Grants:Project/OCLC/Action Plan for Wikipedia + Libraries Training in Mexico/Midpoint

This project is funded by a Project Grant

Report accepted

This midpoint report for a Project Grant approved in FY 2018-19 has been reviewed and accepted by the Wikimedia Foundation.

To read the approved grant submission describing the plan for this project, please visit Grants:Project/OCLC/Action Plan for Wikipedia + Libraries Training in Mexico.
You may still review or add to the discussion about this report on its talk page.
You are welcome to email projectgrantswikimedia.org at any time if you have questions or concerns about this report.

Welcome to this project's midpoint report! This report shares progress and learning from the grantee's first 3 months.

Summary

In a few short sentences or bullet points, give the main highlights of what happened with your project so far.

Contracted with a Mexico-based consultant to research the Mexico library landscape and have in-person conversations with representatives from libraries, government, and Wikimedia Mexico chapter.
Established regular check-ins with the consultant to go over what has been learned.
Provided consultants with background information about Wikipedia+Libraries training and related issues, to support their local conversations.

Methods and activities

How have you setup your project, and what work has been completed so far?

Describe how you've setup your experiment or pilot, sharing your key focuses so far and including links to any background research or past learning that has guided your decisions. List and describe the activities you've undertaken as part of your project to this point.

Onboard regional consultant

Contracted COP | Digital Information Solutions S.A. de C.V., ("COP") to serve as regional outreach consultants. Had kickoff call to orient them to the project and Wikipedia+Libraries training.
Scheduled monthly consultant reports
Maintaining regular communications via email and conference calls as-needed.

Networking

Attended the AMBAC conference in Mexico City, in June.
Connected with Wikipedia Mexico chapter in July
Attended the ENBA (Escuela Nacional de biblioteconomía y archivonomía - the National Library School) annual conference in August
(Upcoming) XIX Congreso Nacional de Bibliotecas Públicas (XIX National Public Library Conference) on Sept. 25-27, 2019.

Interviews

Carmen Alcázar, President, and Iván Martínez, ex-President Wikimedia Mexico.
Helen Ladrón, Senior Advisor, Centro Cultural Universitario, UDG; Lina Rendón Garcia, Director, library of the Centro Universidad de los Valles, UDG; and Elisa Marta Enciso Durán, Director of the Historical Archives of the Municipality of Zapopan, Jalisco..
Dr. Marx Arriaga, Director, General Directorate of Libraries (DGB), Ministry of Culture.
(Upcoming) José Orozco Tenorio, Director General of ENBA.
Gloria Adriana Hernández Sánchez, Director of the senior high school library system of ENP (Escuela National Preparatoria) of UNAM (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México).

Information gathering

State Public Library of Jalisco is favorable to the initiative, but must follow up when new director is appointed. The State Library is part of the Universidad de Guadalajara library network of 15 disciplinary libraries, and three other public libraries: Iberoamericana, Autlán, and Ciudad Guzmán. All of these libraries have good training infrastructure and presence in the state of Jalisco.

The Public Library Network (part of DGB of Mexico, under the Ministry of Culture and located in Mexico City) is responsible for the operation and development of the National Network of Public Libraries. The Network is composed of 7,450 libraries throughout the country. The DGB has an existing de-centralized training program and trainers who train the librarians in the network. The training is done through the State Central Libraries, which are responsible for the public libraries in the municipalities in their respective states. The DGB has been undertaking training and professional development activities to develop the skills of the librarians in four main areas: basic technical training; promotion of reading; training in the management of bibliographic resources; and training in digital technology. The DGB and its State Central Libraries are potential candidates to participate in the initiative. Dr. Marx Arriaga Navarro informed us that he received interest in the Wikipedia+ Mexico Libraries initiative from three state central libraries: Querétaro, Tabasco and Durango. He is continuing to discuss the initiative with other state central libraries and will let us know their reactions.

Midpoint outcomes

What are the results of your project or any experiments you’ve worked on so far?

Please discuss anything you have created or changed (organized, built, grown, etc) as a result of your project to date.

The primary outcome thus far is increased awareness and interest and awareness within Mexico library community of the Wikipedia+Libraries training. Through the conversations that have taken place in Mexico thus far, have generated interest for further exploration at:

State Public Library of Jalisco. The State Library is part of the Universidad de Guadalajara library network of 15 disciplinary libraries, and three other public libraries: Iberoamericana, Autlán, and Ciudad Guzmán. All of these libraries are potential candidates to participate in the initiative, and have good training infrastructure and presence in the state of Jalisco.
The Public Library Network (DGB) of Mexico. The DGB has an existing de-centralized training program and trainers who train the librarians in the network. They currently plan to begin transitioning staff training away from an academic model, to a continuing education model emphasizing practical skills.
State Central Libraries of Querétaro, Tabasco and Durango have also expressed some level of interest in the project, with follow-up needed to explore in more detail.

The project team has also improved its understanding of the library infrastructure, issues, and professional development landscape in Mexico. A summary of our findings will be documented as part of our summary report.

Finances

Please take some time to update the table in your project finances page. Check that you’ve listed all approved and actual expenditures as instructed. If there are differences between the planned and actual use of funds, please use the column provided there to explain them.

Then, answer the following question here: Have you spent your funds according to plan so far? Please briefly describe any major changes to budget or expenditures that you anticipate for the second half of your project.

OCLC staff time (Sharon Streams) is s bit under-charged at midpoint, but will be made up for in the second half.

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 are taking enough risks to learn something really interesting! Please use the below sections to describe what is working and what you plan to change for the second half of your project.

What are the challenges

What challenges or obstacles have you encountered? What will you do differently going forward? Please list these as short bullet points.

Missing staff and leadership at organizations, due to turnover, the three-year municipal election cycle, and the exceptionally low, non-livable salaries for public librarians.
Library closures due to summer schedules, earthquake damage, and bureaucratic issues.
Talking about a training initiative that has not yet been created or funded. Often the question is raised about how the training will be funded, and we cannot answer that, nor do we want to set up the expectation that funding will be a given.

What is working well

What have you found works best so far? 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
A learning pattern has yet to fully emerge from the project thus far, but we see the importance of forming human-to-human connections that build a foundation of trust, when pursuing organizational collaborations.

Next steps and opportunities

What are the next steps and opportunities you’ll be focusing on for the second half of your project? Please list these as short bullet points.

Follow-up meetings with potential training lead organizations
Finish information gathering about libraries and library staff professional development
Write report to summarize findings and recommendations

Grantee reflection

We’d love to hear any thoughts you have on how the experience of being an grantee has been so far. What is one thing that surprised you, or that you particularly enjoyed from the past 3 months?

We are learning a lot about Mexico, which we find interesting and exciting!