Hi GLAM-Wiki-ers,

There is a conversation going on at Wikipedia talk:GLAM#GLAM-Wiki Section in Manual of Style?, about the potential for a GLAM-Wiki section or page of the Manual of Style that could use your input.

I drafted some reasons why I think it would be helpful to have a GLAM-Wiki MOS, which I've posted on that page, and are also below.

Post to the talk page or reply to this email to discuss further.

  1. The GLAM-Wiki movement is rapidly growing and more GLAM professionals are searching for resources to help guide them in adopting editing policies everyday.
  2. There are dozens of GLAM-Wiki resources dispersed throughout Wikipedia, with similar, overlapping content. By synchronizing these resources, there could be more understanding and common language within the GLAM community.
  3. Though there are dozens of GLAM-Wiki resources, new Wikipedians-in-Residence often still feel the need to generate more guides because there is no definitive version.
  4. The Manual of Style already includes information and templates that speak to the GLAM-community, but it would be helpful for GLAM editors and Wikipedians-in-Residence if they were aggregated together. The closest things we have now are: Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Visual arts#Museums and collections, red links in outreach:GLAM/Model projects, and a whole lot of different learning resources in the GLAM Bookshelf, as well as some resources floating on user pages, GLAM pages, etc.
  5. GLAMs have a lot of documents and artifacts, such as museum collections, catalogs, finding aids, and archival materials, that can be difficult to put into the current templates provided, and questions about these materials are extremely common among GLAM professional Wikipedians, especially in the early days of their involvement with GLAM-Wiki.
  6. Adding GLAM content to the manual of style would help WiRs and GLAM editors resolve disputes by having particular pieces of MOS code to cite on talk pages.
  7. It would be helpful for private, non-GLAM editors to have a GLAM manual of style so that they could help monitor and regulate GLAM editing and watch out for COI issues.
  8. GLAM-Wiki editors have a unique set of conflict of interest concerns that could be laid out in the Manual of Style and/or (a) page(s) addressing those concerns could be linked to in the MOS.

Would love to hear from you! Thanks!

Dorothy
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Dorothy Howard, Open Data Fellow
Metropolitan New York Library Council (METRO)
212.228.2320 x127