Jesse Carliner and Ji Yun Alex Jung

“ After a successful one-year, part-time WIR pilot, the University of Toronto Libraries (UTL) has piloted a one-year, full-time Open Technology Specialist (OTS) role to build upon the WIR’s accomplishments and allow for a more comprehensive approach to Wikimedia activities in the library. Through extensive research, outreach, and relationship-building, the OTS has considerably expanded the scope of WIR’s activities to advance a wide range of institutional strategic priorities for the long term. ”

“ Beyond some sporadic Wikimedia engagement by library and archives staff throughout the UTL system, the first systematic pilot of Wikimedia activities took place in the summer of 2018. A librarian and an intern in the information technology department carried out a pilot project to assess the impact of Wikipedia contributions on the use of digital collections. Selected items from the Wenceslaus Hollar, Agnes Chamberlin, and Anatomia collections were linked to the English and German Wikipedia through citations, external links, and images. ”

“ Moreover, these trainings have themselves been opportunities for collaboration with other staff and interns, contributing to experiential learning at UTL in ways that integrate the Web into library production. Through these collaborations, the loose network of interested staff at UTL has rapidly come to cocreate clear descriptions and starting points for linked open knowledge projects.
The OTS has built bridges across campuses and departments to identify and connect interested staff for open technology engagement. ”

“ Increases in traffic would usually only be temporary—perhaps indicating a sporadic in flux of curious users who were not actively researching the topic.
By contrast, collection items linked to Wikimedia projects were found and used more readily by the average web user. Over the years, editors not affiliated with the library had linked or uploaded collection items to Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons. These links have more effectively brought these collections within reach of the average web user, and in the appropriate information-seeking context. ”

“ The impact of the OTS pilot so far demonstrates that a full-time position dedicated to Wikimedia and other open technology projects holds great potential to better link open-access library resources and archival and special collections to the Web. ”

“ By enabling consistent support for Wikimedia activities, staff across UTL’s large and decentralized system have been empowered to meet their users where they are and increase discovery and use of their collections with greater ease. is sustained staff development resulting in high-impact benefits to library and institutional priorities have come at a low cost, requiring only the flexible investment of staff time. ”

“ A great deal of staff resources and infrastructure go into creating and maintaining these digital collections, but they are not easily discoverable on the Web unless made to be so. Notable examples include The Discovery and Early Development of Insulin Collection and the Wenceslaus Hollar Digital Collection. Initially, discovery and use of UTL’s digital collections had primarily relied on search-based traffic or traditional library marketing strategies like social media and website news items. Some of the resources had also been promoted at library workshops and in relevant research guides. ”

“ Bury, S. (2011) . Faculty attitudes, perceptions and experiences of information literacy: A study across multiple disciplines at York University, Canada. Journal of Information Literacy, 5 (1) , 45–64. ”