Invade Wikipedia!
The Shifted Librarian had a bad experience at Wikipedia: a library link she added anonymously was quickly deleted by an admin with little explanation. Dire suspicions were evoked: Walt Crawford wondered whether this was evidence of an anti-library bias. Upon investigation, it turned out that Wikipedia already has an automated system for linking ISBNs to libraries and booksellers, rendering one-off links unnecessary.
One should not be overly sensitive when entering a new collaborative space, at least until you know how things work. But the sense that libraries and librarians are not well-represented at Wikipedia is, I think, bang on. And if, as Walt rightly says, the ISBN page is a “monstrosity” (but at least it puts the library links before the booksellers!), there’s scope for librarians to move in and improve it. Wikipedia ought to know about OpenURLs, for example, especially now that latent OpenURLs are coming into focus.
There’s a lot we could do for Wikipedia, and nothing to stop us from taking over. Invade! To this end, I’ve just created a Wikipedia project page for librarians interested in working on Wikipedia. As a first step, I’ve posed the question: what should the ISBN linking page look like?
(Not that I’m proposing to lead the invasion; I don’t have any more time for this sort of thing than you do. It is my modest hope to play John Brown at Harper’s Ferry, not Eisenhower in Normandy.)
Rolling up the sleeves Like a lot of colleagues in the field, I've talked Wikipedia to death already [1] [2] [3] [4]. An interesting thing has happened in the last few days, though: a couple of librarians have had some pretty bad experiences with Wikipedia [1] [2] out o
While I confess to not really understanding how Wikipedia works, how one creates the project page you created, and how said page ties into the larger Wikipedia, my question is, why isn't the page you created visible on the Wikipedia: WikiProject page? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject
Good point. The answer is, because I didn't think to add it. I've just created a new subheading "Library and Information Science" for it, under "Science".
[...] ith the development and quality of information sources, who can? Second, Stephen mentions Peter Binkley's recent post about a project page for librarians in Wikipedia. I [...]
I apologise for both the vague edit summary and the delay. Many comments above have been correct insofar as me seeing this as spam and seeing it as too "Americocentric". Having been particularly busy in the past month I've not seen responding to anon users as a priority when it's about the reasons for removing an external link. Perhaps such actions were inappropriate. You may wish to note that I've not removed the link since that first time, though I still see the ISBN route as the best option. The "Wikipedia:WikiProject Librarians" looks very good and I wish you all every success in your endeavours - it's all for the benefit of Wikipedia which, I hope, you still see as a valuable resource. "Homepage" links to my Wikipedia talk page should any of you wish to continue discussion of this, or my email address is also provided. Kind regards, Violet/Riga.
[...] ormation. Want to find a way to apply social bookmarking to library content? Interested in how Wikipedia can serve libraries? Want to find a better way to do patron loads or talk about what id [...]
[...] Some of this is related to my interest in making Wikipedia work better in an academic library context, but I've got other plans too. With luck, we'll see a beta release this week. [...]
Wikipedia and Libraries... Wikipedia seems to get mixed reviews in the academic world, but I don't fully understand why. There are those that complain that they can't trust the untamed masses with such an important task as writing and editing an encyclopedia, then th...
Not only did I add latent OpenURLs to Wikipedia, I left a note about it on the Librarian WikiProject, and no one seems to have noticed or responded for a month... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Librarians#ISBN_linking_2 :-)
[...] Want to find a way to apply tags or social bookmarking to library content? Interested in how Wikipedia can serve libraries? Want to find a better way to do patron loads or talk about what identity management means to [...]
Had the same experience with Wikapedia. Added some references and an explanation in an article and some guy from San Francisco deleted it -- never did receive an explanation -- no verification process of ANY kind .. I guess reader beware!!!!
[...] Want to find a way to apply tags or social bookmarking to library content? Interested in how Wikipedia can serve libraries? Want to find a better way to do patron loads or talk about what identity management means to [...]