"#HackFSM: Bootstrapping a Library Hackathon in Eight Short Weeks" is a white paper published on 3 October, describing how this spring’s #HackFSM was organized and executed. The paper was developed by Research IT and The Bancroft Library staff.
This spring, Research IT partnered with The Bancroft Library to put on #HackFSM, a digital humanities hackathon focusing on the Free Speech Movement digital archive. This event grew from idea to reality in two months, a timeframe that included implementing an Apache Solr index and API (Application Programming Interface) to provide access to the collection.
To document this success and support other libraries, archives, museums, and other organizations that might want to organize similar hackathons, "#HackFSM: Bootstrapping a Library Hackathon in Eight Short Weeks" provides a narrative account of how #HackFSM was staged, as well as numerous appendices and templates that other groups can use as models for their own events.
The success of HackTheHearst, a recent hackathon at the Hearst Museum of Anthropology that followed the model of #HackFSM, is a testament to the usefulness of this approach in other contexts.