*"A Wikilibrarian's story"*
(The text in this section was copied from *Books & Bytes*, Issue 35, July–August 2019 https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/The_Wikipedia_Library/Newsletter/July-August_2019; see the page history on Meta for attribution.)
One's advent into the world of Wikimedia projects is almost always a noteworthy account. Here we share one such account of a librarian who was introduced to Wikipedia in an unusual way and began their adventure trying to better understand Wikipedia and now helps others understand it too!
*Laurie Bridges is an Instruction and Outreach Librarian at Oregon State University in the US. She was introduced to Wikipedia by her son: at age 9, he was assigned a class project to research and present about a species of frog, and was told to only use Wikipedia for his research. When he related this to her, she thought, "If 9-year-olds are being introduced to research using Wikipedia, I better learn more about Wikipedia". So she got involved because she wanted to better understand the resource her son, and the students at her university, use. She explains:* Students and faculty are familiar with [Wikipedia] because many use it daily, although they do not cite it in their papers. As a librarian I teach about information literacy and help students and faculty with their research. Wikipedia is a familiar website that I can use to teach information literacy and afterwards students and faculty leave equipped with a better understanding of how the information source works. Students are used to teachers and professors saying, "Don't use Wikipedia." However, this dismissive statement doesn't teach the students how, why, or when they can use Wikipedia or other online resources. We are living in a time of misinformation and I want students to understand the information they are using and become critical consumers of that information. Using Wikipedia to teach students about information literacy is fun! In addition, it's fulfilling because I can see students' excitement as they learn more about Wikipedia, a website they use on a daily basis. I've found teaching with Wikipedia to be so rewarding that I want to spread the word.
Finally, if librarians don't teach students about Wikipedia and what it is (or isn't), who is going to teach them? I'd like to see more activity and interest from librarians related to Wikipedia. This is why whenever I get a chance, I will introduce other librarians to … the Wikimedia Movement. Last year I received a scholarship to attend Wikimedia + Education in San Sebastián, Spain. I was only one of two librarians in attendance (in addition to Basque librarians who were volunteering at the event). It was a great learning opportunity and I connected with so many enthusiastic educators. I'd love to see enough interest from librarians to host a Wikimedia + Libraries conference! That would be a great conference!
*The change of seasons*
There are a variety of ways to define seasons https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Season, including meteorologically and culturally. For those in the northern hemisphere, the autumnal equinox was on 23 September this year; the autumnal equinox marks the transition from astronomical summer to astronomical autumn. For those in the southern hemisphere, 23 September was the spring equinox, which marked the transition from astronomical winter to astronomical spring.
Awhile back I learned of a Scandinavian practice called kulning https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kulning, which involves using songs to call herds of cattle over long distances. Here is a video (YouTube link) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nc7F_qv3eI8 that shows cattle being summoned out of the field with a kulning call for the last time of the year in September 2017.
Here are a few music selections for the transition from summer to fall:
* "Summer End | Chill & Jazzhop", by Fantastic Music (YouTube link) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icS__xweWnU
* "Summer's Gone", by Bob Bradley & Thomas Balmforth (YouTube link) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5uyuLrJZ4IM
And for the transition from winter to spring:
(The performances linked below feature John Harrison on the violin, and the Wichita State University https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wichita_State_University Chamber Players. The conductor was Robert Turizziani. The performance rights release was received by Wikimedia Commons via OTRS https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:OTRS.)
* Concerto No. 1 in E major, Op. 8, RV 269, "*La primavera*" (Spring) — Movement 1: Allegro from *The Four Seasons*, composed by Antonio Vivaldi https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:01_-_Vivaldi_Spring_mvt_1_Allegro_-_John_Harrison_violin.ogg * Concerto No. 1 in E major, Op. 8, RV 269, "*La primavera*" (Spring) — Movement 2: Largo from *The Four Seasons, *composed by Antonio Vivaldi https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:02_-_Vivaldi_Spring_mvt_2_Largo_-_John_Harrison_violin.ogg * Concerto No. 1 in E major, Op. 8, RV 269, "*La primavera*" (Spring) — Movement 3: Allegro from *The Four Seasons*, composed by Antonio Vivaldi https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:02_-_Vivaldi_Spring_mvt_2_Largo_-_John_Harrison_violin.ogg
Closing comments
Translations of the subject line of this email would be appreciated on Meta https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Pine/WMYHTW_translations. Thanks to User:Julle https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Julle for the Swedish translation.
What’s making you happy this week? You are welcome to write in any language. You are also welcome to start a WMYHTW thread next week.