Libraries as Community Memory: The Ulwazi Programme
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The Ulwazi Programme is an initiative of the eThekwini Municipality Libraries & Heritage Department that collects and shares local knowledge and histories through a community-driven wiki. The goals are to preserve local knowledge, build digital skills, and encourage participation in the information society. Fieldworkers record community members' contributions, which libraries host and support. Content is managed through MediaWiki and promoted via social media. The programme has seen increasing engagement, with over 300,000 annual visitors, strong mobile access, and growing social media followership, establishing an important digital repository of South African cultural heritage.
Libraries as Community Memory: The Ulwazi Programme
- 2. Libraries as Community Memory: The Ulwazi Programme Grant McNulty
- 3. The Ulwazi Programme • What is the Ulwazi Programme? • Goals of the Programme • Ulwazi Programme Model • How does it work? • Special Projects • Ulwazi Programme Stats • Challenges • Achievements
- 4. What is the Ulwazi Programme? • Initiative of the Libraries & Heritage Department of the eThekwini Municipality • Programme to collect and share local knowledge and histories in local language • Conceptuliased by ex-Head of IS, Betsie Greyling • Insufficient management systems for local knowledge perpetuates lack of local content on the Internet • Poor digital literacy in local communities
- 5. What is the Ulwazi Programme? • Developed inline with UN Millennium Development Goals and the WSIS Action Plans of 2002/03 • Calls for access to info for all, capacity-building and development of local content in local languages • Potential of the existing library infrastructure to facilitate the participation • Developed by McNulty Consulting using MediaWiki, in collaboration with the public library and the community • Local wiki for eThekwini Municipality
- 6. Goals of the Programme • Preserve and share local knowledge • Build capacity in digital skills • Develop a sustainable digital library of local relevance and in local language • Encourage local communities to become part of the global information society • Promote social inclusion and contribute to socio- economic transformation
- 7. The Ulwazi Programme Model LIBRARY WEB 2.0COMMUNITY
- 8. The Ulwazi Programme Model Community • Hold Knowledge • Validate • Contribute Library • Infrastructure • Support • Resources • Funding • Facilitate Training Technology • Open-source • Social Media • Mobile Devices
- 10. The Community? • Fieldworkers are key: trained in oral history methodology, basic digital media skills and MediaWiki • Volunteer fieldworkers, community members, record knowledge and histories • Formal researchers from heritage and library departments, universities, local museums, community development projects • Special target groups such as artists, community historians, poets, writers • Schools
- 11. Library
- 12. The Library • Anchor partner – stable position (community and government structure) • Uniquely placed • Offers infrastructure and resources • Facilitates training • Supports the technology and data collection • Provides content management and information skills
- 14. Open-source and Social Media • Combination of open-source software and social media • Open-source software: freely available, no licensing fees and a common philosophy of sharing • Social media: used to create new entry points for the programme, including: • Facebook,Twitter & Flickr • Although search results are main entry point
- 15. Going Mobile • Great increase in mobile internet access • Ulwazi Programme available on mobile phones • Scaled down version of Ulwazi Wiki automatically presented on mobile phones and tablets • Currently, 74% of visitors access the website through a mobile device
- 16. How the Programme Works Planning •Research •Design •Budget •Promotion •Target Areas Implementation •Selection •Recruitment •Training •Data Collection •Content Management •Media Management Sustainability •Organisational Structure •Project Management •Technology Management •Fieldworker Management •Equipment Maintenance •Promotion
- 18. Special Projects
- 19. Schools Project
- 20. Schools Project • Grade 10 to 12 IT students at township and rural schools around the eThekwini Municipality • Taught basic web and research skills (email, adding content online, finding info on the Internet) • 8 weeks long, extra-mural activity • Thematic approach: School History, Family Histories, Places of Significance and Aspects of Local Culture • 4 articles to the Ulwazi Community Memory Wiki • Online test with certificates
- 21. Heritage Map
- 22. WeeklyVisitors: Feb 2013 - Feb 2014 February 2009 - February 2010: 21, 125 visitors VS February 2013 - February 2014: 309, 386 visitors
- 23. Visitors: Jan 2013/4 - Feb 2013/4 • 48% more visits • 39% more visitors • 57% more pageviews • 21% increase in time on wiki
- 24. NewVS ReturningVisitors • Visitors are finding worthwhile content on the Ulwazi Programme Wiki • They are returning to it as a source of information • 6% increase in returning visitors
- 25. Linguistic Communities: Most visitors from KwaZulu-Natal, the eThekwini Municipality & Joburg Visitors: South Africa
- 26. Analytics: Keywords & Content Zulu proverbs Coming of age ceremony Part of lobola negotiations Zulu folktales Dreams Clan praises Coming of age ceremony Stage of lobola negotiations Spiritual herb Indian dessert Afrikaans game
- 27. Newsletter Feb 2013 Feb 2014 • Dramatic increase in Ulwazi Programme newsletter subscribers • Almost six times as many subscribers • An increase of 588%
- 28. Social Media: Facebook • 39 likes on Facebook (Jan 2013) • 538 likes on Facebook (Feb 2014) • 1379% increase
- 29. Achievements • Established digital library of local history and knowledge in English and Zulu • Promotion of South African language: over 800 articles in Zulu and English • Increasing numbers: 35 000 (March & April 2014) visits per month, 43 922 (May 2014) • Comparable to usage figures in large public libraries in eThekwini • Access via mobile devices now reaching 74% of visits