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Wikimedia and Libraries User Group/Meeting minutes

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Wikimedia and Libraries User Group

This page is dedicated to the annual reports and meeting minutes of all meeting of the steering committee members as well as member meetups.

Annual report, 2022-2023

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This report provides an annual summary of the activities and achievements of the Wikimedia and Libraries User Group for the year 2022-2023. The goal of the user group is to connect librarians with Wikimedians and also to pursue cooperation between libraries and Wikimedia. This report gives insights into the efforts of the steering committee to foster the engagement of librarians in Wikimedia projects.

Steering Committee Members

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Windblown29 serves as the chair of the steering committee. The members of the steering committee are AfricanLibrarian, Clifford Anderson, and Orlysi. We are planning the next election for the steering committee of the user group in fall 2024.

Steering Committee Meetings

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Regular monthly meetings are convened by the Steering Committee. The objective is to plan practical activities to engage the members of the user group and to decide on strategic direction. Prominent topics of discussion have revolved around invigorating engagement with the user group members and incorporating more librarians globally into our initiatives.

Wikimedia Summit 2022

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Clifford Anderson, Windblown29, and Orlysi represented the user group (and the interests of librarians, broadly speaking) at the Wikimedia Summit 2022.

Wikimania Singapore

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AfricanLibrarian, Clifford Anderson, Orlysi, and Windblown29 joined Silvia E. Gutiérrez De la Torre, Senior Program Officer for Libraries at the Wikimedia Foundation, for a panel discussion titled Libraries + Wikimedia: past, present and future at the Knowledge Beyond Boundaries satellite conference at the National Library of Singapore.

Wikipedia+Libraries International Convention

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AfricanLibrarian, Windblown29, and Orlysi are representing the steering committee for the organization of the 2024 Wikipedia+Libraries International Convention.

Artificial Intelligence Salons

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The user group is planning to host a series of three salons on artificial intelligence, libraries, and Wikimedia during September, October, and November of 2023.

Throughout the year 2022-2023, the Wikimedia and Libraries User Group has made significant strides in bridging the world of librarians and Wikimedians. Our participation in movement-wide strategy sessions and Wikimania helped to publicize our work to libraries worldwide. Our planned initiatives like the Artificial Intelligence Salons demonstrate our commitment to assessing changes in the information ecosphere and their potential impact on our movemenet. Our user group looks forward to more such engagements in the year ahead, especially the much-anticipated second Wikipedia+Libraries International Convention in 2024.

Annual report, 2021-2022

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This annual report of the Wikimedia and Libraries User Group covers the year 2021-2022. This report covers the activities of the steering committee of the Wikimedia and Libraries User Group along with related activities to support the engagement of librarians with Wikimedia projects.

2021 Election

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The Wikimedia and Libraries User Group held steering committee elections from October 4, 2022 to October 31, 2021. A smaller number of candidates participated in the process than previous years, but the elections still achieved broad geographic representation with elected members from Africa, the Middle East, and North America. Windblow29 serves as the chair of the steering committee.

Steering Committee Meetings

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The members of the Steering Commitee meet monthly to discuss business related to the user group and to engage in strategic planning. Among the chief topics we have discussed are how to engage with the members of the user group more actively and to enlist more librarians around the world in our activities.

Wikipedia+Libraries International Convention

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The User Group supported the inaugural Wikimedia+Libraries Convention that took place in Maynooth, Ireland. AfricanLibrarian, a member of the Steering Committee, served on the Core Organizing Team of the Convention and also delivered a keynote event. Windblow29 also served on the program committee for the Convention. The User Group also produced a welcome video for the Convention to encourage librarians to become more actively with Wikimedia projects. Three members of the Steering Committee, Windblow29, Orlysi, and AfricanLibrarian, are involved in the planning for the 2023 Wikimedia+Libraries Cohton adjacent to the IFLA meeting in Rotterdam, the Netherlands from August 21-25.

Wikimania Submission

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The members of the Steering Committee submitted a proposal for Wikimania 2022 titled "Libraries: Connecting Librarians to Wikimedia Projects Beyond Wikipedia." The submission was not accepted, but we are looking for other venues to share the contents of the proposal.

Wikimedia Summit 2022

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Three members of the Steering Committee, Clifford Anderson, Orlysi, and Windblown29, represented the User Group as participants at the Wikimedia Summit in Berlin, Germany on September 9-11.

Newcomer of the Year

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AfricanLibrarian, a member of the Steering Committee received the Newcomer of the Year award at Wikimania 2022 for her activites to connect networks of librarians in AfLIA and "to generate over 27,000 edits and counting" for Wikimedia projects. Congratulations, AfricanLibrarian!


In sum, the Wikimedia and Libraries User Group has had an active year despite the lingering challenges of the pandemic for librarians and their institutions. The Steering Committee has developed a draft working plan that it plans to publish in November 2022 for feedback from the User Group. We will be holding new elections in October 2023 and encourage members of the User Group who would like to become more actively involved in the Steering Committee's activities to consider nominating themselves for election.

Minutes of the latest meeting

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April, 21 2021: Fostering Connections: Wikimedia and Libraries Global Meetup

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Thank you to everyone who responded to the open invitation. It was great to hear about so many projects and initiatives. Links to projects, tools and presentation slides are listed below:

Tools and tips

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Project pages

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Presentation: Structured Data on Commons by John Cummings (UNESCO) and Alicia Fagerving (Wikimedia Sverige)

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Future initiatives and opportunities for WLUG to support wikibrarians / librarians / wikimedians in our work:

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Archives of our past meeting minutes

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