Since Wikipedia launched in 2001, librarians have maintained a cautious and, at times, hostile relationship with the online, crowd-sourced encyclopedia. Librarians have largely ignored Wikipedia, citing it as an unreliable and non-authoritative resource, and steering information seekers toward traditional reference materials. While librarians waged this quiet war, Wikipedia has gained increasing dominance as an information resource, and is now the indisputable starting point for most quick research. In this presentation, attendees will learn how to wield the power of Wikipedia in their libraries and embrace Wikipedia as an information resource. Presenters will discuss how to use Wikipedia for reference and instruction, linking online resources, increasing search engine optimization, and creating linked data for the semantic web. Presenters will also discuss the great need for librarians to delve into the world of Wikipedia as researchers and contributors; including the ethics of contributing to Wikipedia. Presenters: Dustin Fife, Rebekah Cummings, Jessica Breiman

1. From Frenemies to Friends:
Wikipedia and your Library Image by
Jenny

2. Overview:
● Scope of Wikipedia and why we should care
● Ethics of Wikipedia
● Wikipedia as an opportunity for reference and instruction
● Promoting the visibility of our digital collections through Wikipedia
● Linking Online Resources
● Using Wikipedia to introduce your library to Google
● Wikipedia Edit-A-Thon! / Wikipedia Loves Libraries events

3. A Mission that Deserves our Support

4. Wikipedia’s Scale
30 million articles
288 languages
2 billion edits
8000 views per second
500 million monthly visitors
5th most popular website
2000x larger than Britannica

5. Wikipedia’s volunteers
20 million registered
80,000 active users
1,400 admins

6. Alexa’s Top 500 Sites on the Web
1. Google.com
2. Facebook.com
3. Youtube.com
4. Yahoo.com
5. Baidu.com
6. Amazon.com
7. Wikipedia.org

7. Library Bill of Rights
I. Books and other library resources should be provided for the interest, information, and
enlightenment of all people of the community the library serves. Materials should not be excluded
because of the origin, background, or views of those contributing to their creation.
II. Libraries should provide materials and information presenting all points of view on current and
historical issues. Materials should not be proscribed or removed because of partisan or doctrinal
disapproval.
IV. Libraries should cooperate with all persons and groups concerned with resisting
abridgment of free expression and free access to ideas.
(http://www.ala.org/advocacy/intfreedom/librarybill)

8. Wikipedia is free content that anyone can use, edit, and distribute:
Since all editors freely license their work to the public, no editor owns
an article and any contributions can and will be mercilessly edited
and redistributed. Respect copyright laws, and never plagiarize from
sources. Borrowing non-free media is sometimes allowed as fair use,
but strive to find free alternatives first.

9. Five pillars of Wikipedia - Pillar #1

10. Five pillars of Wikipedia - Pillar #2

11. Wikipedia Changelogs on The Iraq
War: 2004-2009

12. Five pillars of Wikipedia - Pillar #3

13. Five pillars of Wikipedia - Pillar #4

14. Five pillars of Wikipedia - Pillar #5

15. “Wikiquette”
1. Assume good faith
2. Use the Golden Rule
3. Recognize your own biases
and keep them in check
4. Be focused single-mindedly
on editing an encyclopedia
5. Do not bite the newcomers
6. No Wikihounding
7. Communicate, communicate, communicate

16. Common Mistakes
1. Creating autobiographical or company
articles
2. Using Wikipedia Talk pages as a chat room
3. Getting annoyed when others edit or delete your
work.
4. Deleting without explanation
5. Over Wikifying

17. Raise your hand if…
you create access to information.
you promote information and digital literacy.
you teach people how to evaluate information.

