Wikipedia:GLAM/SchlesingerLibrary/RTLShares

Event Details
RTL Shares May 15, 2014

Come participate in a lively discussion about engaging with Wikipedia in your role as a librarian, activist, and/or educator. Topics of discussion will include: Wikipedia as a reference and instructional tool, the Wikipedia community, how scholars and institutions are contributing to Wikipedia, your experiences and/or how you can get involved. The discussion will be led by Amanda Strauss, Jenny Gotwals, and Susan Gilman.

Presenters:
 * Jenny Gotwals: Schlesinger Library
 * Susan Gilman: Widener Library
 * Amanda Strauss: User: Amandastra, @amandastra, Schlesinger Library
 * Thanks for being a great audience

The Wikipedia Community
Intense debates happen behind the scenes, such as when to update entries to reflect changes in current events. Examples, entries on Chelsea Manning and Olympics. Is Wikipedia a producer of knowledge? A reference service? A news source?
 * https://www.hastac.org/blogs/wadewitz/2013/09/03/struggle-over-gender-wikipedia-case-chelsea-manning
 * http://suegardner.org/2013/09/04/how-wikipedia-got-it-wrong-on-chelsea-manning-and-why/

What groups are underrepresented as editors? Women, people of color, various international communities.

Wikipedia community expectations are different, and sometimes more stringent than expectations of publishers of "legit" (and often behind a pay wall) reference materials.

Wikipedia and Scholarly Communities
Some ways that scholars and institutions are contributing to Wikipedia:
 * Wikipedians in residence
 * Wikipedia edit-a-thons
 * Scholars as Wikimedia activists: Wikimedian activist Adrianne Wadewitz dies
 * Assigning Wikipedia article editing as coursework / extra credit assignments
 * Example: Forum Making Invisible Learning Visible
 * 1) Learning for adaptive expertise: the role of new media in making visible the thinking processes intrinsic to the development of expert-like abilities and dispositions in novice learners;
 * 2) Embodied learning: the impact of new media technologies on the expansion of learning strategies that engage affective as well as cognitive dimensions, renewed forms of creativity and the sensory experience of new media, and the importance of identity and experience as the foundation of intellectual engagement; and
 * 3) Socially situated learning: the role of social dimensions of new media in creating conditions for authentic engagement and high impact learning.

Wikipedia is "front facing scholarship." It is immediately accessible and public, which mirrors the goals of many digital humanities projects.
 * Online exhibits: Archive of Mental Health Recovery Stories
 * Open access movement

Discussion: What will these partnerships mean for Wikipedia's future reputation?

Reference and Instruction
Wikipedia as a reference tool
 * Helping students evaluate articles.
 * Article Grades
 * Special criteria for medical articles.
 * Editing articles to make them into better resources.

Wikipedia as an instructional tool
 * Having students create and edit articles. Wikipedia Education Program and Five Pillars of Wikipedia.
 * How to write for an audience.
 * How to engage in a scholarly community and conversation. Notability Test, Talk pages, Peer Review.
 * How to avoid plagiarism and copyright infringement.
 * Practicing formatting. Wikipedia Manual of Style.


 * Important for librarians/instructors to understand community before creating assignments.
 * Education Program, Student Assignments, Education Noticeboard, Teahouse, Campus Ambassadors

Discussion: Knowing that these resources exist, does this change how you feel about Wikipedia? Do you see yourself making use of them?

Your experiences and how you can get involved

 * What are your experiences with Wikipedia?
 * How you can become more involved.
 * Short Activity.

Resources
Learning Tools
 * Five Pillars of Wikipedia
 * New England Wikimedians A helpful, enthusiastic, and engaged local community.

GLAM / Wikipedia
 * Wikipedia for Libraries Archives Museums
 * GLAM Beginners Guide
 * Wikipedia Tutorial
 * Ten Simple Rules for Editing Wikipedia (originally aimed at scientists, dealing with similar issue around authority and participation that cultural institutions may face)