DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.
DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.

DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.

Name:
Internship Organization:
 Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library
Department:
 N/A
Internship Position Title:
 Wikipedian in Residence
Company URL:
 http://www.fordlibrarymuseum.gov/
Internship Organization Description:

The Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library is a presidential library within the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) structure that endeavors to document the life, career, and presidency of Gerald R. Ford, the 38th President of the United States.  It is home to a rich collection of documents and audio/visual materials, including 25 million pages of print documents, 450,000 still photographs, 3,500 hours of video, 3,000 hours of audio, and 787,000 feet of motion picture film.  Much of this collection, especially the still photographs and documents, has been digitized and is now part of the Ford Digital Library, which was instrumental in enabling this kind of a collaboration with Wikimedia projects.

Location (City, State, Country):
 Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States
Term:
 Winter 2013
Specialization(s):
 Archives and Records Management
Description of work:

As the Wikipedian in Residence, my main task was to enrich Wikipedia and its sibling sites (chiefly Wikimedia Commons, the image repository, and Wikisource, the free library of primary source texts) with the public domain content donated by the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library and Museum.  Aside from enriching Wikipedia, this also brought the Ford's content to a wider audience, helping them to fulfill their mission to educate and inform the public.  The majority of my work was on-site on one of three Wikimedia projects: Wikipedia (where I mostly wrote articles and added images to existing articles), Wikimedia Commons (where I mostly did mundane but necessary technical work with templates and categorization), and Wikisource (where I mostly participated in transcribing scanned documents from PDF to Wiki mark-up).  I also had many smaller, less formal roles throughout the term, from helping to coordinate an Edit-a-Thon at the Library (in which members of the University of Michigan community came to learn to edit and participate collaboratively on Ford-related topics) to explaining Wikipedia processes and norms to my Ford collaborators in meetings to tending to Ford-related requests from my fellow Wikipedians.  For the most part, however, my job was mostly concerned with actual editing on Wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons, and Wikisource.

Learning Objectives/Goals:
  1. Learn how to effectively use NARA's ARC cataloging system
  2. Effectively organize and run an “edit-a-thon” at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library
  3. Effectively write a case study documenting my Wikipedian in Residence experience as well as the broader collaboration on the Outreach Wiki
  4. Be able to serve as a bridge between the Wikimedia and Ford Presidential Library communities, effectively explaining the values and motivations of one side to the other when required
Impact/Outcomes of Internship:

Personal:

  • I gained invaluable practical experience working with other employees, including my mentor, supervisor, and the Wikipedia Working Group
  • I learned first-hand how large, semi-decentralized federal agencies like NARA operate
  • I learned about the concerns and views of archivists and other Ford employees regarding the Wikimedia projects and the collaboration at hand
  • I learned how to locate images using both NARA's ARC system as well as the Ford's own alternative solution

Institutional and project-related:

Artifact and Description:

For screenshots of my artifacts (all of which are digital and computer-mediated), please click on the "Gallery" link to see a slideshow.


For direct links to these websites and pages, please click the links below (see above, under the "Impact/Outcomes" section, for more context):

 

DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.
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