials have been used by other groups.

Organizing the distributed edit-a-thon was challenging to coordinate and a number of institutions that had expressed interested did not end up holding local events. While this was disappointing, we did still have a number of successful national events.