Building a partnership takes time. You will probably need more than one meeting. The good
thing is that they have approached you. This probably means that they have heard something
about engaging with Wikipedia and it must have sounded interesting enough to make contact
with you. So the starting point is to find out what that was and see if it leads to some
obvious activity. Or to a pathway of activities (sometimes what they might be interested
might not be at the skill level of total newbies).
The thing to be aware of is that most people (even in universities, even in libraries)
don’t really understand how Wikipedia at all. They read it but they almost always have
questions lurking in their heads like “Can *anyone* change it? Is anyone checking those
changes? What if I see something wrong, how do I get Wikipedia to fix it? Many people
assume that their donations go Wikipedia go to paying people to write the bulk of the
content which is of course not true; they do not realise there is an army of volunteers
who are writing the content. So I have a presentation which addresses a lot of these
typical questions and misunderstandings. I outline some of our policies (the more external
facing ones like Verification, Neutral Point of View, that impact on the reader
experience). I also have slides that cover “getting more out of Wikipedia as a reader”.
Many people never look outside the main body of text. I take them on a tour of the anatomy
of a Wikipedia article and was the purpose of those sections are. What blue links and red
links mean (yeah, many people don’t understand the simple difference). I look at some of
the useful things on the left-hand tool bar that most readers have never noticed (other
languages, get a citation to this Wikipedia page, etc). I show them the history. You can
introduce them to the sister projects. Everyone knows about Wikipedia but almost nobody
knows about Commons, Wikisource, etc. I usually start by wowing them with our statistics
(obviously it may vary from country to country but usually Wikipedia is up there in the 10
websites (today on a worldwide basis, we are #5 (and #1 not-for-profit /
powered-by-volunteers / surviving-on-many-small-donations)
https://www.alexa.com/topsites
and #19 for Egypt (I am not familiar with some of the other top sites but I guess you will
know what they are)
https://www.alexa.com/topsites/countries/EG
I find that having this kind of overview talk is always a great way to educate people
about Wikipedia without actually asking them to do anything (apart from donating, I always
drop that hint!). From such a talk you can explain how people can contribute to Wikipedia,
writing content, correcting spelling and other small errors, taking photos and uploading
photos, etc. This then opens up the conservation about “what would you like to hear about
next”, “would you like me to teach you how to make simple changes?”, “are you concerned
about a lack of content in some topic area?”, “are there enough photos about the topics
that interest you?”. Note sometimes I give this kind of talk and it doesn’t go anywhere in
terms of subsequent activities but people always go away feeling they better understand
how Wikipedia works, and feel a bit more confident about using it. If all you do is better
educate librarians about Wikipedia, it’s a great thing as they are the people who advise
the patrons of the library (in this case the students), so they are key influencers about
“knowledge and where to get it” and we want them to have a realistic understanding of
Wikipedia’s role in the knowledge ecology.
My slidepack for such a talk is in English but happy to share it to give you some ideas
for a similar talk of your own.
So this is my advice on how to take first steps. After you get to know the university
librarians better, finding activities of mutual interest will become much easier. You
don’t need to go into the meeting pretending you have all the answers. Come back here and
ask for more help when you know a little more about their needs and interests. You might
be the public face in this new relationship but you do have a huge team behind you here.
Kerry
From: Libraries [mailto:libraries-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of Reem
Al-Kashif
Sent: Monday, 17 September 2018 9:22 PM
To: libraries(a)lists.wikimedia.org
Subject: [libraries] Meeting Librarians Soon. Help!
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