Wikipedia:Wikipedia Loves Libraries

Interested in bringing Wikipedia Loves Libraries to your institution?
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WP:WLL

Wikipedia edit-athon at the British Library, January 2011.

Shut not your doors to me proud libraries,
For that which was lacking on all your well-fill'd shelves,
yet needed most, I bring,
— Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass

Wikipedia Loves Libraries is an ongoing campaign to introduce librarians and Wikipedians who wish to collaborate. This typically happens in the context of a library hosting Wikipedians for a presentation to the general public. At these events, the resources of the library are compared and contrasted with Wikipedia, and attendees are encouraged to use each for their respective strengths and as they complement each other. There is an annual tradition to host wiki-workshops and edit-a-thons at libraries around Open Access Week in October/November.

The advantages of the Wikipedia Loves Libraries model:

easy to organize, even at small public libraries
welcoming to everyone, Wikipedians, Librarians and all library patrons
it's "the living reference section"
also, it's fun!

See the Wikipedia Loves Libraries Portal.

Planned United States 2014 library events

Wikipedia Loves Libraries events can be held on any day anytime in the Fall, mainly centered around Open Access Week in October/November 2014.

With grassroots organizing help from local Wikipedia:Meetup groups, and WikiProject United States Wikimedians/Wikimedia United States Coalition.

Everyone is free to start a Wikipedia Loves Libraries page for your local institution, and please sign up at your event's meetup page:

Northeast

New York City
- Guggenheim Museum
- "One Year of Wikipedia at METRO"
New Jersey
- Johnson Public Library (Hackensack, New Jersey) - likely October or November 2014
Boston, MA
- Open Access to Mass History Week edit-a-thon during Open Access Week hosted by Boston institutions and archives. Sites now include:
Philadelphia, PA
Washington D.C.
Your city and date/location of the event here

Midwest

Akron, Ohio at Akron-Summit County Public Library Main Library and all 17 Branch Libraries.
Chicago
Minneapolis – Saturday, October 11th from 10am to 3pm at the American Craft Council Library (1224 Marshall Street NE, Suite 200) [1]
Your city and date/location of the event here

South

Athens, Georgia
Austin, Texas
Baltimore, Maryland
Naples, Florida
New Orleans, LA
- University of New Orleans, Earl K. Long Library. New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. Thursday, April 17th. | Introduction to editing Wikipedia and Edit-a-thon on New Orleans topics.
Chapel Hill, North Carolina
- African American history in North Carolina Edit-a-thon Sunday, March 29, from 1:00 to 4:30 p.m. at the Wilson Library, room 504, on the UNC-Chapel Hill campus.
Washington, D.C.
- Chronicling America and Summer of Monuments Project Edit-a-thon, Monday, August 18, from 9:30 AM - 4:00 PM in Media Room J (in the basement), Horbake Library at the University of Maryland, College Park
Your city and date/location of the event here

West

History

Click on the following links for details by year:

Potential participants

Wikipedians and library staff collaborating in Portland, Oregon in 2012

Libraries

home libraries (invite friends over for your own)
public libraries
school libraries
research libraries

Groups + organizations

library associations
Friends of Libraries
local historical societies
civic groups

Individuals

Individual participants might include, for instance, Wikipedians and/or non-Wikipedians, working offline and/or online.

Types of events

"Behind-the-scenes" tour at the Central Library in Seattle in 2012

Events can be organized by Wikipedians, or by librarians or any interested members of the public.

Possible program activities for the day:

meetup of local Wikipedians and friends;

Academy-like editing workshop, with experienced editors helping beginners (library professionals and patrons), teaching them (1) what Wikipedia is; (2) the basics of editing and (3) how their community can collaborate with the Wikimedia Foundation projects (primarily Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons);

edit-athon of Wikipedia articles on local history and community using library resources (possible help provided by local historical societies, and by Wikiprojects such as WikiProject United States and WikiProject Canada);

librarian-Wikipedian panel discussions and Q&A, with a discussion on issues such as copyright, Wikipedia's reliability and how Wikipedia can help publicizing library collections and make them more visible to online communities;

train-the-trainers: library staff expand their skills as front-line trainers of new Wikipedians and strengthen the participatory media skills of library staff, who are then better equipped to respond to patrons' Wikipedia-related queries

In short, Wikipedia Loves Libraries can be a great easy-in to building the relationship between Wikipedia and this part of the cultural world it shares so much with, and lead to greater Wikilove/Librarylove in your region!

Other ideas can be found at Wikipedia:The Wikipedia Library/Research libraries

How to get involved

Wikipedia Loves Libraries at Wikimedia DC's Library Lab in 2011

Advice for everyone

Check the list to see if there is already an event in your area. If not, go ahead and add one! Another good place to check is at Wikipedia:Meetup to see if there have been other wiki-meetups in your area in the past. If so, you could post there and ask if anyone is interested in a library meetup in October.

Advice for librarians

The best advice here is, "Plan it and they will come." If you schedule a wiki event at your library and list it here, chances are excellent that experienced Wikipedians will notice it and sign up, and then you can coordinate with them about panels and Q&A sessions. You might also like to check whether there is a Wikimedia chapter active in your area: they'd love to help as well. Libraries should ideally have some computers available for accessing Wikipedia, or wi-fi access so that participants can bring their own computers. Libraries may also wish to compile a short list of special resources that they have available which could assist researchers. For example: Are there National Historic landmarks in your area that could use more information in their Wikipedia articles? Your library might have a wealth of books or other research materials which Wikipedians could use to expand those articles. There are many topics where research at a bona fide library would probably be more useful than just doing online web searches for sources. For example: Local history of towns, biographies of notable individuals in your area, histories of schools, local geographical features, or any other topic you can think of!

Questions? Let's talk!

If you have questions, please click on the "Discussion" tab at the top of this page and ask whatever you want. You should get an answer back within hours, or even minutes!

Start a new discussion on the discussion page for help with planning your own event, please include as many details as possible.