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In the media

Librarians and Wikipedians—meant to be together?

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By Milowent and Pete Forsyth
Ties between libraries and Wikipedia are growing

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

In brief

  • When a request for help brings the opposite: Former Wikimedia Foundation trustee Bishakha Datta explores the connections between online harassment of women, and historic exclusion of women from public spaces, in an essay published by India Today (and a variant published by openDemocracy). When asked about how this dynamic relates to Wikipedia, Datta replied: "Online abuse isn't the only thing behind the gender gap on Wikipedia, but it's something we do have to tackle if we want to increase gender diversity." (Aug. 31)
  • Russia plans a Wikipedia rival... again: Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has signed a document calling for the creation of a domestic analogue of Wikipedia, reports Pravda. (This report echoes a similar announcement from Nov. 2014). (Aug. 30)
  • "Controversy" causes controversy: The American Academy of Pediatrics newsletter revisited a 2015 Atlantic article, starting with the question "Is Wikipedia a High Quality Evidence-Based Resource?" This article highlights a self-interested edit from an orthopedic hardware company. (Aug. 30)
  • Edits result in edits result in...: Insights from Stanford Business reviewed the journal article "Cumulative Growth in User-Generated Content Production: Evidence from Wikipedia" from the July 2016 issue of Management Science. (Aug. 22)
  • Travis Wilson, meet Travis Wilson: The University of Utah's Daily Utah Chronicle saw confusion over the fact that their football quarterback Travis Wilson is not the same as Travis Wilson (American football), despite information about both players appearing in the article. The problem has since been fixed. (Aug. 28)
  • "According to Wikipedia..." makes for wonky news reporting: Wikipedia says Peter Ostrum inherited chocolate factory after Gene Wilder's death (Aug. 30)
  • Generous photographer interviewed: Creative Commons interviewed Carol Highsmith (whose free photography project we profiled in our August 4, 2016 edition): "This is my time and I'm recording it": Carol Highsmith and the nature of giving (Aug. 18)
  • Nairobi news anchor takes vandalism in stride: Larry Madowo: Someone defaced my Wikipedia page and it's awesome! (Aug. 29)
  • Watch those dead links: An article on Search Engine Optimization (SEO) (intentionally not linked) advises spammers to seek out dead links on Wikipedia and replace them with links to their sites.
  • Melbourne goes seasteading?: A search for Melbourne, Australia on Bing Maps last week would have landed you in the Pacific Ocean near Japan, according to The Register, Gizmodo and TechEye. The problem was a missing negative sign in Wikipedia's co-ordinates. (Aug. 23, 28, 29)
  • The Twitter Account Anyone Can Edit? On August 20, Jimmy Wales' Twitter account was hacked by celebrity hacker group OurMine, as reported in Mashable and elsewhere. After taking control the group first tweeted a death announcement for Jimmy, "RIP Jimmy Wales 1966-2016", a hallmark type of childish trolling. About 15 minutes later the hacking group revealed its conquest by tweeting "I confirm that Wikipedia is all lies. OurMine Team is the true (link to OurMine page)." Once Wales regained access to his account he tweeted confirmation that reports of his death had been premature. (Aug. 20–21)
  • Captain Kirk lives! The San Francisco Chronicle rounds up the weirdest, funniest and most nefarious Wikipedia page edits made from Congress, based on Wikipedian Ed Summers' @congressedits Twitter stream. (Aug. 19)
  • Wikipedia's impact on language preservation is the subject of the opensource.com article from Wikipedian Subhashish Panigrahi: Preserving languages and cultures in India: The birth of the Tulu Wikipedia (Aug. 26) Panigrahi also published 3 copyright tips for students and educators on the same site. (Aug. 31); and for more on developments in India, see the new edition of the CIS-A2K Newsletter.
  • Indigenous language project aims to become a Wikipedia: The Guardian highlighted the "Noongarpedia" project, which would be the first Wikipedia in an Australian aboriginal language, in its own piece on Wikipedia and language preservation. The piece touches on many themes, including the significance of oral tradition, cultural dissonance on the philosophy of free knowledge, and the significance of an academic team driving the project. Unlike Tulu, the Noongar Wikipedia has not been approved as an official Wikipedia. Introducing 'Noongarpedia' – Australia's first Indigenous Wikipedia (Sept. 1)
  • Keeping Up with the Commons #2: Creative Commons published its second newsletter, with a number of updates of interest to Wikipedians. (Aug. 22)
  • Another cache of high quality free photos: Creative Commons also announced a collection of freely licensed photos of women in technology. (Aug. 31) PF



