Grants/GLAM for Kolikata Little Magazine Library O Gabeshana Kendra/Report

'''This report has been created by a member of the Wikimedia India chapter based on the observations on the grantee's online activities. After repeated attempt to contact the grantees (Sujoy Chanda & Santanu Chanda), the Chapter was unable to get any statistical or in-depth report of the project from them.'''

Timeline


 Date: 6 May 2015; The grant was requested by Sujoy Chanda and Santanu Chanda as grantee and Bodhisattwa as the grant application submitter. Date: 20 May 2015; The grant was accepted on preliminary grounds (scope and impact) by Ravi, then Program director of Wikimedia India chapter.

Date: 1 June 2015; According to the requested application page, the project started working on the first of the June. Date: 8 June 2015; Grant was approved. Date: 17 June 2015; The scanner- Fujitsu ScanSnap SV600 was bought from a Kolkata based vendor.

Date: 3 August 2015; Considering the timestamp of the conversation on the grant application's talk page, the 1st installment of INR 30,000 was made by Wikimedia India to the grantee on the above mentioned date. Date: 19 August 2015; First report for the month June was published. Can be seen here Date: 24 August 2015; An incomplete progress report for the month of July was published. Can be seen here Date: 26 August 2015; Bodhisattwa Mandal, a member of the project left the group.</li> Date: October 2015; 2nd installment for the grant was scheduled. </li> Date: December 2015; The second installment of INR 39,000 was made by WMIN to the grantees.</li> Date: October 2015 &mdash; May 2016; Unsatisfactory work not consistent with what was mentioned in the grant request. </li>

Date: June 2017; The final report is being written.</li> </ul>

The project
The GLAM project was aimed to get contents for Wikimedia Commons and Wikisource relating to Bengali little magazines by establishing partnership with the Kolkata Little Magazine Library And Research Center

Initially the team for this project comprised of the grantee Santanu Chanda and Sujoy Chanda accompanied by Bengali community member Bodhisattwa Mondal but after 2 months of the projects functioning, Bodhisattwa left in August 2015. The aim of the project was to During the project, the above mentioned aims were not followed strictly. The only work done during the project was: 24 digitized files of a magazine, Tattwabodhini Patrika was uploaded to Wikimedia Commons. And 3 digitized files of magazine Probasi was uploaded to Commons.
 * Phase I: Photography of artifacts
 * Phase II: Digitization of Books
 * Step1: Workshop for the members and library management committee
 * Step2: Phase I upload
 * Step3: Phase II
 * Step4: Edit-a-thon and mass proofreading contests for closed grouped library related people

Wikimedia India made three payments for the grant on separate occasions. Firstly they made the payment for the scanner Fujitsu ScanSnap SV600 which costed around 60,000 INR, In the second occasion although the work that were promised in the grant application were partly completed, WMIN made a payment of 30,000 INR based on their initial reports in October 2015. The last payment was made in December 2015 of 39,000 INR, before which the grantees promised to continue the work and keep Wikimedia updated. After the last payment, the working progress was unsatisfactory and consistent with what was mentioned in the grant request, and the project collapsed.

Currently as of June 2017, the scanner is with the Bengali User Group and is being used for other Wikimedia related activities.

