Good day colleagues and a happy new year,
The *Wikipedia in African Libraries* course which is an adaptation of the *OCLC
Libraries + Wikipedia Better Together* curriculum is meant to equip African
librarians with the requisite skills to evaluate the quality and
reliability of individual articles, edit and create content of local and
personal interest on Wikipedia and sister projects with laid down
benchmarks for quality and relevance. The course will also assist
librarians to better understand how and why Wikipedia is a current resource
for dissemination of information as well as a teaching tool that promotes
quality education thereby increasing access to knowledge for sustainable
development in Africa.
*Course Benefits*
- The course will teach African librarians how they can better assist
their user communities to use Wikipedia as they will be encouraged and
supported to physically (or online because of COVID-19 safety protocols)
run Wikipedia programmes in their libraries as community projects or
assignments.
- This would present great opportunities for communities all over the
continent to tell their stories by themselves on a very visible global
platform thus increasing the volume of information about Africa – our
heroes and heroines, our meanings and philosophies that is integrated into
the global body of knowledge.
- The course will also nurture relationships between Wikipedia
communities in Africa with libraries. This is expected to lead to
collaborations with librarians during and after the life-cycle of the
project.
*Registration*
The course is *open and free* for all African library educators and
Librarians in all library types. It is structured in such a way that there
is something for everyone irrespective of the library type or library
training institution. Participants in Cohort 1 will be trained from *1st
February – 24th April, 2021.* To know more about this project and register,
follow the link below:
https://web.aflia.net/wikipedia-in-african-libraries-course-cohort-1-regist…
Please note, *the call for the Cohort 1 is open until 14th January, 2021
(12 midnight GMT*). Successful applicants will be notified on or before 15
th January, 2021.
Regards and thanks in advance,
*Alice Kibombo*
*Wikipedian-in-Residence,AfLIA*
*WhatsApp : +256-758-975650*
*Twitter: @owakakalamu *