Librarians and Wikipedians—meant to be together?
A forum, “Library Engagement and Wikipedia,” (slides) was held at the "International Federation of Library Associations’ 2016 World Library and Information Congress" in Columbus, Ohio, as reported by American Libraries. Alex Stinson and Jake Orlowitz of the Wikimedia Foundation highlighted initiatives such as #1Lib1Ref, which encourages librarians to verify and add citations to articles.
In the same vein, The Week reported on a new $250,000 grant by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation to link library resources to Wikipedia. The project aims to provide better library archive access to editors and to train librarians in Wikipedia editing.
These discussions and initiatives inevitably link back to discussions about Wikipedia's culture and the gender gap. Inside Higher Ed lamented Wikipedia's current culture in the context of greater internet culture, where "highly stylistic lulz-based trolling" infects attempts at reasoned discussion. As has been stated before, a gender gap cannot be bridged where a community is seen as hostile by many female editors. Highlighting a blog post by Andromeda Yelton, who apparently attended the IFLA conference noted above, the article notes that librarians are 80% female and Wikipedians are 90% male, such that many see Wikipedia having an "adversarial, argumentative bent" that is not enjoyable to all.
Yet, the above initiatives evidence Wikipedia receiving more credit as an established institution, and thus becoming the target of more projects from the traditional institutions that curate knowledge. Perhaps Wikipedia got to where it is without as much formal support (and indeed in the face of many detractors), but the old guard eventually incorporating the nouveau riche is human nature. MW