Now Available For Free Download: “Leveraging Wikipedia: Connecting Communities of Knowledge; Edited by Merrilee Proffitt, OCLC Research

An open version (CC BY-NC 4.0) of Leveraging Wikipedia: Connecting Communities of Knowledge, edited by Merrilee Proffitt (OCLC Research) is now available for free download via the OCLC website. The book was first published by ALA Editions in 2018.

Direct to Full Text Book (272 pages; PDF).

About the Book

The vision statement of the Wikimedia Foundation states, “Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in the sum of all knowledge.” Libraries need not see Wikipedia as competition; rather, failing to leverage its omnipresence in the online world constitutes a missed opportunity. As a senior program officer at OCLC, Proffitt has encouraged collaboration between Wikipedia and cultural heritage institutions, leading to increased visibility and user engagement at participating organizations. Here, she brings onboard a raft of contributors from the worlds of academia, archives, libraries, and members of the volunteer Wikipedia community who together point towards connecting these various communities of knowledge. This book will inspire libraries to get involved in the Wikipedia community through programs and activities such as

• hosting editathons;
• contributing content and helping to bridge important gaps in Wikipedia;
• ensuring that library content is connected through the world’s biggest encyclopedia;
• working with the Wikipedia education community; and
• engaging with Wikipedians as allies in a quest to expand access to knowledge.

Speaking directly to librarians, this book shows how libraries can partner with Wikipedia to improve content quality while simultaneously ensuring that library services and collections are more visible on the open web.

Leveraging Wikipedia: Connecting Communities of Knowledge edited by Merrilee Proffitt (Chicago: American Library Association, 2018). © 2018 American Library Association. Licensed under an Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) license.

Direct to Full Text Book (272 pages; PDF).

Purchase the Print Edition (via ALA Editions)

See Also

• “Four Questions with Author, Librarian, and Wikipedian Merrilee Proffitt” (via PW, 2018)
• Interview: Librarians Who Wikipedia: Merrilee Proffitt, OCLC and Wikilibrarian (2018; via WebJunction)
• Interview: Merrilee Proffitt on Collaboration Between Wikipedia And Cultural Heritage Institutions (2018; via ALA Editions)
• Presentations About Wikipedia and Libraries From 2018 (via OCLC)

Filed under: Archives and Special Collections, Associations and Organizations, Interviews, Libraries, News, Profiles