Grants:Project/DPLA/Extending the DPLA digital asset pipeline to improve quality and discoverability/Final

This project is funded by a Project Grant

proposal

people

timeline & progress

finances

midpoint report

final report

Report under review

This Project Grant report has been submitted by the grantee, and is currently being reviewed by WMF staff. If you would like to add comments, responses, or questions about this grant report, you can create a discussion page at this redlink.

• To read the approved grant submission for this project, please visit Grants:Project/DPLA/Extending the DPLA digital asset pipeline to improve quality and discoverability.

• Review the reporting requirements to better understand the reporting process.
• Review all Project Grant reports under review.
• Please Email projectgrantswikimedia.org if you have additional questions.

Welcome to this project's final report! This report shares the outcomes, impact and learnings from the grantee's project.

Part 1: The Project

Summary

As a result of this project, DPLA was able to implement structured data statements on image uploads to Wikimedia Commons; develop the means to continuously synchronize and update our data after it has been uploaded to the Commons; and build out additional tools that further enhance the quality and value of our contributions. The project has not only increased the discoverability and usefulness of our existing images and data, but also enabled the continuation of our work and impact beyond the period of this grant.

Project Goals

1. DPLA will increase the usefulness of millions of Wikimedia Commons media files by converting template text to structured data and providing regular updates to Commons file metadata.
2. DPLA will produce reports and prototypes that demonstrate the value of its Commons uploads, and the promise of SDC generally.

Project Impact

Important: The Wikimedia Foundation is no longer collecting Global Metrics for Project Grants. We are currently updating our pages to remove legacy references, but please ignore any that you encounter until we finish.

Targets

We circulated our modeling plans with the community: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Digital_Public_Library_of_America/Modeling We helped design the “original catalog description” and “Commons media contributed by” properties on Wikidata. We redesigned the file info box for DPLA items in Wikimedia Commons to draw from Structured Data Statements rather than duplicative wikitext. We shared a prototype of an image citation that drew from structured data statements with the community. We worked with community members to design a new metadata template using structured data rather than wikitext. We identified macro functionality that will need to be created for structured data statements that is similar to functions that are available for WikiData that will be required for the image citations and shared that information with the WMF.

1. In the first column of the table below, please copy and paste the measures you selected to help you evaluate your project's success (see the Project Impact section of your proposal). Please use one row for each measure. If you set a numeric target for the measure, please include the number.
2. In the second column, describe your project's actual results. If you set a numeric target for the measure, please report numerically in this column. Otherwise, write a brief sentence summarizing your output or outcome for this measure.
3. In the third column, you have the option to provide further explanation as needed. You may also add additional explanation below this table.

Planned measure of success (include numeric target, if applicable)	Actual result	Explanation
At least 2 million edits to add structured data and make metadata updates in the grant period, plus continuing this process for all future uploads.	We’ve created over 27 million structured data statements across 2,334,599 items, including statements about copyright status, copyright license, RightsStatements.org statement, creators, subjects, identifiers, contributing institutions, description, title, and collection. Each of these statements has been designed with predicates and references that identify that it came from the originating institution and links to the DPLA item page, which identifies which properties were added by DPLA Bot and helps us peacefully interoperate with properties contributed by other means.	This is a copy of the text provided at the midpoint report, which had already exceeded the goal. Actual results are higher, but we do not have the final count.
A Wikimedia statistics page in production on DPLA's dashboard, which is available to partners.	DPLA's Analytics Dashboard has a "Wikimedia Readiness" tab that displays every contributing institution's eligibility for Wikimedia Commons upload based on their items' rights and access to their media.
Image citation templates, mockups, and a write-up that are functional enough for demonstration purposes	Templates and mockups can be viewed at commons:User:Dominic/SDC citation tests	These were presented at a special meeting of WREN attended by over 30 attendees, and extensive notes were taken. Dominic also presented on the subject at Wikimania 2022.

Story

Looking back over your whole project, what did you achieve? Tell us the story of your achievements, your results, your outcomes. Focus on inspiring moments, tough challenges, interesting anecdotes or anything that highlights the outcomes of your project. Imagine that you are sharing with a friend about the achievements that matter most to you in your project.

• This should not be a list of what you did. You will be asked to provide that later in the Methods and Activities section.
• Consider your original goals as you write your project's story, but don't let them limit you. Your project may have important outcomes you weren't expecting. Please focus on the impact that you believe matters most.

One of the best stories is how this work resulted in the completion of major project elements that have paved the way for the project’s future continuation and success. For example, the implementation of structured data standards not only improved the quality of our data, but it also enabled us to develop the data synchronization software that allows us to maintain that quality over time. Now, whenever DPLA partners make changes to their metadata, the changes are carried over to Wikimedia as well. This ensures the quality of the data, since metadata is not static and can change over time for a variety of reasons, ranging from simple factual or grammatical fixes to addressing outdated or harmful language. DPLA has since been able to build on these achievements, including during our 2022 Wikimedia Foundation grant, which involved deploying additional solutions to improve our approach to structured data.

Through this project, we also used our regular check-ins with Wikimedia to provide input on behalf of the GLAM field. Based on our community’s needs, we suggested that Wikimedia add to its structured data statements a reference field where users could input a URL indicating the data source. This is of particular importance to GLAMs, which see their digitized collections as informational content whose metadata is worthy of inclusion in an article's reference list—as most academic works do. In addition to enabling the proper attribution of metadata, the reference field would also be critical to making DPLA’s data synchronization process possible. Wikimedia listened to the suggestion and, before our project even wrapped up, had added the reference field. This demonstrates how our collaboration resulted in a new feature that strengthens the quality of content available on Wikimedia Commons and broadens its benefits to allow more cultural heritage institutions to participate.

