Thanks, Reem, Phoebe, and All, There's so so much potential with Wikimedia's ~300 languages for online university libraries!
Scott Scott_WUaS On 9:45AM, Mon, Sep 17, 2018 phoebe ayers <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi Reem! > > No one has addressed point 1 yet so: > > * At universities there are different kinds of jobs in the library, > involving quite different work. Some librarians focus on acquiring and > describing the material in the library. These people might be catalogers > (if they focus on cataloging); acquisitions librarians (if they focus on > buying or getting materials); or archivists (if they focus on older and > rare or unique materials in archives). There are also librarians who focus > on working with the students & staff of the university. They might be > research librarians (there are different names for this) who specialize in > doing research in one subject or many subjects. (For instance, my specialty > is engineering, and my title is department liaison librarian, so I mainly > work with engineering students and buy engineering materials, with a > special focus on the EE & CS department). These librarians may assist with > research, buy books, and teach classes as well as assisting faculty or > researchers. Then there are librarians who specialize only in teaching, or > only in metadata or technical work (like working on the website or database > structures). > > My suggestion if you don't know who you are meeting is to ask them what > their jobs entail and what their concerns and interests are. Some of the > things that I say to librarians are: > > * students and researchers are using Wikipedia anyway, so it is in our > best interest to learn how it works and how to use it well (eg > understanding the page history, how material is added, why is ar.wikipedia > so much smaller than en.wikipedia?) > * if they teach students: teaching students to contribute to Wikipedia can > be an excellent pedagogical exercise that can help them learn to use the > library, since Wikipedia *requires* references > * if they work with more advanced researchers: contributing to Wikipedia > or assisting others to do so can improve information about their subject > for the public, and is an excellent way to disseminate good information > about the subject. It can help students and researchers who do not have the > opportunity of university. > * if they work with archives or old or unique materials, Wikipedia & > Wikimedia commons provides a free and open way to share information about > objects and collections with the entire world (add free photos, archival > descriptions, etc.) > * if they are more focused on the cataloging or database end, Wikidata can > be very interesting since it links open data in a way that libraries have > been trying to do for a long time in their catalogs. For instance, the > library catalog could add identifiers from Wikidata that would connect > their authority records to catalogs around the world . > * if they are focused on the licensing and acquisitions end: Wikimedia is > an excellent argument for supporting open access efforts, since our readers > would like to access the scholarly references that are cited. > * it's rather out of date but you can check here too: https://outreach. > wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_Loves_Libraries for project ideas > > Also I like to say that the missions of Wikimedia and libraries are > aligned: we both want to make good information available to all, freely and > openly. > > I'm not sure of the politics of Egyptian libraries, but you could mention > that we had Wikimania 2008 at the Biblioteca Alexandrina, a wonderful > experience for many of us, and we had great conversations with those > librarians about contributing digitized and older unique materials to > Wikimedia Commons. > > all best & good luck! > Phoebe > > On Mon, Sep 17, 2018 at 7:22 AM Reem Al-Kashif <[email protected]> > wrote: > >> >> Hello, >> >> Hope this finds you well. I didn't plan on meeting librarians at a >> university here in Cairo, Egypt, but they expressed interest in Wikipedia, >> so we are meeting :). The problem is, I really don't know what activities >> to offer them. I have zero experience in Wiki+libraries collaborations. It >> would be more than great if anybody could help me out. What I need is: >> 1. Understanding the nature of librarians work (I know it is a big topic, >> but some general remarks would do). >> 2. Having examples of activities they can be part of to contribute to >> Wiki (be it Wikipedia or Wikimedia). >> 3. Understanding how rewarding those activities are (so that I explain to >> them) >> 4. Having examples of similar activities, if any, around the world. >> Bonus point 5. Having a clear plan of action to give them (i.e. what do >> we do after the meeting and so on) >> >> Thank you so so much in advance for helping me navigate this uncharted >> territory. >> >> Best, >> Reem >> >> >> >> >> -- >> >> *Kind regards,Reem Al-Kashif* >> _______________________________________________ >> Libraries mailing list >> [email protected] >> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/libraries >> > > > -- > * I use this address for lists; send personal messages to phoebe.ayers > <at> gmail.com * > _______________________________________________ > Libraries mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/libraries >
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