I am delighted to announce that Jake Orlowitz (User:Ocaasi, User:Ocaasi (WMF)) is joining the Grantmaking department at WMF to lead The Wikipedia Library (TWL)[1], an online resource for Wikipedians to get free access to journal subscriptions. In the last year, TWL has helped nearly 2000 unique users access 3000 accounts of sources like JSTOR, Elsevier, De Gruyter, and Oxford University Press,[2] and is now experimenting with community-run branches in Arabic, German and other languages.

Jake will be a full-time contractor with part-time support from Alex Stinson (User:Sadads, User:Astinson (WMF)) for an initial period of six months.  They are both working with an amazing volunteer team of Wikipedians guided by Head of Volunteer Coordination (User:Nikkimaria). We're particularly looking forward to seeing how TWL can expand its global (non-English) work, and what it can teach us about the best ways to support some of our top contributors, and improve content on our projects.

Many of you know Jake well, but for those who don't: Jake (Ocaasi) is a long time Wikipedian, with two Individual Engagement Grants from us, and he has been on the IEG grants committee for the past two years. Jake works remotely from Philadelphia but is frequently in the Bay Area, especially during long and dark East Coast winters.  Alex has been involved for many years with both Education and GLAM outreach. He resides in Kansas where he works on Digital Humanities at Kansas State.

You can catch up on all of TWL's new happenings in the latest edition of the Books and Bytes newsletter.[7] We're excited to bring The Wikipedia Library on board and look forward to its growth and evolution!

Warmly,
Anasuya

Jake Orlowitz (User:Ocaasi) started editing in 2007 as an ip. Early on he worked on articles about religious groups, political movements, and alternative health. Around 2010 he shifted focus from editing to helping new users, working in the irc-help channel and developing the Plain and Simple guide for New Editors [3] and its COI counterpart [4]. In 2012 Jake began developing projects through the Individual Engagement Grants department at WMF. He built The Wikipedia Adventure,[5] a playful interactive game to onboard new editors. He also began establishing and expanding donation partnerships in The Wikipedia Library to provide free research access to top article contributors. He helps out as a board member of Wiki Project Med Foundation [6] and gives talks about Wikipedia's role in education. Jake grew up in the Philadelphia suburbs and studied political theory at Wesleyan, before starting a tutoring company in Colorado. He currently splits his time between coasts, working full-time on Wikipedia projects. His contract with WMF will focus on expanding the number and global reach of Wikipedia Library partnerships.

Alex Stinson (User:Sadads) is a 9-year editor with over 80,000 contributions, actively involved in different forms of outreach.  He
is currently a project manager with the The Wikipedia Library, a long time volunteer with The Wikipedia Education Program, and supporter of GLAM-Wiki outreach. Alex has a Masters degree in English Literature from Kansas State University with research focused on cultural studies and the digital humanities. He works as a digital humanist at K-State, where he helps develop projects and create partnerships with educators and cultural institutions.

[1] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/The_Wikipedia_Library
[2] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IEG/The_Wikipedia_Library/Renewal/Final
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WP:PANDS
[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WP:PSCOI
[5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:The_Wikipedia_Adventure
[6] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WPMED
[7] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:The_Wikipedia_Library/Newsletter/August-September2014
--
Anasuya Sengupta
Senior Director of Grantmaking
Wikimedia Foundation

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