Books & Bytes
Issue 12, May-June 2015
by
The Interior,
Ocaasi,
Sadads
In this issue of Books & Bytes, we're happy to announce some new partnerships, branches, coordinators, Visiting Scholar institutions, and news from the American Library Association Annual meeting in San Francisco. The Wikipedia Library is expanding into new languages and projects, and looks forward to helping more Wikimedians gain access to the resources they need to do their work.
Publisher donations continue apace, with a new theme: non-English resources. Out of the last 8 partners, over a third of them were French. Expect to see much more of that as global branches take off.
We are very excited to announce four more global Wikipedia Library branches:
TWL is pleased to welcome two new coordinators:
We always need volunteers to help coordinate account distribution or help with other tasks. This role takes only 1–2 hours of work a week, and brings with it the satisfaction of connecting writers and researchers with the resources they need (and the occasional barnstar from happy recipients!). If you have benefited from a TWL account or are interested in helping out, sign up here.
Having curated useful outreach documents over the past four years, we thought it was finally time to upload them to commons and make a proper bookshelf. You can find it at Meta:The Wikipedia Library/Bookshelf; it includes:
The Wikipedia Library is pleased to announce five new Wikipedia Visiting Scholars positions as part of an expansion of the program with U.S. and Canadian universities and research organizations. Visiting Scholars are remote, unpaid Wikipedia editors, affiliated with top research libraries, who receive full access to the partner's library e-resources to expand topics of interest to the institution that also need development on Wikipedia. This marks the second successful round of schools participating in the program.
These new positions are going to be coordinated and managed by the Wikipedia Library's movement partner, the Wiki Education Foundation. Wiki Ed will process applications, connect to schools, and drive the growth of the program in North America. The Wiki Education Foundation is in an excellent position to help expand the program because of their extensive existing connections to universities and desire to support Wikipedia's best content creators.
We invite Wikipedia editors who specialize in content creation and would like access to a full research library, to apply for these new unpaid, remote affiliate positions at the following research libraries:
Full application information is available at the Wiki Ed signup page.
The Wiki Education Foundation also invites editors to apply for a Visiting Scholar placement pool: the pool will help grow the Visiting Scholar program by creating a list of willing and interested candidates to offer new partner libraries. With a set of pre-qualified Wikipedians in hand, the Wiki Education Foundation can work to find libraries that match your interests.
Access to a research library as part of one of these visiting scholar positions creates considerable opportunities for Wikipedia editors, giving them access to services and tools including multiple paywalled databases, integrated search and discovery tools, research collections and recommendations from specialist librarians, and expert consultation. In return editors get to begin a conversation with the library that creates opportunities for greater understanding and communication between universities and the Wikipedia community.
Alex Stinson, The Wikipedia Library
The Wikipedia Library team attended the American Library Association Annual Conference in the Moscone Center in San Francisco in late June. The weekend kicked off with a well-attended editathon held at the Wikimedia Foundation office. Several librarians got their start with editing, and new articles on topics related to librarianship were added.
This was the first year that TWL had a booth at the conference, and with approximately 25,000 people in attendance it provided extensive opportunities for networking with both librarians and publishers. We spoke to many great people in the library and information trade, gained valuable insights from librarians on how they advise their patrons about Wikipedia, and offered advice on how library staff can work with Wikipedia to both improve its content, and engage their users. One recurring theme that came up while talking to librarians was that there is a slow but steady acceptance and building respect for Wikipedia in the library world as the project matures. While a minority told us they discourage their patrons from using Wikipedia for research, far more told us, some in conspiratorial stage whispers, that they "love Wikipedia", and use it themselves in their work. They were happy to learn more about the internal processes and policies, and some even admitted to being editors themselves!
Publishers we talked to included Nature, Wiley, Al Manhal, Springer, Emerald Publishing, Jamalon, National Geographic, e-libro, Numerique Premium, LexisNexis, and Open Edition. We are following up to explore partnerships with several of these and plan on announcing some new donations shortly. We also met with organizations like PLoS, the U.S. Government Printing Office, the United Nations, Library of Congress, Humble Bundle, Internet Archive, Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, the Embassy of Spain, the Prison Education Department of California, Library Thing, International Librarians Network, the Association for Library and Information Science Education, eGranary Digital Library and the Library Information Technology Association.
Jake and Alex also gave a well-attended presentation about the potential for Wikipedia and TWL to extend the reach of libraries and offer opportunities to librarians and library students. See their slides here.
In addition to a presence at the Community Engagement Table, TWL will be participating in several presentations at Wikimania in Mexico:
Going Global: Creating and growing a Wikipedia Library Branch in your own language.
Free as in Free: Strategies for Advancing Open Access on Wikipedia
Engaging with Community Engagement
If you are attending Wikimania, and want to talk to the TWL team about a library project, please look for us at the Foundation Community Engagement booth, or give us a ping! Alex, Patrick, and Jake are attending.
TWL completed its fourth quarter for the 2014–2015 fiscal year and published our quarterly report:
As the fiscal year closes, it's a good time to look back at what we accomplished:
Over this fiscal year we:
This is wholly due to our amazing team of four organizers and over 20 volunteer coordinators.
Thanks for reading! To receive a monthly talk page update about new issues of Books & Bytes, please add your name to the subscriber's list. To suggest items for the next issue, please contact the editor, The Interior ( talk · contribs) at Wikipedia:The_Wikipedia_Library/Newsletter/Suggestions.
