Andrea, I hear you suggesting that we need a different upload process for pdfs and other documents, wherein when you upload them there is a "digital document to paged wikitext" script that runs and generates an appropriate result, which can then be imported elsewhere on the projects as needed.
My point (working in an academic digital library and just seeing the amount of thesis, dissertation, articles passing by) is that if for people is a difficult, overcomplicated burden to upload a PDF in an institutional repository (5 minutes of their time, even less), how can we wikilibrarians think that they will come to us and upload and "curate" their text?
Right - these should be doable by different people. An ambassador to an institutional repository should be able to collect approving signatures and do a bulk upload him/herself.
-- Sam.