working regularly on improving Wikipedia content. Tasks are tailored to every individuals needs and interests. The Library holds an annual awards ceremony to recognise the achievements of its volunteers and offers free parking and refreshments to all members of the team. The scheme has been so successful that there is often a waiting list to volunteer.
Getting the right support: integrating Wikimedia champions into the library
As we described in the last section, you can bring lots of different types of people into an organization to work on Wikimedia projects. However, codifying the role of staff or volunteer advocates for these collaborations within your organization, can greatly strengthen the effectiveness of projects: rather than having one off editing events or data donations, if your champions have formal roles, they can develop a more strategic and integrated plan. This
integration allows these champions to work more closely with library staff, the Wikimedia community and other volunteers to identify common objectives and implement mutually beneficial programmes. Moreover, this allows for the library administration to recognize the work and its place within the organization. Integrating champions into your library and formalizing their roles also places faith in them as individuals and this can motivate them to stay engaged with project for longer. This is particularly true when working with unpaid champions who are often young graduates looking for work experience to bolster their CV.
Staff champions
The first obvious, and relatively cost effective, way to integrate Wikimedia projects into the strategy of a GLAM is to formalize the role of staff for organizing activities and working on Wikimedia project within the course of their work. Staff can allocate a certain amount of their work hours to work on Wikimedia projects, typically with a broader public access or outreach mission in mind. However, if the addition of Wikimedia is a side project (or just a tactic within someone’s job), there are risks: the main one being, that it’s hard to get broad support across hierarchical organizations without some sort of strategic investment in Wikimedia contribution as an organization.
Two major tactics have been used by GLAMs in identifying the role for existing staff members who contribute to Wikimedia:
● At the US National Archive and Records Administration, the social media and digital innovation offices supported an informal Wikipedia editing guideline that is similar to the other social media use guidelines.[1]
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- ↑ For the NARA guidelines see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:GLAM/National_Archives_and_Records_Administration/Guidelines
