Grants:Project/Rapid/KCVelaga/TWLCon India - 2019

What is the purpose of the meeting and why is it important to your community?
The Wikipedia Library (TWL) helps editors access reliable sources to improve Wikipedia. It is an open research hub, a place for active Wikipedia editors to gain access to the vital reliable sources. Apart from that, TWL also runs a wide range of programs under its umbrella which include reference desks, individual language branches, source sharing and working with libraries and librarians. This activity envisions to create an awareness about these programs among the Indian communities, and to get to know how TWL can be best used by the Indian communities. Following the establishment of Hindi TWL Branch, #1Lib1Ref sessions in May and an awareness session about TWL at Wiki Advanced Training 2018, there has been an increased interest in TWL and library partnerships in India. This activity has been primarily planned to tap this interest and develop of network users in India to contribute to this area. The agenda of the activity is mostly focused around TWL, but is not limited to that. As it is a pan-India meetup, it'll help us to identify the gaps for references and access to sources in the Indian context, and see how best TWL along with the local libraries can support communities to fill this gap.
If applicable, what benefits have you seen from doing this kind of meeting in the past?
n/a
How will you let participants know about the meeting?
We're planning to have fifteen participants from various languages in India. We'll make sure that there is enough diversity in terms of language and gender. We'll restrict the number of participants from each community to two (only one is most of the cases). However, depending on the place of the event, we may include more members from the local and nearby communities after assessing their involvement in the Wikimedia movement, and their potential/interest to work in this area. Local Wikimedians will be engaged to spread the news for the latter case. We also intend to include the local librarian community in some of the sessions to discuss their view on Wikipedia and how best collaborations can be done.
How will you select the participants?
We'll identify potential editors based on the following criteria, and discuss them with respective communities/user groups before finally making a decision. The criteria for selection is: 1.) Previous contributions to TWL 2.) Strong content contributions on Wikipedia, and a sound understanding of the importance of references and their gaps in their language. 3.) Previous work in the area of library partnerships
How will you keep participants engaged after the meeting is over?
We'll have some pre-work for the participants. During the event, we'll work on this, and post-event, we'll follow-up on their activities. During the meetup, we'll provide the necessary training and resources to organize #1LibRef sessions, building local TWL branches and initiating library partnerships. Before making the final decision about participation, we'll thoroughly assess the users for their commitment post-event.
Is there anything else you want to tell us about this project?
This is a two-day event, planned to be organised during the last week of December. User:AVasanth (WMF) will be invited to take part in the event along with other participants.

Here is a list of potential topics to be covered during the event; for a detailed day-based, minute-to-minute agenda, please this Google doc

A broad introduction to TWL

Why and how to grow a TWL branch?
What can communities benefit from having a TWL branch? ... with some case studies
Source sharing, reference desks, and partnerships

Organizing #1Lib1Ref sessions in various contexts + awareness about the upcoming January campaign
How do we go about a book purchase program in India?
What should be the approach for library partnerships in India? A discussion involving the local librarians

How can these partnerships be further leveraged for GLAM activities? (For example, digitization of resources, resource usage for edit-a-thons, venue access for training/edit-a-thons, an opportunity for librarians training)

Impact edit

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Number of total participants: 15
Number of people who will help organize the event: 4
Number of new TWL branches/Reference Desk/Source Sharing on Indian language Wikipedias: 1
#1Lib1Ref sessions post-event: 2
Commencement of a book purchase program

Budget edit

S.No	Item	Amount	Notes
1	Travel	₹100,000	For sixteen participants (including flight/bus/rail fare and local cab travel)
2	Accommodation	₹60,000	Eight rooms for sixteen participants on twin sharing basis for three nights
3	Food	₹24,000
4	Logistics	₹16,000
5	Contigency funds	₹10,000
Total cost of the event		₹210,000
Total amount requested from this grant		₹142,000
Total amount requested from this grant (In USD)		US$1978.98	as of 15:28, 13 September 2018 (UTC)
Amount from other sources of funding		₹68,000	to be funded by CIS-A2K

Endorsements edit

-Wikilover90 (talk) 16:13, 13 September 2018 (UTC)
Strong support This is a very important step in understanding the needs of the indic communities. -- Shypoetess (talk) 16:20, 13 September 2018 (UTC)
Strong support. It will be a good initiative --J. Ansari Talk 21:39, 13 September 2018 (UTC)