that it is an overreach of the AFC original scope and intent and in the process assumes bad faith that discourages editors even if they are not WIR. Others are concerned that placing the constraint of the AFC could cause “significant collateral damage to the partnerships, collaboration and relationships with GLAM organisations and higher education institutions” (Joseph, 2020).
How Will Institutional Priorities Translate into Residency Goals?
Before even writing the WIR position description, it’s helpful to reflect on the priorities of the institution hiring them. Does the library have unique and special collections that could be added to Wikicommons and/or used to enhance Wikipedia and that could be made more discoverable like the University of Toronto? Maybe the library values experimentation and administration is comfortable leaving the residency with very broad goals? For example, the UAL included the goal to improve UAL’s understanding of the role large collaborative platforms like Wikipedia can play in improving users’ access to our collections.
In all of our interviews, both WIRs and librarians cited one of the biggest advantages of working with the Wikimedia ecosystem was that there were so many project possibilities. This was reflected in the goals of each of the position’s descriptions. Each of the librarians talked about wanting to leave the position as open as possible, so the residency could be shaped based on the WIR’s research interests and skills and the unique library collections. In some respects, this was a real advantage. e candidates who applied for these WIR roles were from a wide variety of backgrounds, so waiting until the WIR was selected before considering specific project work allowed for a greater flexibility to empower and benefit from the specific skills and interests of each WIR. Hiring candidates who demonstrated creativity and a range of experiences both with open knowledge and in digital media made this flexibility in the role work best. In each of our case studies, the first part of the residency process was combining knowledge about WIR programs with institutional goals and proposing a project plan from there.
