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The Wikipedia Library/Newsletter/December-January 2018

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Books & Bytes
Issue 26, December–January 2018

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In this issue we highlight #1Lib1Ref, global developments and, as always, a roundup of news and community items related to libraries and digital knowledge.

#1Lib1Ref

Running from January 15 to February 3, the #1Lib1Ref campaign asks librarians to add a citation to a reliable source to Wikipedia. This is the campaign's third year, and there have been hundreds of edits across over a dozen languages – you can track progress using the hashtag tool. The campaign is and has been supported by The Wikipedia Library and a number of Wikimedia Affiliates around the world. We also work closely with a number of local library networks to promote the campaign, through library events and press.

Check out this explainer video about the campaign

How to participate in five basic steps:

  1. Find an article that needs a citation. There are many ways to do this. Here are some strategies.
  2. Find a reliable source that can support that article
  3. Add a citation using Wikipedia Style. Click here to learn about adding citations and editing Wikipedia
  4. Add the project hashtag #1Lib1Ref in the Wikipedia Edit Summary
  5. Share your edit on social media and learn more about libraries and Wikipedia.

There are also a number of other ways to take part:

User Group

The steering committee elections for the Wikipedia Library User Group are currently open. The elected committee will replace the founding members group (previously chosen by The Wikipedia Library team), in guiding, making key decisions and leading the user group. It will consist of between five and eight members, who will serve one-year terms.

Voting is open to everyone who joined the usergroup before 21 January 2018. Voting closes on 4 February, and results will be announced on or before 10 February.

Global

The Star Coordinator program is a quarterly award to recognize coordinators of The Wikipedia Library for their amazing work in their communities. And the winner is...

User:Bachounda, Algeria Join us in congratulating User:Bachounda for winning the Star Coordinator for the 4th Quarter of 2017 (October–December). We wish to congratulate him for his immense support to both the Arabic and French TWL branches. His focus on increasing the activity level of contributions on Arabic Wikipedia encouraged his later joining The Wikipedia Library in an attempt to provide more sources for the community. He discovered the lack of resources for the Arabic TWL branch so he assisted in compiling a list of Arabic online libraries for the Wikipedia Library team, through which they gained access to three of these libraries. He recalls the rapid response of the TWL team won these partnerships and has contributed to an immense distribution of resources to the Arabic community. He is lead for the translation of Books & Bytes, and has been crucial in sharing updates with the Arabic community. His hope is to finally see the Library Card Platform bring what he calls "an authentic Wikipedia Online Library Card which will provide access to a unified world library".

See past winners on the Star Coordinator page.

Spotlight: What can we glean from OCLC’s experience with library staff learning Wikipedia?

An excerpt from the Wikimedia Blog post by Alex Stinson, Wikimedia Foundation

In June 2016, a "Knight News Challenge" award for innovation in the library sector went to OCLC, the global nonprofit library cooperative, to strengthen ties between Wikipedia and libraries. Now a year in, the OCLC Wikipedia + Libraries: Better Together project has had a major impact on Wikipedia literacy among librarians in the United States, having introduced hundreds of staff to Wikipedia's policies and community practices.

At the center of the 18-month project is WebJunction, OCLC's library learning program, to research and deliver Wikipedia awareness and educational opportunities, including a nine-week online professional development course for US public library staff. To support the project, OCLC brought on a Wikipedian-in-residence: Monika Sengul-Jones, an advocate for Wikipedia literacy in education and a communication and media studies scholar working fulltime with the Seattle-based WebJunction team.

With her support, the project has successfully introduced more than six hundred library staff to the inner workings of Wikipedia with webinars and a nine-week live online course that took place during the fall of 2017. In the coming months, the project will continue to support libraries as they put plans of engagement into action, and will be hosting Citations Needed, a free live webinar open to all on January 10, 2018, on the eve of the #1lib1ref campaign.

Read Alex's interview with Monika on the Wikimedia Blog.

Bytes in brief

Community roundup

Worth reading (or watching)



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