Scottish Libraries, Hidden Gems & a Wikimedian in Residence: open knowledge and working with...

Scottish Libraries, Hidden Gems, & a Wikimedian in ResidenceCILIPS Autumn GatheringThursday 26th OctoberDr Sara Thomas@lirazelfs.thomas@scottishlibraries.org

Open knowledge & working with Wikimedia for digital inclusion, literacy & learning.

What is Wikimedia?

Photographs by JarrahTree...commons.wikimedia.org [CC BY 2.5 au]

What’s a Wikimedian in Residence?

What does a Wikimedian in Residence do? (ANSWER: It Depends)

Some of my fellow residents...

Jason Evans at the National

Library of Walesimage by Llywelyn2000 CC BY-SA 4.0

Ewan McAndrew

at the University

of EdinburghImage by @emcandre

Dr Susan Ross at the

National Library of

ScotlandImage by NLS

Martin Poulter at

the University of

OxfordImage by University of Oxford

Resident at Glasgow Museums & Museums Galleries ScotlandJan 2015 - June 2016

Where our strategic goals coincide

Widening access to knowledge

Culture & creativity

Digital inclusion

Reading, literacy & learning

Education & learning

“Establish public libraries as quality content creators in the digital sphere, and to provide open access to freely usable content about Scottish culture, derived from our rich library collections.”

Why Wikimedia?

“Wikipedia is the single greatest Open Education resource the world has

ever seen”Jim Groom, Instructional technologist, speaking at #OER16

Wikipedia is not a social network

Wikipedia is more accurate than you think

Wikimedia has a global reach

Hidden Gems Editathon6th October

Library services & partner organisations in local areas invited to lend good quality sources

What happened?

● Articles created● Articles improved● Articles with minor improvements● Partnership with local library &

heritage connections

2 new articles

- The Govan Stones (205 views since creation)

- Kennetpans Distillery (103 views)

- (Campbeltown Picture House in draft)

5 improved

- East Wemyss

- John Roebuck

- Kinneil House

- The Howff

- Dalziel House

13 with minor improvements

The Catalonian Example

Wiki-enabled libraries in Catalonia

https://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/GLAM/Case_studies/Catalonia%27s_Network_of_Public_Libraries

By Davidpar (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0] By Crispica (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0]

What could Scotland’s public libraries do?

Dr Sara Thomas@lirazelfs.thomas@scottishlibraries.org