Books & Bytes
Issue 12, May-June 2015
by
The Interior,
Ocaasi,
Sadads
In this issue of Books & Bytes, we're happy to announce some new partnerships, branches, coordinators, Visiting Scholar institutions, and news from the American Library Association Annual meeting in San Francisco. The Wikipedia Library is expanding into new languages and projects, and looks forward to helping more Wikimedians gain access to the resources they need to do their work.
Publisher donations continue apace, with a new theme: non-English resources. Out of the last 8 partners, over a third of them were French. Expect to see much more of that as global branches take off.
We are very excited to announce four more global Wikipedia Library branches:
TWL is pleased to welcome two new coordinators:
We always need volunteers to help coordinate account distribution or help with other tasks. This role takes only 1–2 hours of work a week, and brings with it the satisfaction of connecting writers and researchers with the resources they need (and the occasional barnstar from happy recipients!). If you have benefited from a TWL account or are interested in helping out, sign up here.
Having curated useful outreach documents over the past four years, we thought it was finally time to upload them to commons and make a proper bookshelf. You can find it at Meta:The Wikipedia Library/Bookshelf; it includes:
The Wikipedia Library is pleased to announce five new Wikipedia Visiting Scholars positions as part of an expansion of the program with U.S. and Canadian universities and research organizations. Visiting Scholars are remote, unpaid Wikipedia editors, affiliated with top research libraries, who receive full access to the partner's library e-resources to expand topics of interest to the institution that also need development on Wikipedia. This marks the second successful round of schools participating in the program.
These new positions are going to be coordinated and managed by the Wikipedia Library's movement partner, the Wiki Education Foundation. Wiki Ed will process applications, connect to schools, and drive the growth of the program in North America. The Wiki Education Foundation is in an excellent position to help expand the program because of their extensive existing connections to universities and desire to support Wikipedia's best content creators.
We invite Wikipedia editors who specialize in content creation and would like access to a full research library, to apply for these new unpaid, remote affiliate positions at the following research libraries:
Full application information is available at the Wiki Ed signup page.
The Wiki Education Foundation also invites editors to apply for a Visiting Scholar placement pool: the pool will help grow the Visiting Scholar program by creating a list of willing and interested candidates to offer new partner libraries. With a set of pre-qualified Wikipedians in hand, the Wiki Education Foundation can work to find libraries that match your interests.
Access to a research library as part of one of these visiting scholar positions creates considerable opportunities for Wikipedia editors, giving them access to services and tools including multiple paywalled databases, integrated search and discovery tools, research collections and recommendations from specialist librarians, and expert consultation. In return editors get to begin a conversation with the library that creates opportunities for greater understanding and communication between universities and the Wikipedia community.
Alex Stinson, The Wikipedia Library
The Wikipedia Library team attended the American Library Association Annual Conference in the Moscone Center in San Francisco in late June. The weekend kicked off with a well-attended editathon held at the Wikimedia Foundation office. Several librarians got their start with editing, and new articles on topics related to librarianship were added.
This was the first year that TWL had a booth at the conference, and with approximately 25,000 people in attendance it provided extensive opportunities for networking with both librarians and publishers. We spoke to many great people in the library and information trade, gained valuable insights from librarians on how they advise their patrons about Wikipedia, and offered advice on how library staff can work with Wikipedia to both improve its content, and engage their users. One recurring theme that came up while talking to librarians was that there is a slow but steady acceptance and building respect for Wikipedia in the library world as the project matures. While a minority told us they discourage their patrons from using Wikipedia for research, far more told us, some in conspiratorial stage whispers, that they "love Wikipedia", and use it themselves in their work. They were happy to learn more about the internal processes and policies, and some even admitted to being editors themselves!
Publishers we talked to included Nature, Wiley, Al Manhal, Springer, Emerald Publishing, Jamalon, National Geographic, e-libro, Numerique Premium, LexisNexis, and Open Edition. We are following up to explore partnerships with several of these and plan on announcing some new donations shortly. We also met with organizations like PLoS, the U.S. Government Printing Office, the United Nations, Library of Congress, Humble Bundle, Internet Archive, Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, the Embassy of Spain, the Prison Education Department of California, Library Thing, International Librarians Network, the Association for Library and Information Science Education, eGranary Digital Library and the Library Information Technology Association.
Jake and Alex also gave a well-attended presentation about the potential for Wikipedia and TWL to extend the reach of libraries and offer opportunities to librarians and library students. See their slides here.
In addition to a presence at the Community Engagement Table, TWL will be participating in several presentations at Wikimania in Mexico:
Going Global: Creating and growing a Wikipedia Library Branch in your own language.
Free as in Free: Strategies for Advancing Open Access on Wikipedia
Engaging with Community Engagement
If you are attending Wikimania, and want to talk to the TWL team about a library project, please look for us at the Foundation Community Engagement booth, or give us a ping! Alex, Patrick, and Jake are attending.
TWL completed its fourth quarter for the 2014–2015 fiscal year and published our quarterly report:
As the fiscal year closes, it's a good time to look back at what we accomplished:
Over this fiscal year we:
This is wholly due to our amazing team of four organizers and over 20 volunteer coordinators.
Thanks for reading! To receive a monthly talk page update about new issues of Books & Bytes, please add your name to the subscriber's list. To suggest items for the next issue, please contact the editor, The Interior ( talk · contribs) at Wikipedia:The_Wikipedia_Library/Newsletter/Suggestions.