objectives. Most importantly, the OTS position would support research and learning at the University of Toronto by improving discoverability of UTL resources and collections—primarily through Wikimedia projects during the pilot—and by building community capacity for participation in these initiatives. The job posting highlighted the potential for the OTS to enable a more comprehensive, coordinated, and systematic approach to engaging in Wikimedia activities. In addition to the WIR activities, the OTS would promote participation in new or existing WikiProjects related to UTL holdings; support the U of T staff and community in their use, participation in, and understanding of Wikimedia; and identify and engage in other collaborative open technology initiatives. Finally, the OTS job posting emphasized that, where possible, programming and initiatives should advance the UTL’s commitment to equity, inclusion, and diversity.
Throughout the first ten months of the pilot, the OTS has further advanced the UTL strategic goals of “barrier-free access to all of the right information” to “build physical and digital infrastructure to make our library collections effortlessly accessible” (UTL Strategic Plan 2020–2025, 2020) by making it easier for UTL—as well as the broader Toronto and GLAM-Wiki community—to enrich the free Web.5 The OTS role, in practice, grants capacity for UTL to holistically assess the uses and limits of Wikimedia projects as tools and to apply them strategically in ways that make sense to di erent library departments and functions. It functions as a translator between the broader movement toward open technologies, including GLAM-Wiki, and the library’s existing constellation of people, relationships, and practices. If the UTL WIR’s work ows were largely self-contained, with minimal engagement with other staff and units, the OTS has expanded this scope through a combination of research, communication, documentation, and internal and external relationship-building, in order to achieve sustained impact.
Deeper Resource Integration
Previous pilots at UTL had demonstrated the impact of linking library resources to Wikipedia, and of contributing narrative content on the
