Adaora C. Obuezie and Millie N. Horsfall

“ Wikipedia is a multilingual online encyclopedia, which maintains an open collaboration with the community of volunteer editors using a wiki-based editing system. In African countries, this presents librarians with the challenge of locating the various language communities. As a result, some librarians may be working solo or struggle to engage with the Wikipedia community. Finding editors who speak the same language or librarians willing to join the movement and finding resources written in local languages can be a tedious task. ”

“ Despite this awareness and use, Africa, a continent that is rich in cultures, languages, and music, lacks adequate representation of Wikipedia editors. is gap can be filled by librarians.
Information literacy strives more in the absence of language barriers and this is of high relevance in providing free access to information for all—which is the key aim of libraries and Wikipedia. Hence, in order to fill the existing gap, there is a need for partnerships between African libraries and Wikipedia projects to provide authoritative and reliable resources for the Wikipedia users. ”

“ Students being taught the dynamics of Wikipedia articles would take them into the world of critical thinking, reading, and deep research skills, because the hyperlinks that lead to different information would equip their flexibility in online navigation, intensify their literature search skills, as well as improve their source evaluation. ”

“ Librarians need to raise awareness on the relevance of Wikipedia in teaching, learning, and research. This awareness would expose the values and positive features of Wikipedia, which would help clear existing misconceptions surrounding Wikipedia. Librarians could learn from Wikipedia user groups, such as Wikimedia Nigeria, and local language hubs, which are creating awareness and collaborating effectively. ”

“ Articles are only as good as their editors, hence the involvement of librarians as editors in Wikipedia continually improves the quality of citations and the myriad of content presently accessible in the Wikipedia domain. ”

“ These partnerships benefits libraries and Wikipedia and are good steps taken toward promoting a shared mission: to get more diversified and knowledgeable editors who add credible edits and move the Wikimedia movement forward by increasing visibility and free access to information.
Librarians in Africa can help improve Wikipedia by adding materials related to specific topics where information is lacking. Each library holds books containing information that cannot be found on Wikipedia. ”

“ Ngozi Osadebe facilitated an Art + Feminism Wikipedia Edit-A-Thon in 2017. Art + Feminism Edit-A-Thons target the underrepresentation of women in the arts on Wikipedia both in contributing to Wikipedia and the amount of content. Editors for the event were recruited and trained from the underrepresented group to ll the existing gap by editing, writing articles, and adding content on relatable materials in Wikipedia (University of Nigeria Library, 2017) . Another way that libraries are introducing staff members and the public to the Wikimedia world is through the #1Lib1Ref campaign. ”

“ Citations from verified materials, such as books, journals, web pages, online newspapers, and institutional repositories, can be added for further details and in consideration for proper citation/referencing of the intellectual output of researchers. ”