Wiki Loves Libraries Nigeria
Wiki Loves Libraries Nigeria aims at bridging gap that exists about Libraries on Wikipedia with a focus on Nigerian Libraries, Library associaitions, and notable Librarians. This event will bring together Librarians, Library students, library organisations, Library schools and Non-governmental organisations working to create visibility for libraries and their services in Nigeria both physically and virtually.
Why WikiLovesLibraries ? edit
Libraries have existed for hundreds of years, but in today's digital age, when we have access to an infinite amount of knowledge at our fingertips, a new norm of information service delivery has evolved where Libraries make information accessible online to its clienteles through Current Awareness Services (C.A.S), Selective Dissemination of Information (S.D.I.), online reference services, among others. A library, which may vary widely in size, may be organized for use and maintained by a public body such as a government; an institution such as a school or museum; a corporation; or a private individual. In addition to providing materials, libraries also provide the services of librarians who are trained and experts at finding, selecting, circulating and organizing information and at interpreting information needs, navigating and analyzing very large amounts of information with a variety of resources. They serve an important role in society as portals to knowledge and culture and provide learning opportunities, free access to information, encourage literacy, and life-long learning.
The advantages of the Wikipedia Loves Libraries Nigeria:
- Librarians will be exposed to the use of Wikipedia as a pedagogical tool to promoting free knowledge, and open access to inormation about their libraries and activities.
- It will introduce Librarians and Library students to the different Wikimedia projects that they can adapt and adopt for clienteles in their libraries.
- Promote the use of OER among Librarians and their patrons.
- Increase Librarians participation to Wikipedia apart from adding references to Wikipedia articles during 1lib1ref campaigns.
Purpose edit
There is inadequate content about the various types of Libraries in Nigeria on Wikipedia and the existing list of Libraries in Nigeria does not reflect the actual statistics of public, academic, national, private, research libraries in Nigeria with reference to a research conducted in 2019, and the existing nominal list of libraries published by the National Library of Nigeria in 2019. It is also discovered that there is an incomplete categorization of libraries, library associations, Nigerian librarians, and librarianship professors. Moreso, out of the 170 academic libraries identified on Wikipedia only a few have an article on Wikipedia. This is not different from the available list of notable librarians in Nigeria. In a query carried out on Wikidata query builder for notable Librarians in Nigeria, the result indicated only 124 and 478 libraries with a lot of missing statements that can assist researchers and readers. This project will help correct and improve;
- the incomplete categorization of the different types of Libraries, Library associations, Librarians, and Librarianship professors in Nigeria.
- articles about the different types of Libraries (National, Public, Academic, Research, Private, and School), Library associations, and professors of Librarianship in Nigeria.
- the existing Wikidata items about libraries, Library associations, and librarians in Nigeria.
This project will;
- Enable Librarians and Library students to become content creators on Wikipedia other than being retrievers, disseminators, and verifiers of information on Wikipedia and wikidata.
Project Facilitators/Advisers edit
- Bukky658 Project Lead
- Ugwulebo Facilitator
- AKibombo facilitator
- James Rhoda graphics designer
- Olani Olabimpe Advisor and Resource person
- Ridzaina Facilitator
- Linason Blessing communication expert
- Mijesty social media campaigner