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  • Love the title and the coverage of the libraries conversations: "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." That wit gave User:Ocaasi and I a good laugh! Keep up the great reporting! Sadads (talk) 21:57, 6 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]
    • That nugget was all Milowent -- and I had the same reaction when I read it. Thanks! -Pete (talk) 22:07, 6 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]
  • Creative Commons newsletter - is there a link available for this item? I couldn't find anything with a brief skim through https://creativecommons.org/blog/ and the "archives" link at https://creativecommons.org/about/contact/newsletter/ only lists older newsletters (2007-2010). Thanks! Quiddity (talk) 22:43, 6 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]
    • Thanks for the catch -- fixed in the article now, and it's on Medium. -Pete (talk) 23:07, 6 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]
  • Can I have the link to the Search Engine Optimization story, please? I would have really wanted to read what they have to say, and omitting it is just plain silly. Surely there are worse things people could read (intentionally not linked). – Finnusertop (talk ⋅ contribs) 22:45, 6 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]
    • If you enable email on your account, I'll email it to you. -Pete (talk) 23:07, 6 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]
      • Go ahead, Pete, but I was really hoping for an explanation for the omission as well. Does Signpost think its readers will resort to spamming links? Or are you SEO-minded enough to deny thousands of clicks to that despicable story? – Finnusertop (talk ⋅ contribs) 23:39, 6 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]
      • While I can't speak for them, just a note that Wikipedia uses nofollow for external links so their search engine rank wouldn't really be influenced much. However there are still other reasons not to link to them such as driving traffic to sites opposite the goals of Wikipedia, and because you don't want to give sites like that ad revenue. Opencooper (talk) 03:37, 7 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]
      • Sent, Finnusertop. The story constitutes advice on how to circumvent Wikipedia's intended purpose, and its policies. The Signpost editorial board prefers not to play a role in broadly propagating that kind of information. -Pete (talk) 17:43, 7 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]
        • Peteforsyth, is this similar to Matthew Woodward's tactics? See Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard/Archive267, section "SEO spam attack". Nyttend (talk) 12:48, 13 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]
          • Yes. Thanks for pointing out that prior coverage, Nyttend. -Pete (talk) 18:04, 13 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]
            • You're welcome. My response to such activity is typically (1) block the account as {{uw-spamblock}} without warning, since such people clearly aren't here for any other purpose [they're professionals, so we can't persuade them to stop], (2) blacklist the spammed URL, and (3) write a block message that includes a personalised note explaining that they need to tell their clients that the link now cannot be added to any Wikipedia page, because of their actions. At worst, the effect of the personalised message is no different from a normal block message, but there's a chance that it will hurt the spammer's reputation with the clients and reduce the chance that they'll re-hire spammers to do this. Nyttend (talk) 00:40, 14 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]
      • This is a well-written piece, offering a glance at the two varying perspectives of librarians and Wikipedians. Although it is true that Wikipedia has gained a significant amount of popularity in the past few years, the growing efforts to link libraries and Wikipedia will benefit both parties in the long run. On another note, would have loved to have a peek at the Search Engine Optimization article if it is, by any chance, possible. by seo uk — Preceding unsigned comment added by 59.89.212.0 (talk) 16:26, 9 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]


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