Wikipedia #1Lib1Ref Effort

This week (Jan. 15-23) I’m participating in the Wikipedia Library#1Lib1Ref effort to get more solid sourcing attached to Wikipedia entries. Did you know that Wikipedia is a top 10 source of referrals to CrossRef, the DOI resolver? That means that LOTS of people – including students, academics and librarians – are going to Wikipedia looking for scholarly resources and actually clicking the links to read articles!

Some Wikipedia articles have great footnotes, reference sections, and further reading sections.  Others … do not. Wikipedia is encouraging librarians to add just ONE good quality source to a Wikipedia article today. I’d like to broaden this to encourage anyone with an interest in classical studies to do so as well. And I’ve got an easy way for you to help.

I keep a Zotero library of open-access bibliographies about the ancient world – Ancient World Open Bibliographies. Pick one on a topic you like. Add a link to the bibliography from a relevant Wikipedia article. Or, you know, use your expert knowledge to add a link to the WorldCat record for a book about a topic, or a link (using the DOI) to a scholarly article, or link to a scholarly web project on a classics topic directly.

Editing Wikipedia is actually VERY easy, and does not require you to create a login. I teach students to do it in class in less than 10 minutes. Wikipedia Library has a simple introduction teaching you how to edit Wikipedia if you’ve never used a wiki before.

If you tweet me directly @classicslib when you make you edit, I will give you a twitter heart, even though I think they are silly. I’ll also retweet you – I’ve got 1550 followers, which must be good for something! Hashtagging #1lib1ref will get you seen by the larger world working on this project.