Survey(s)

If you used surveys to evaluate the success of your project, please provide a link(s) in this section, then briefly summarize your survey results in your own words. Include three interesting outputs or outcomes that the survey revealed.

N/A.

Other

Is there another way you would prefer to communicate the actual results of your project, as you understand them? You can do that here!

Methods and activities

Please provide a list of the main methods and activities through which you completed your project.

• Our project activities were mainly accomplished by DPLA Data Fellow Dominic Byrd-McDevitt and DPLA Senior Software Engineer Scott Williams.
• The majority of the work in the first half of the granting period related to planning and implementation work for Structured Data Statements and image citations.
• The second half of the grant period was devoted to putting data synchronization into production.

Learning

The best thing about trying something new is that you learn from it. We want to follow in your footsteps and learn along with you, and we want to know that you took enough risks in your project to have learned something really interesting! Think about what recommendations you have for others who may follow in your footsteps, and use the below sections to describe what worked and what didn’t.

What worked well

What did you try that was successful and you'd recommend others do? To help spread successful strategies so that they can be of use to others in the movement, rather than writing lots of text here, we'd like you to share your finding in the form of a link to a learning pattern.

• Your learning pattern link goes here

DPLA has learned that data synchronization works very well with Commons and Structured Data. We are not aware of any previous efforts to create a process that allows for continuous synching of data after it has been uploaded to Commons, and we feel that the software and process developed through this grant have helped to affirm the value of Structured Data and established a model that hopefully can be replicated going forward.

What didn’t work

What did you try that you learned didn't work? What would you think about doing differently in the future? Please list these as short bullet points.

• Through our image citation pilot, we learned that big ideas need a champion. The approach we were testing was well received by the community, but it has yet to be adopted. In order for that to happen, there will likely need to be an individual or group committed to pushing it forward.
• We quickly learned in the beginning that our expected approach to adopting Structured Data was overly ambitious. Realizing the amount of work and the sequencing of steps that would be required, we were able to envision future phases of the project and devise a much more realistic approach.

Other recommendations

If you have additional recommendations or reflections that don’t fit into the above sections, please list them here.

Next steps and opportunities

Are there opportunities for future growth of this project, or new areas you have uncovered in the course of this grant that could be fruitful for more exploration (either by yourself, or others)? What ideas or suggestions do you have for future projects based on the work you’ve completed? Please list these as short bullet points.

DPLA will be continuing and deepening our relationship with the Wikimedia community. As a direct result of the work of this project and previous Wikimedia Foundation grants, DPLA was able to secure further funding from the Sloan Foundation for more Wikimedia programs over the next three years, as announced in our recent press release. We see that work as a continuation of the work started with the SDAW funding (and we recognize both are Sloan-funded), but just with a broader scope than structured data. As such, we plan to maintain and continue to develop DepictAssist, continue to reconcile and add subjects to DPLA uploads, work on the SDC-powered citation concept, and continue to be active in global outreach with peer institutions. DPLA will be continuing and deepening our relationship with the Wikimedia community. As a direct result of the work of this project and previous Wikimedia Foundation grants, DPLA was able to secure further funding from the Sloan Foundation for more Wikimedia programs over the next three years, as announced in our recent press release. We see that work as a continuation of the work started with the SDAW funding (and we recognize both are Sloan-funded), but just with a broader scope than structured data. As such, we plan to maintain and continue to develop DepictAssist, continue to reconcile and add subjects to DPLA uploads, work on the SDC-powered citation concept, and continue to be active in global outreach with peer institutions.

Part 2: The Grant

Finances

Actual spending

Please copy and paste the completed table from your project finances page. Check that you’ve listed the actual expenditures compared with what was originally planned. If there are differences between the planned and actual use of funds, please use the column provided to explain them.

Expense	Approved amount	Actual funds spent	Difference
Developer	29,022	29,149	127
Program Manager	13,725	13,850	125
Intern		0
Total S&W	42,747	42,999	252
Fringe	6,965	6,714	-251
Total Direct	49,712	49,713	1
Indirect	4,972	4,971	-1
Total	54,684	54,684	0

Remaining funds

Do you have any unspent funds from the grant?

Please answer yes or no. If yes, list the amount you did not use and explain why.

• No

If you have unspent funds, they must be returned to WMF. Please see the instructions for returning unspent funds and indicate here if this is still in progress, or if this is already completed:

Documentation

Did you send documentation of all expenses paid with grant funds to grantsadminwikimedia.org, according to the guidelines here?

Please answer yes or no. If no, include an explanation.

• No, we did not submit receipts; we will keep our report on file for these expenses, which are payroll, fringe benefits, and indirect costs only. The submitted report itemizes these expenses.

Confirmation of project status

Did you comply with the requirements specified by WMF in the grant agreement?

Please answer yes or no.

• Yes

Is your project completed?

Please answer yes or no.

• Yes

Grantee reflection

We’d love to hear any thoughts you have on what this project has meant to you, or how the experience of being a grantee has gone overall. Is there something that surprised you, or that you particularly enjoyed, or that you’ll do differently going forward as a result of the Project Grant experience? Please share it here!

DPLA valued our close collaboration with Wikimedia, which was essential to the project’s success. We are also proud of the accomplishments this grant made possible, as each one was significant and laid a foundation for the continuation of this work and its impact.