Page:Wikipedia and Academic Libraries.djvu/133

120 It demonstrates the engagement of academic libraries in the development of information resources to aid access to information for all citizens through linking of institutional repository materials to wiki articles in line with the UNESCO policy of ensuring public access to information (UNESCO, 2017). It also discusses challenges associated with the use of Wikimedia resources in some institutions and draws conclusion that Wikipedia promotes discoverability of library resources, librarians improve the reliability of its contents as an important tool to leverage on, in pursuit of academic endeavors, thus providing an interception between Wikipedia and academic libraries.

Keywords

Academic Libraries and Wikipedia, AfLIA, Librarians, Wikimedia, Wikipedia + AfLIA partnership, WikiAfLibs, 1Lib1Ref.

Introduction

Wikimedia provides vast amounts of information resources on any subject matter and is widely used by students, scholars, researchers, and lecturers, yet its resources are not given wide acceptance in academia. In academia, Wikipedia is often treated with negligence and is mostly rejected, citing a lack of authority. However, librarians in Africa cannot afford to neglect the information provided by Wikipedia and its relevance to research, teaching, and learning because Wikipedia has been posited in many studies as a starting point for almost every type of research, as each online query gets results from Wikipedia (O’Neal, 2006).

Before discussing the emerging relationship between African libraries and Wikipedia, it’s important to have a basic understanding of Wikipedia and its foundation. First, the Wikimedia Foundation is a charitable organization with headquarters in San Francisco, California. The Wikimedia Foundation was founded in 2003 by Jimmy Wales as a way to fund Wikipedia and its sister projects through a nonprofit means (Neate, 2008). The Wikimedia Movement, often referred to as Wikimedia, is the global community of contributors to Wikimedia Foundation projects (Wikipedia, 2021). Wikipedia is the free-