Wikidata projects and Wikipedia article creation and editing. Here at Alberta, we’d like to try the Toronto model where article creation and editing work is focused on a precise area of the library’s collections.
The Wikimedia ecosystem goes far beyond Wikipedia articles, and there is great potential for WIR roles focused on Wikidata in particular. While Wikipedia is an excellent pedagogical tool for exploring information literacy, reliable sources, and notability, Wikidata offers students the chance to engage with issues of data completeness, data processing, data analysis, and data ethics.
Conclusion
In the end, each WIR is as unique as the institution that hosts them, but it can be difficult to know how to set up the role for success if it is the first WIR at the institution. This chapter illustrated some of the commonalities and differences between three Canadian university library WIRs and how factors such as institutional priorities, funding options, and community expectations shaped these positions. We hope that by framing the common themes we noticed in our WIR experience, we have offered helpful guidance for colleagues who are building a case for a WIR at their institution. WIRs are critical to building meaningful connections on campuses for expanding Wikipedia and engaging with its complex issues of bias, representation, notability, and editor alienation. The WIR trend is growing, and we hope that this chapter will be one helpful piece in an ongoing conversation about how to make WIRs work well for institutions and Wikipedia alike.
References
About | University of Toronto. (n.d.). https://onesearch.library.utoronto.ca/ about
Connaught Laboratories. (2020, October 4). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Connaught_Laboratories&oldid=981869046.
Creating a Wikimedian in Residence position. (2020, October 3). https://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikimedian_in_residence/Creating_a_Wikimedian_in_Residence_position&oldid=20703329.
