Page:Wikipedia and Academic Libraries.djvu/176

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Bibliowikis
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beginners, providing technical support, and giving general guidance for the development of events. Finally, these volunteers (as experienced Wikipedians) are already part of the day-to-day mechanisms and community debates within the Wikimedia projects. Therefore, the integration of new users, data, and subprojects on the local levels is seen as natural and tiered growth, and not as external meddling outside of an already existing community (Meta-Wiki, 2014; Wikimedia Outreach, 2017).

From 2012 to mid-2020, the structure and functional core of the organization, the so-called Amical-way, relied on a collaboration between a project director and its more than 100 volunteers. This single employee was selected from the Catalan Wikipedian community, based on their past participation as an Amical volunteer. A small commission of the most involved volunteers ensured a professional and rigorous follow-up and direction of the employee’s tasks. is way, a horizontal bond was ensured between the employee, external Wikipedia editors, internal Amical members, external institutions, and individual librarians (Meta-Wiki, 2014). Nonetheless, the philosophy of the organization has always been to promote an endpoint of self-sustainability and scaffolded training among its members and institutions. In the beginning of a project, volunteers and institutions are provided with guidelines and a regionally available volunteer who serves as a truly human support; then there is a progressive decrease in support until the beginners have become competent, and eventually trainers are released to focus on other projects (Fenoll, 2016; MetaWiki, 2014; Proffitt, 2018; Wikimedia Outreach, 2017).

Scaling the Project: Deployment of the #Bibliowikis to Other Catalan-Speaking Areas
Amical Wikimedia has been able, with partial success, to expand the #Bibliowikis impact outside of Catalonia and implement it in other Catalan-speaking territories. The most significant deployment has been in the Land of Valencia and Andorra. Also, there has been sporadic activity in Northern Catalonia and the Balearic Islands. The