Meeting Minutes-16 November 2015
Attendees:
Shannon Eichelberger (SE)
Eugene Eichelberger (EE)
Joseph Quinn (JQ)
Emma Clarke (EC)
Gabriel Beecham (GB)
User Group
Bylaws were sent out to the mailing list. They will be open for consultation for 3 weeks. SE will send weekly reminders.
Edit-a-thons
PRONI-4 February 2015-still in the planning phases, but JQ has confirmed the date.
Conferences
No news
WLM
The awards event was very successful. We had 6 of the ten winners attend. Several winners asked for certificates, which we will look into for next year.
Only 1 winner has yet to get get in touch with the group.
We had good media coverage, thanks to our PR guy Cian.
EE has identified some issues with the WLM website. Neeku was put in charge of the site maintenance. She also updated the winners page. (Thanks Neeku!)
Other Events
Science Gallery-TRAUMA-20 January 6:30. EE is in the process of lining up speakers.
December break-the next meeting will be the last for the year. We will have a Christmas Lunch/Planning Meeting during the the first 2 weeks of December.
Misc
Alex Stinton from Wikipedia Library joined the meeting to give a short talk on how we, as a group, can help it grow. Here are the main points (Thanks Eugene):
The Wikipedia Library https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/The_Wikipedia_Library
This is an effort to give access to reliable sources, like journals, etc. Akin to the access you had as a University student. It is also a focal point to encourage other institutions to become part of the Wikimedia ecosystem by sharing (controlling) access to their repositories. It is a way to encourage librarians and archivists to become involved as it is a way to collaborate on finding and incorporating new archives.
Resource exchange-currently only on English Wikipedia-Wikipedians help each other by providing source material that may be behind paywalls.
Visiting Scholars (unpaid and remote) https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/The_Wikipedia_Library/Scholars
A program with a centuries old tradition, used as a gateway to greater partnerships between universities and the Foundation/Chapter.
Wikipedia Loves Libraries https://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_Loves_Libraries/Events
There is an existing event structure to host wiki-workshops and editathons libraries.
Library events-Getting librarians of a region to talk to each other and collaborate locally works:
Reference Desk-librarians answering questions about sources live-already piloted in Israel.
Branch System-create a community in Ireland that can exchange sources and create pools of information
Alex stresses that librarians by-nature horde references to archives; it is what they do. We can encourage these individuals to start doing the same thing collaboratively. This provides a great source of both volunteers and trainers in all things Wikimedia.
Some of the places we think would be receptive:
Dublin City Archive, Pearse Library-JQ will reach out to his contact there.
NUI Galway Library-we already have held several events there
The last meeting of 2015 will take place on 24 November at 6:30pm in Dublin. If you would like to attend, either in person or via Google Hangouts, please send an email to wikimediaireland@gmail.com