Page:Librarians as Wikipedians - From Library History to “Librarianship and Human Rights”.pdf/4

 "Information literacy combines a repertoire of abilities, practices, and dispositions focused on expanding one’s understanding of the information ecosystem, with the proficiencies of finding, using and analyzing information, scholarship, and data to answer questions, develop new ones, and create new knowledge, through ethical participation in communities of learning and scholarship."

This definition of information literacy certainly provides a rationale for using Wikipedia, but The Framework indicates no strong recognition of the growing importance of Wikipedia as a source. This is a missed opportunity. Again, Wikipedia is the most used reference resource in the world.

“Wikipedia and Knowledge Management:” the Courses

During 2013-2014 I developed a new course, “Wikipedia and Knowledge Management,” and reorganized two other courses, “History of Books and Libraries,” and “Librarians and Human Rights” with large portions of assignments to be done in Wikipedia. I decided that students could apply critical thinking skills to enhance articles in Wikipedia and at the same time work to increase the amount of information about libraries and librarianship at the site. Since my classes are 60 percent women it also seemed to me that teaching more women to edit in Wikipedia would be a way I could help in a small way to address the gender gap among Wikipedia editors. I live by the question asked by Eleanor Roosevelt, ‘Where do human rights begin? In small places, close to home, so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world. Such are the places where every man, woman, and child seeks equal justice, equal opportunity, equal dignity without discrimination.’ A class is a good small place.

In this article I provide a summary of the work done by students enrolled in these classes at the University of South Florida, School of Information, a program accredited by the American Library Association. Students were extraordinarily creative and without limits as they went through tutorials and became proficient at editing. The outcome of the classes was that enrolled students are now creative contributors, skilled editors, and managers of content in Wikipedia. They are both librarians AND Wikipedians.

To demonstrate the scope of work I provide examples from the three classes. These examples are intended to demonstrate the range of scholarship and creativity that graduate students accomplished as editors. Clearly, these are examples of solid work on which others can build and expand. Crowdsourcing by librarians is a strategy for extending our contributions to knowledge and especially to topics relating to books and libraries.

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