Working with classes of students can also introduce a number of complications for libraries who have previously not worked with educational communities, for example, it may be necessary to plan around a semester, provide research skills support, and match projects against learning outcomes. In the United States and Canada, there is a fair amount of assignment design and student support available from the Wiki Education Foundation for curriculum development and online tracking and community engagement support. Affiliates in other parts of the world, also regularly support education assignments, and although they frequently can’t provide the same amount of professional support as the Wiki Education Foundation, they have a fair amount of ability providing curriculum development support and might be able to support broader support (including workshops).
Case study: While working at Kansas State University, Stinson worked with the Beach Museum of Art to have students in an Art History class write content that exposed particular parts of the institutional collection alongside the best external research for that topic. The Wikipedia article work acted as a first step towards adding bibliographic research to finding aids and catalog materials for the institutions actual collection.[1] Moreover, students were introduced to the difference between primary-source research and secondary research, and the various venues in which this knowledge can be shared -- among researchers, with the public and into institutional catelogues where the project provides context.
Innovating, growing, and supporting communities
The models for engaging volunteers, collaborators and champions are still very fluid in the Wikimedia community -- outreach with cultural heritage organizations has only been systematically approached within the international Wikimedia community since 2010/2011. As a community working with libraries, the Wikimedia community is still learning what consistently creates desired outcomes, and how to best serve the missions of both communities, institutions and Wikimedia. Within this shifting context and understanding of how these collaborations work, it behooves Wikimedia allies in the library community to continue iterating upon what we know about community engagement: public programming around access to knowledge is something that librarians have much more experience with than the Wikimedia community.
Iterating on other forms of volunteer and stakeholder development, and finding ways to make Wikimedia participation relevant to local stakeholder groups, is important for both communities for the long term. The Wikimedia community is at a critical point in time: a very slow decline in active contributors on Wikimedia projects, from a peak of participation during 2007-2009, has
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- ↑ See the outcome of their work can be found at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_artwork_by_John_Steuart_Curry
