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The point of this rather extensive review of work done in the three classes I taught in 2013-2014 is to offer a challenge to teachers of librarians and to librarians as information literacy instructors. The challenge is that they engagein editing in Wikipedia—the world’s most used reference source.

If not us, who?


The Future of Librarianship and Wikipedia


Cultural organizations have begun to hire Wikipedians. The National Library of Scotland hired a full-time Wikipedian in 2013 whose duties involve using the library’s collections to update the online user-led encyclopaedia and teaching staff and the public how to add to the site.[1] The Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library, at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, was the first presidential library in the United States to have a “Wikipedian in residence” on its staff. Michael Barera, a master’s student at Michigan’s School of Information, was charged with increasing and enhancing the library’s presence on Wikipedia in 2013.[2] The University of California Berkeley American Cultures program has hired Kevin Gorman as the first Wikipedian-in-Residence at a U.S. university.[3] Houghton Library at Harvard is seeking a Wikipedian to help make its collections as accessible as possible.[4]

Wikipedia is increasingly a topic of academic study. For example Fullerton and Ettema’s analysis of “talk pages” in which discussions of article creation are recorded[5] or Joorabchi and Mahdi’s study of automatic subject indexing of library records with Wikipedia concepts.[6] For me a very true, smart and pragmatic approach to using Wikipedia in teaching information literacy was detailed by Cate Calhoun in College and Research Library News:


Wikipedia can act as a bridge to help them [undergraduates] become familiar with library resources and a new way to research they may have never learned in high school. Wikipedia continues to increase in popularity, and it is likely that students will continue to use it. Scholars, educators, and librarians should not shun it, but rather embrace it and make it work within a structure of information literacy while furthering students’ education.[7]


There are indicators that the convergence of the work of Librarian and Wikipedian is gaining more traction. Brian Kelly, Innovation Advocate at Cetis, the Centre for Educational Technology, Interoperability and Standards based at the University of Bolton, has given a number of talks on Wikipedia

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  1. ↑ For a report from Ally Crockford see “A month as Wikimedian in Residence at the National Library of Scotland” at Wikimedia UK Blog “National Library of Scotland recruits ‘Wikipedian’.” https://blog.wikimedia.org.uk/2013/08/a-month-as-wikimedian-in-residence-at-the-national-library-of-scotland/ August 16, 2013. Accessed May 27, 2014. BBC News. http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-22264118 April 23, 2013. Accessed May 27, 2014.
  2. ↑ “Michigan Student Is First ‘Wikipedian in Residence’ at a Presidential Library.” The Chronicle of Higher Education. June 17, 2013. http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/michigan-student-is-first-wikipedian-in-residence-at-a-presidentiallibrary/41681 Accessed May 27, 2014.
  3. ↑ Ian Chant. “Kevin Gorman: Berkeley’s Wikipedian-in-Residence” Library Journal March 12, 2014. http://lj.libraryjournal.com/2014/03/copyright/kevin-gorman-berkeleys-wikipedian-in-residence/#_ Accessed May 27, 2014.
  4. ↑ Garber, Megan. “Harvard’s Looking for a ‘Wikipedian in Residence’.” The Atlantic March 12, 2014. http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/03/harvardslooking-for-a-wikipedian-in-residence/284373/ Accessed May 27, 2014.
  5. ↑ Fullerton, Lindsay, and James Ettema. “Ways of worldmaking in Wikipedia: reality, legitimacy and collaborative knowledge making.” Media, Culture & Society 36, no. 2 (March 2014): 183-199.
  6. ↑ Joorabchi, Arash, and Abdulhussain E. Mahdi. 2014. “Towards linking libraries and Wikipedia: automatic subject indexing of library records with Wikipedia concepts.” Journal of Information Science 40, no. 2: 211-221.
  7. ↑ Calhoun, Cate “Using Wikipedia in information literacy instruction.” College and Research Library News. 75 (January 2014). http://crln.acrl.org/content/75/1/32.full Accessed May 27, 2014.
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