There is a need to add diversity to Wikipedia’s legion of contributors and to its content. But many librarians don’t embrace the platform, mistrusting its crowdsourced format and the content it produces. KCPL saw an opportunity to draw libraries and librarians in as authoritative contributors while also involving members of marginalized populations. Focusing locally, it serves to build community. And in teaching information literacy and facilitating credible, inclusive information sharing, it builds vital skills.

A Wikipedian in Residence (WiR) had never previously been employed by a U.S. public library. Often, these positions are established by private colleges, museums and archival institutions looking to add citations and collection materials to Wikipedia. While that is part of the role of this position, KCPL’s WiR also focuses on serving the public and has the capacity to offer more interactive public engagement opportunities. Affiliation with a public library also allows for collaborative programming with creative partners.

KCPL anticipates three major outcomes: creating a Wikipedia community in Kansas City, increasing information literacy skills and populating Wikipedia with local history content from the library’s collections and databases. By the time of this submission, two Wikipedia Edit-a-Thons had engaged 16 participants, created 11 articles, edited 35 others, added 513,000 words and 44 references and drawn 330,130 article views. Four info and instructional classes, including a series during National Media Literacy Week, drew 27.