Thursday, June 30, 2011

Dominic McDevitt-Parks, a prolific contributor to Wikipedia and a graduate student in history and archives management, agreed to answer a few questions about his new role as “Wikipedian in Residence” at the US National Archives and Records Administration.

“Wikipedians in Residence” are volunteers placed with institutions, such as museums and libraries, to facilitate use of those institutions’ resources on Wikipedia.

According to a Pew Internet report, 42 percent of Americans use Wikipedia as an online source of information. The online, collaborative encyclopedia boasts more than 3.5 million articles in English and versions in over 250 languages. Given the website’s vast readership, the Archivist of the United States has proclaimed himself “a big fan of Wikipedia” and emphasizes the need for the National Archives to work with the project. The Archives posted the internship listing in March, expressing its desire for an employee who “will work as a community coordinator and strengthen the relationship between the Archives and the Wikipedian community through a range of activities”.

McDevitt-Parks, who describes himself as a “history buff, a word nerd, a news junkie and an occasional pedant,” is a 24-year-old graduate student at Simmons College in Boston. On Wikipedia, he has contributed for more than seven years under the username “Dominic“, his work focusing mostly on Latin American history.

He began his work at the Archives in late May, and since then he has undertaken numerous projects, including uploading onto Wikipedia 200 photos taken by Ansel Adams for the National Park Service. Although those photos have always remained in the public domain, accessing their high-definition versions could be problematic. Researchers who wanted to view the files had to visit the Archives facilities in College Park, Maryland.

McDevitt-Parks is also preparing a “Today’s Document challenge” on Wikipedia, where works featured as “Today’s Document” on the Archives’ website are also the main focus of newly written or expanded encyclopedia articles displayed on Wikipedia’s home page. The first — and so far only — winner of the challenge was the Wikipedia article “Desegregation in the United States Marine Corps”, which incorporated an Archives-held photo of the first African-American recruit to the US Marine Corps. Before the challenge, according to McDevitt-Parks, “a thorough history of desegregation in the U.S. Marines didn’t exist in Wikipedia’s knowledge ecosystem. The topic wasn’t totally ignored, but simply split among related entries; a devoted, focused article never existed solely in its own right.”

The “Wikipedian in Residence” position falls within the Archives’ social media staff within the Open Government division of Information Services, since the institution’s goal is to distribute as much content to the widest audience possible. The internship is 40 hours per week from mid-May to late August.