BOSTON ROCK CITY EDIT-A-THON

Christine Fernsebner Eslao �Metadata Technologies Program Manager, Harvard Library Information & Technical Services�

Dory Klein�Community History Librarian, Boston Public Library

SET LIST

• Who we are
• Arthur Freedman Collection Project
• Institutional goals
• Behind the scenes:
• Workflow
• Setting the stage
• The gig
• The encore [taking this show on the road]

ARTHUR FREEDMAN COLLECTION / PROJECT

• Collection came to Harvard Library in December 2011
• Audio materials → Loeb Music Library�c. 500 analog audio cassettes (1976-2000, mostly 70s and 80s) 
• Video materials → Harvard Film Archive�1158 VHS, Hi8, 8mm video, and Mini DV tapes (1985-2011)
• Audio fully digitized, video in progress
• Working with bands to gather more metadata and permission to share as streaming media
• Wikidata project initially planned as part of LD4P2

GOALS

Connect community with special collections

Bands

Musicians

Shows

Archival media

Venues

Instruments

Awards

Record labels

Places

Genres

Images

Affiliations

Collections-related

• Donor relations
• Collection and domain knowledge
• Curation (in this case, a playlist!)

Project Management

• Tracking tasks and timelines
• Scheduling and Zoom setup
• Volunteer recruitment and instruction
• Meeting facilitation

Ontology and modeling

• Documentation
• Preliminary Wikidata item creation
• Queries/visualizations

Workflow design

• Tool selection/setup
• Reconciliation
• Data wrangling and spreadsheet creation
• Documentation

Community Outreach

• Domain experts (in this case, the Boston music community)
• Wikidata
• Librarians

Promotion

• Coordinating w/ communications staff
• Drafting promotional language
• Fielding press inquiries

Event

• Presentation
• Instructional materials
• Monitoring Discord and spreadsheet
• Answering questions
• Manually editing Wikidata!

Boston Public Library

• Dory Klein and Jared Rex: scheduling, hosting on BPL Zoom, coordination with Communications Department, promotion

Loeb/Harvard Library

• Christine Fernsebner Eslao: project management, ontology/modeling, queries/visualizations, volunteer wrangling, tool selection/setup, community outreach, workflow design, reconciliation
• Peter Laurence: project management, playlist, donor relations, community outreach, domain knowledge
• Christina Linklater: community outreach, domain knowledge
• ITS volunteers: event dashboard setup, community outreach, answering Wikidata questions

Other

• Kate Mancey: ontology/modeling, queries/visualizations, workflow design, instruction, domain knowledge
• Artie Freedman: context, bird
• Will Kent: consultation, instruction, community outreach, answering Wikidata questions
• Hilary Thorsen: consultation, community outreach, answering Wikidata questions

THE TASKS

THE CREW

Extract finding aid EAD XML

Import to OpenRefine & parse band names

Reconcile band names to Wikidata items

Export to Google sheet for bands without items

Add “on focus list…” statement through Quickstatements

Add to Listeria lists & Integraality dashboard via query criteria

Does it match an existing item?

Does an item for their record label exist?

Note in Google sheet or #record-labels Discord channel

Create record label item manually

Create or edit band items manually

Add statement to link band item to record label item

NO

YES

Setting the stage: Pre-edit-a-thon workflow

Edit-a-thon workflow

NO

YES

THE GIG

Tools and platforms (or, lugging all our gear on stage)

• Wikidata: editing and visualizations
• Zoom: registration, launch event, introductions/presentations, hellos and wrap up
• Discord: base of operations for questions, conversations throughout the event
• Wikidata project page: event details, item lists (including an Integraality dashboard), documentation, instructions, links to tools and resources (including a Cradle form)
• Wiki Edu dashboard: optional tracking for event participants
• Google drive: shared spreadsheet, document scans, instructional videos
• HOLLIS For Archival Discovery: data
• Spotify: playlists

MC

COLLECTION

EXPERT

DONOR + BIRD

WIKIDATA EXPLAINER

WHAT ROCKED?

• 135 registered participants, with 85+ attendees signed onto Discord and Zoom
• Memory-sharing among contributors in Discord
• Artie (and La Belle et la Bête)
• Instructional video shared in advance
• Knowledgeable volunteers, no questions unanswered
• The Boston Rock City playlist and other links to audio and video
• 89 items created, 198 items edited, 741 references added, 1.2K total edits

THE REVIEWS

• Queried the Item Quality Evaluator for scores from 0 to 5 using ORES (Objective Revision Evaluation Service)
• Results ranged from 1.61 to 4.84
• Average score for all items: 2.56
• Record labels: 2.03
• Venues: 2.1
• Bands: 2.71
• Musicians: 2.93

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TAKING THIS SHOW ON THE ROAD

What was the most positive outcome of this event?

• “I got a better handle on a thing I wanted to learn”
• “Getting to learn the history of some of the bands and venues”
• “Meeting wonderful community”
• “Just fun to revisit the past & hear some great music”
• “Preserving a record of cultural and artistic community unique to the Boston metro region”
• “I learned a lot and got to ‘meet’ fascinating people, especially Artie and his bird”

QUESTIONS?

Christine Fernsebner Eslao eslao@fas.harvard.edu

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Dory Klein �dklein@bpl.org �