Dear Friends, New York City Wikimedians,
I
want to thank you all so much for your support of my role as Wikipedian-in-Residence
at the Metropolitan New York Library Council, and the many events we’ve
organized together since I first took the position in August, 2013. With the
support of Wikimedia NYC, other
institutional collaborators, and all of you, we’ve hosted around 15 public
Edit-a-thons at places like the New York Public Library branches, the Queens Library Central, the Center for Jewish History, the
Guggenheim Museum, the Brooklyn Museum, and the MoMA Education Deparment, and
have encouraged an ethic of sharing in many New York institutions. I’ve also
personally given around 20 staff trainings on Wikipedia editing to
institutional staff, and hosted several more specialty events at the METRO
office on 11th Street. Images of some of the events METRO has
co-organized are
available in Wikimedia Commons.
While
I’ve had a wonderful go as Wikipedian-in-Residence, all good things eventually
come to a close. As you may know, I will be leaving my position shortly to
pursue other opportunities for growth and learning, starting on April 2nd,
2015.
METRO
and I have been discussing opportunities for METRO to continue collaborating
with Wikipedia and library-specific Open Knowledge and Open Data projects to
support our institutional members. I have made sure to put my
supervisor in touch with staff at the Wikipedia Library and the Wiki Education
Foundation, as well as members of WMF Grants and the larger Wikipedia community,
and I’m working to ensure that there is a referral process in place so that if
METRO members have questions about Wikipedia, they know to contact WMNYC or
other groups that will respond.
But METRO is also in a time of transition,
after Jason Kuscma left his spot as Executive Director, we are currently in an
interm period, and things are somewhat on hold until someone new is hired so it
is yet to be determined whether METRO will create an Open Data / WiR position
or expand its open initiatives in other ways. As you may have heard, METRO
received a grant from the Knight Foundation for its Culture in Transit
project, and is embarking on a large-scale initiative to scan and digitize
print materials for public archiving. From being immersed in the culture here
at METRO I can say with confidence and pride that whatever comes next, openness
will be a big part of their considerations in their digital projects.
Going forward, if you need to get in contact with me, the best address in the future will be my personal e-mail: <dorohoward@gmail.com>, and you can always find me on Twitter @DorothyR_Howard. But proverbially speaking, I’m not going anywhere- and will one way or another continue to take part in New York Wikipedia and Open-GLAM initiatives.
Please
let me know if you have any questions about this transition, and thanks for
your continual support.
All
the best,
Dorothy Howard