Grants talk:Project/Rapid/Rachel Wexelbaum/What is Wikipedia?/Report
Hello RachelWex thank you for the incredible work you do to promote wikipedia. I was really impressed with your report and the incredible work you're doing to shift perceptions not only amongst faculty and students at St. Cloud towards wikipedia but also counteract anti-semetic commentary on popular media. It sounds like you have a good partnership with the library and have good facilities to hold the editathons. You have a good plan to bring the new editors in the door through working with specific student groups or classes. I would be interested to see how that strategy would play out in future editathons. I have a couple follow up questions:
- How did your presentation on Wikipedia at the Library Technology Conference go? I see on the conference website it took place on March 14th.
- In regards to remaining funds our records actually show that funds weren't disbursed from WMF. So instead of remaining funds the total amount of $121.89 would be paid via reimbursement after the grant agreement has been signed. Please work with Grant Administrators <grantsadmin
wikimedia.org> to draft your agreement.
I am accepting your report. Please let me know if you have any follow-up questions. Best regards, WJifar (WMF) (talk) 15:36, 23 March 2018 (UTC)
Hello WJifar (WMF) (talk),
Thank you for your kind email of support! To answer your questions:
- My presentation on Wikipedia at the Library Technology Conference went very well! We had some librarians just beginning to dip their toe in the waters of leading edit-a-thons and editing, and this presentation (which focused on professional justification for Wikipedia work for librarians) really helped them see how they could connect or integrate Wikipedia work into their library work. The other thing that the participants valued was the community building during the presentation. There were a few familiar faces in the crowd who were active Wikipedian Librarians, as well as some folx I met at edit-a-thons during the previous weeks, so I introduced them and let folx know what they were doing re: Wikipedia efforts in Minnesota. There were also librarians in the audience from the Dakotas, Iowa, and Wisconsin--all regions that do not have a large Wikipedia presence at the moment--and they were all fired up to get started. One particular individual from South Dakota, a music librarian, said that he now had the tools to defend Wikipedia and Wikipedia efforts to his fellow members of the Music Library Association, as well as organize an edit-a-thon on his campus.
- Re: the grant: I hope to meet with my Dean and Administrative Director this week to see how we can resolve this issue so that my ALA Annual grant can be reviewed. For my ALA Annual grant, I am applying as an individual and not an institution, so hopefully that will be a better situation. I will keep you, Morgan Jue, and the WMF Grants Administration program staff up to date on this situation.