Submissions/Wikipedia workshops for librarians and local historical societies
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After careful consideration, the Programme Committee has decided not to accept the below submission at this time. Thank you to the author(s) for participating in the Wikimania 2015 programme submission, we hope to still see you at Wikimania this July. |
- Submission no.
- 5023
- “Wikipedia workshops for librarians and local historical societies”
- Type of submission
- presentation:
- Author of the submission
- D'Ann Campbell (danncampbell)
- E-mail address
- dcampbell
culver.edu
- Username
- danncampbell
- Country of origin
- USA
- Affiliation
- Culver-Stockton College
- Personal homepage or blog
- None
- Abstract
“Wikipedia workshops for librarians and local historical societies” will explore the Do's and Don'ts I have learned in running five all-day workshops. The main goal of the workshops is to recognize that local and academic librarians, and the volunteers at historical societies, are often called upon to help users with Wikipedia. To do that they have to understand the strengths and limitations of Wikipedia, and the ways it can be used effectively by people looking for knowledge. Too often, the Wikipedia projects are oriented toward training new editors. That is a noble idea but becoming an active editor is not the goal of 95% of the people we are reaching. What are workshops do is operate at the “wholesale” level to help knowledge experts familiarize themselves with Wikipedia so that in their “retail” dealings with ordinary users, they can be much more helpful, and expand the actual usage of Wikipedia. My discussion of the lessons learned is not specific to American conditions. The lessons and approaches are applicable in any society where librarians and local historians have an interest in assisting others in using Wikipedia. Librarians, I have discovered, are reluctant to write articles for Wikipedia. They see their job as to answer questions and help users find answers. The librarians are very well trained in high technology, but they are puzzled as to the depth of quality and Wikipedia and are generally unfamiliar with the advanced techniques in using it effectively. The volunteers at historical societies, on the other hand, know a great deal of content information on historical topics but they are generally leery of technology in the first place and especially terrified of editing Wikipedia articles. I negotiated and won grants from the Humanities Montana foundation, and from the Missouri Humanities Council to run a series of all-day workshops on how to edit Wikipedia for local librarians and historical society activists. I directed and taught three workshops so far-- two more are planned for summer 2015. Each of those will be two days in length, because we have found that one day is not quite enough. We have had 45 participants so far with another two dozen expected in May-June 2015. In the recruiting process I have contacted by phone and e-mail some two dozen regional libraries and historical societies. I discussed with their experts the value of Wikipedia and the skills they need to use it more effectively. See http://wikiwritelocal.weebly.com/ For the last three years I have attended numerous history conferences and individually worked with scholars on helping them overcome their fears and doubts about Wikipedia. I also worked with the Army War College in Pennsylvania to set up a Wikipedia program for their librarians and military officers. They ran into a funding crunch (" sequestration") and that project is on hold.
- Track
- * GLAM Outreach
- Length of session (if other than 30 minutes, specify how long)
- 30 minutes
- Will you attend Wikimania if your submission is not accepted?
- Probably
- Slides or further information (optional)
- Special requests
- None
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