This post was written by Sara Thomas, Wikimedian in Residence at Museums Galleries Scotland
As I write this, I’m sitting in the library of the Glasgow Museum of Modern Art. There’s a pleasing amount of public wifi, and an excellent cup of tea. This week I’ve also been in Kelvingrove Museum, telling the Curatorial Forum more about what this Residency will involve, and in the Glasgow Museums Resource Centre, meeting more people and getting a tantalising peek inside the stores. It’s only week two, but I’m really enjoying this job so far.
This is the second residency in Scotland, with the first in the expert hands of Ally Crockford. Mine is a year-long project with Museums Galleries Scotland, the first four months of which will be spent on secondment to Glasgow Museums. It’s very much a networked residency (not unlike Pat Hadley’s with the Yorkshire Network Project) and will see me working with multiple institutions across Scotland. I am more than excited.
I’ve lived in Glasgow since the late nineties, and so it’s with great pleasure that I get the opportunity to talk open knowledge in some of the institutions in which I’ve spent so much time over the years, particularly Kelvingrove Museum. I’m also delighted to be able to investigate the collections surrounding the Kelvin Hall project, which is currently under development, and see how we might use them to enrich the encyclopedia. Even though it’s only week two, a good many leads have already presented themselves, and I’m hopeful that my residency will be able to kick start a longer term relationship between these institutions and Wikimedia. I’ll let you know how I get on…