The following list of files were uploaded during the project

 * 1) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:তত্ত্ববোধিনী_পত্রিকা_(সংখ্যা_৪৫৩,_১৮৮১).pdf
 * 2) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:তত্ত্ববোধিনী_পত্রিকা_(সংখ্যা_৪৫৪,_১৮৮১).pdf
 * 3) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:তত্ত্ববোধিনী_পত্রিকা_(সংখ্যা_৪৫৫,_১৮৮১).pdf
 * 4) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:তত্ত্ববোধিনী_পত্রিকা_(সংখ্যা_৪৫৬,_১৮৮১).pdf
 * 5) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:তত্ত্ববোধিনী_পত্রিকা_(সংখ্যা_৪৫৭,_১৮৮১).pdf
 * 6) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:তত্ত্ববোধিনী_পত্রিকা_(সংখ্যা_৫০২,_১৮৮৫).pdf
 * 7) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:তত্ত্ববোধিনী_পত্রিকা_(সংখ্যা_৪৫৯,_১৮৮১).pdf
 * 8) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:তত্ত্ববোধিনী_পত্রিকা_(সংখ্যা_৪৫৮,_১৮৮১).pdf
 * 9) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:তত্ত্ববোধিনী_পত্রিকা_(সংখ্যা_৪৬০,_১৮৮১).pdf
 * 10) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:তত্ত্ববোধিনী_পত্রিকা_(সংখ্যা_৪৬১,_১৮৮১).pdf
 * 11) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:তত্ত্ববোধিনী_পত্রিকা_(সংখ্যা_৪৬২,_১৮৮২).pdf
 * 12) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:তত্ত্ববোধিনী_পত্রিকা_(সংখ্যা_৪৬৪,_১৮৮২).pdf
 * 13) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:তত্ত্ববোধিনী_পত্রিকা_(সংখ্যা_৪৬৩,_১৮৮২).pdf
 * 14) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:তত্ত্ববোধিনী_পত্রিকা_(সংখ্যা_৪৬৫,_১৮৮২).pdf
 * 15) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:তত্ত্ববোধিনী_পত্রিকা_(সংখ্যা_৫০৩,_১৮৮৫).pdf
 * 16) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:তত্ত্ববোধিনী_পত্রিকা_(সংখ্যা_৫০৪,_১৮৮৫).pdf
 * 17) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:তত্ত্ববোধিনী_পত্রিকা_(সংখ্যা_৫০৫,_১৮৮৫).pdf
 * 18) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:তত্ত্ববোধিনী_পত্রিকা_(সংখ্যা_৪৬৬,_১৮৮২).pdf
 * 19) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:তত্ত্ববোধিনী_পত্রিকা_(সংখ্যা_৪৬৭,_১৮৮২).pdf
 * 20) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:তত্ত্ববোধিনী_পত্রিকা_(সংখ্যা_৪৬৮,_১৮৮২).pdf
 * 21) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:তত্ত্ববোধিনী_পত্রিকা_(সংখ্যা_৪৬৯,_১৮৮২).pdf
 * 22) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:তত্ত্ববোধিনী_পত্রিকা_(সংখ্যা_৪৭০,_১৮৮২).pdf
 * 23) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:তত্ত্ববোধিনী_পত্রিকা_(সংখ্যা_৪৭১,_১৮৮২).pdf
 * 24) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:প্রবাসী_ভাদ্র_১৩৪৪_সংখ্যা_৫.pdf
 * 25) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:প্রবাসী_আশ্বিন_১৩৪৪_সংখ্যা_৬.pdf
 * 26) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:প্রবাসী_কার্তিক_১৩৪৪_সংখ্যা_৭.pdf
 * 27) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:তত্ত্ববোধিনী_পত্রিকা_(সংখ্যা_৪৭৩,_১৮৮১).pdf

Budget and analysis

 * The total budget that was requested and paid: 100,000 INR.
 * Wikimedia India has no in depth information of the expenses in the project as the work has not been totally documented by the grantees.

Impact
The goals of the project were not fulfilled.

Shortcomings of the project
The exact reason for the unexpected termination of the project is unknown as the WMIN chapter could not contact the grantees, according to community observations, the following can be concluded.

Apparently the documentation of the grant application convinced the WMI chapter in terms of goal, scope and approach for the approval, though the initial work that has been done by the grantee's were mediocre, but soon after an experienced member, Bodhisattwa Mondal, left; the team stumbled to complete the goals they have set due to their inexperience in the field, lack of skill and determination as well as lack of leadership.

On a similar incident, the grantees were allegedly accused for misappropriation of funds in a different WMF PEG grant they requested in 2016. Though some uploads and works were seen in that project, however, it did not satisfy the goals. Their reports for both the grants (WMF & WMIN) are overdue. The WMF PEG grant ended in February 2016, and a grant report was expected from the WMF by the end of April 2016 which is yet to be submitted.