Page:Librarians as Wikipedians - From Library History to “Librarianship and Human Rights”.pdf/16

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Florida Cracker Storytelling Festival Open Archives Initiative Protocol
Friends of Libraries for Metadata Harvesting.
The Library (book) by Andrew Lang Papyrus
Miami Book Fair International +The Philobiblon


A few examples of student comments at the end of the course indicate the kind of reception this class received:


  • I plan to continue editing and creating articles for Wikipedia and part of that plan will carry over to whatever place of employment I have after graduation. I’ve put my wiki editing skills on my CV and it’s in my portfolio of things I’ve worked on or created during my time in grad school. I think that integrating special collections holdings into Wikipedia is something that we, as archivists, should consider.
  • As I began to learn about Wikipedia, I realized its importance, not only from a conceptual standpoint but also as a source of knowledge. Whether or not academia frowns on it, people use Wikipedia. For most of the population, who cannot afford subscription databases nor have the necessary research skills, it is a primary access point. This resulted in me questioning my role as a librarian. After all, isn’t it my responsibility to ensure that all people have access to the same quality of information? Beginning the editing process was not easy, the syntax was confusing, there was little instructional material and it was difficult to find a community. Without this class, I’m not sure that I would have stayed with it. However, as I kept working on Wikipedia, I began to respect it in a way that I didn’t expect. The internal process of quality control, the sheer amount of time and energy spent by volunteers and the quality of research were actually quite amazing.
  • I see Wikipedia as integral part of the web, people trust Wikipedia, they use Wikipedia and no matter what problems it may run into I do not think that it is going to change. I know that I will continue to edit Wikipedia.
  • This class was simply amazing. Through intense discussion of the social history of knowledge management, the class learned a great deal about how history, politics, culture and other external factors directly impact the methods of knowledge production and maintenance. The sections we covered on Wikipedia were informative and helpful. Conducting weekly edits helped us as students to get in and really see what Wikipedia does, how it is done, and how it can impact those who frequently use this internet website. The information that I have learned from this class will be of great use to me in the future, and I have every plan to continue on as an editor for Wikipedia in the years to come. The importance of accurate information from an encyclopedia cannot be stressed enough, and with a resource like Wikipedia, librarians should be helping to create better inform-

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