18. Wikipedia gives you an OPPORTUNITY to do all three!!!
Field Trip!

19. Why edit?
● Be a part of the conversation!
● Contribute to knowledge and constructions
of knowledge
● Offer different points of view
● “Digital Outreach”

20. Alignment-of-interest
REGISTER: Create an account, for you individually – not your organization
DISCLOSE: Mention and explain your institutional affiliation
HIGHLIGHT: Expose your most relevant, substantial collections neutrally
INCLUDE: Add relevant collections from other archives that you know of
ENGAGE: Respond thoughtfully and clearly to any community concerns
“Curators, librarians, archivists, and similar are encouraged to help improve
Wikipedia, or share their information in the form of links to their resources.” -
wikipedia policy
[[WP:TWL/COI]]
Orlowitz, J., & Stinson, A. (2015). Source Discovery Anyone
Can Edit [Google slides]. Available here.

21. Case Study #1
Ball State University (Indiana)
● 57 separate links to 40 items in their digital library
were added over a 3-month period
● Links mostly added in “External Links” section
● 40 assets viewed 13,000 times - a 600% increase
● 10,000 pageviews were referred via Wikipedia
● 5X greater than pageviews from any other source
● Pageviews for the entire 149 item collection tripled
“An overwhelming success, remarkable in its efficiency”
“Using Wikipedia to Enhance the Visibility of Digitized Archival Assets”. Michael Szajewski. Ball State University.

22. “Archivists organize records by collections. Therefore,
archivists and digital librarians may be susceptible to the
tendency to think solely at the collection level when
promoting resources. However, the results of this study
show that an outreach strategy that limits visibility-raising
efforts solely to the collection level is limited in its ability to
reach numerous potential digital patrons.”
“Using Wikipedia to Enhance the Visibility of Digitized Archival Assets”. Michael Szajewski. Ball State University.
http://www.dlib.org/dlib/march13/szajewski/03szajewski.html

23. Linking Online Resources
Where to start? The resources to get you on your way!
● See “Contributing to Wikipedia”
● Also: “Wikipedia Editing Policies”
● And for the whole story: “
Editing Wikipedia: A guide to improving content on
the online encyclopedia”

24. Edit According to Your Interests!
● Wikiprojects are groups of editors that improve articles
on certain topics.
● Browse topics here to get started!
● WikiProjects helps you find pages that are new or that
need attention in your subject area
● Another way to edit? Browse Wikipedia articles; click on
the “Talk” button to see what an article is rated; if an
article is rated lower, it needs your help!
● For article ratings and assessments info, go here!

26. How to get involved: Host an event!
Panels
Train the trainers
Edit-a-thons
Meetups
Trainings for the general public

27. Using Wikipedia to introduce your
library to Google

28. Does Google know your
library?

29. Google “J Willard Marriott Library”

31. Case Study - MSU Library - 2012

32. Where does Google get its information?
● “Trusted sources” for search engines
o Wikipedia/DBPedia (most important)
o Google Places/ Google My Business
o Google+
o FreeBase
● If you don’t have a Wikipedia presence, you
don’t exist as a recognized “entity” or “thing”.

33. From “strings” to “things”
In the past (and now)…
● Web of documents
● Google searched text
as strings.
● Word frequency
● Meaningful links
Now…
● Moving into
structured data
● “Linked Open Data”
● Defined entities not
just character strings.

36. Why are we talking about this?
● Libraries have not done a good job of defining
ourselves in Google’s Knowledge Base.
● If Google does not know you exist as an entity,
it is a lot less likely to send people to your
website or represent you well in a Google
search.

37. Case study - Montana State Library

38. Wikipedia - 2012

39. DBPedia - 2012

40. MSU Library Wikipedia - 2014

41. MSU Library DBPedia - 2014

42. Google Maps - fixed wrong information

43. MSU Library Google+ entry

44. MSU Library Google Search - 2014

45. How can you introduce your library
to Google?
Create a Wikipedia article (But beware of Wikipedia culture)

46. What else can you do?
● Engage with other “trusted sources”.
● Mark up your metadata with schema.org.
o Library-centric metadata schemas (MARC, Dublin
Core, etc.) are not recognized or supported by
search engines.

47. Wikipedia Training and Edit-a-thon
Training - August 4th
Edit-a-thon - September
(exact date TBD)