{"id":675,"date":"2016-07-27T13:32:29","date_gmt":"2016-07-27T13:32:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.oclc.org\/next\/?p=675"},"modified":"2019-06-26T15:59:50","modified_gmt":"2019-06-26T15:59:50","slug":"lets-open-library-doors-to-wikipedia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.oclc.org\/next\/lets-open-library-doors-to-wikipedia\/","title":{"rendered":"Let\u2019s open library doors to Wikipedia"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"wiki-libraries\"<\/a>What if Wikipedia, the sixth most popular website on the planet, and libraries joined forces? The result could be transformative. Deeper, more authoritative content embedded in this internet encyclopedia. Librarians actively helping their communities raise their profiles. And libraries connecting their unique resources with a larger web audience.<\/p>\n

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The mission of the Wikimedia Foundation is \u201c\u2026to empower and engage people around the world to collect and develop educational content under a free license or in the public domain, and to disseminate it effectively and globally.\u201d If libraries had a shared mission statement, it would connect very strongly to those goals of empowerment and engagement. While Wikipedia is often a starting point on a quest for knowledge, it\u2019s certainly not the end point. As an encyclopedia, Wikipedia is not a platform for original research, nor will it satisfy deep knowledge on a topic.<\/p>\n

Although Wikipedia has a lot of content, much of it needs to be improved. For example, of the 5,199,985<\/a> articles on the English Wikipedia (as of this writing), only 4,799 (or around 0.1%) are \u201cfeatured articles.\u201d Featured articles are reviewed for accuracy, neutrality, completeness\u2014and are judged by the quality of the sources used to support those articles. A real barrier for many (volunteer) Wikipedia editors is access to great content. Libraries have that content.<\/p>\n

A match made in heaven: Wikipedians and librarians<\/h2>\n

\"librarian-wikipedian\"<\/a>On the flip side, library collections and services are relatively invisible on the open web. If you do a search for a book, you are almost always channeled to a bookseller or other commercial website. What if every active, volunteer Wikipedia editor took advantage of all that their local library had to offer? Citations in Wikipedia articles could lead readers to those materials in local libraries. Librarians, too, can inform community members that they, too, can contribute. The result would be a better and stronger Wikipedia with a larger and more diverse contributor base and more visibility for library resources.<\/p>\n

As a Program Officer in OCLC Research, I\u2019ve been working with the Wikipedia community for the last five years. OCLC has encouraged Wikipedia and library collaboration by holding instructional webinars, helping at edit-a-thons and hosting a Wikipedian in Residence. I have noticed that Wikipedians and librarians share a passion for expanding and preserving open, free access to knowledge, as well as a deeply held appreciation for high-quality sources. Along with colleagues, I wondered, how could we use our position as the world\u2019s largest library cooperative to move these two important and motivated communities closer together?<\/p>\nMuch of Wikipedia\u2019s content could be improved with the support of library content. <\/a><\/span>Share on X<\/a><\/span>\n

Meeting the challenge<\/h2>\n

Inspired by The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation 2016 News Challenge, \u201cHow might libraries serve 21st century information needs?,\u201d I joined forces with our WebJunction colleagues to envision how we could forge human-to-human connections between Wikipedians and librarians, and expose librarians to the inner-workings of Wikipedia so that they can work hands-on with the resource and adeptly guide their patrons\u2019 use of it. Since WebJunction helps to build library staff knowledge, skills and confidence through interactive online learning, we knew we could use WebJunction to engage a virtual cohort of hundreds of librarians. We decided to focus on public libraries in the U.S. for starters, knowing that what we create and what we learn can be adapted for other libraries in other countries. Our idea<\/a> proved to be a compelling answer to that challenge question, and OCLC was announced<\/a> as a winner in June.<\/p>\n

The goal: Getting content and exposure on the web<\/h2>\n

Our training program will be very applications-based, with practical activities that participants will do in their library and in Wikipedia. Although we are still in the planning phase and a number of months away from implementation, some project goals include<\/p>\n