Submissions/Finding and evaluating sources for Canadian music articles

This is a Completed submission for Wikimania 2017 ready to be reviewed by a member of the Programme Committee.

Submission no. 2016 Subject - C7

Title of the submission

Finding, evaluating and citing sources for Canadian music articles

Type of submission (lecture, panel, tutorial/workshop, roundtable discussion, lightning talk, poster, birds of a feather discussion)

Lecture, or if there is more time, a lecture with a discussion following.

Author of the submission

Anne Delong. I am an experience presenter and conference organizer; I've made presentations for the Educational Computing Organization of Ontario, the Ontario Genealogical Society, and the Durham PC Users Club, as well as on a daily basis for several years when I had a job educating teachers about computers for a school board.

Language of presentation

English

E-mail address

annedelongtimetraces.ca

Username

Anne Delong

Country of origin

Canada

Affiliation, if any (organisation, company etc.)

I serve on the executive of a couple of non-profit hobby organizations which have no bearing on my topic; I am also a member of the Mandolin Society of Peterborough, an executive member of the Pineridge Bluegrass and Folklore Society, and a member of the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada (as most musicians here are). I will not be representing any of these groups. The first creates no written publications; I may use the newsletters of the other two briefly as examples to illustrate points in my talk.

Personal homepage or blog

Personal website, YouTube channel , Wikipedia user page

Abstract (up to 300 words to describe your proposal)

Wikipedia has thousands of poorly sourced articles about notable musicians and music-related organizations. There are frequently lively discussions on the talk pages about the reliability and independence of specific printed and online sources. This presentation will focus on methods of picking the best sources for various purposes, with tips for separating truly independent and reliable sources from press releases, user-contributed databases, forums, personal blogs, social media, etc. Ideas for lessening the time spent in creating citations to commonly used sources will also be discussed. Some lesser-known but useful specific sources will be shown, as well as some that are online but not accessible through internet search engines. While the examples given will relate to Canadian articles, the concepts will be applicable to articles about music in other countries.

What will attendees take away from this session?

Participants will leave with a better understanding of how and by whom various documents about musicians are created, with tools for evaluating their use as sources, and with information about a wider range of sources; as a result the should be able to add references to articles with increased confidence and efficiency.

Track

Sorry, none of these seem to apply. If one includes content-creation, it should go there.

For workshops and discussions, what level is the intended audience?

The presentation will be understandable by beginners, but also useful to intermediate editors who haven't worked extensively on music topics or have been finding it frustrating to do so.

Length of session (if other than 25 minutes, specify how long)

I could cover this in somewhat compressed form in 25 minutes, but there would be no time for questions or discussion. Optimum would be a presentation of about 40 minutes plus 15 minutes of audience input. I can do it either way depending on the will of the committee.

Will you attend Wikimania if your submission is not accepted?

Yes, barring unforeseen circumstances.

Slides or further information (optional)

I will prepare a PowerPoint-style presentation for the talk. If reliable internet is available I will also show some online material, but I know that hotel internet can be spotty, so I will have static slides as an alternative. I understand that the presentation may be recorded; I will be asking for advice in advance to make sure that my presentation is acceptable from a copyright point of view.

Special requests

I presume that a video projector will be provided. My laptop has HDMI output. If necessary, I can bring my own projector, as long as I know far enough in advance.

Interested attendees

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