On the frontlines of an infodemic, Wikipedians and librarians join forces
Amid COVID-19, an annual campaign has a renewed purpose. #1Lib1Ref calls on librarians around the world to strengthen a key informational resource: Wikipedia.
Six months ago, I could have never imagined that a global pandemic would trigger a shared awareness of how critical and complicated access to good information is in our lives.
The public is not only seeking information about COVID-19, but also on a range of tangential topics that are now top-of-mind — from how to work from home and what restaurants deliver, to tips on hand washing and where to go for government benefits. Getting people this information (or not) has real consequences, and complicating matters is the wave of misinformation traveling through communities at warp speed.
For the past five years, I have been part of running the Wikimedia Foundation’s annual #1Lib1Ref (abbreviated for “one librarian, one reference”) campaign, which calls on librarians around the world to make Wikipedia stronger by adding missing references to articles on the site.
“Getting people this information (or not) has real consequences.”
Wikipedia and libraries share underlying values: the importance of verifiable references; doing proper research to bring quality, accurate information to the world; and relying on patrons or readers who want to join us in exploring those topics. In short, the #1Lib1Ref campaign celebrates the overlapping mission of librarians and Wikimedia to foster a more informed public.
The last few weeks have made the importance of this shared goal even more acute. Wikipedia is seeing record pageviews, and where the capacity exists, libraries are striving to support communities by shifting to digital services, even when many library systems around the world are closing. Needing support in finding the right information has become part of our shared experience of staying at home.
I recently represented the Wikimedia Foundation at a WHO consultation on the infodemic paralleling the crisis: dangerous misinformation being spread alongside a dangerous disease. In listening to the conversation, it was clear that Wikipedia volunteers and librarians are together on the frontlines of modeling solutions to these issues.
“Needing support in finding the right information has become part of our shared experience of staying at home.”
The public health information crisis presents problems we both confront daily: misinformation, a proliferation of competing sources of knowledge, and the fact that some of the most reliable sources are not freely available. In the current pandemic, Wikipedians and librarians are being asked to help people access knowledge that helps us understand our shared reality, when we can’t rely on social interaction for that stability.
Now is the moment where learning and access to information is more important than ever. And we see libraries responding. The International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) has documented that digital services for libraries are being leveraged more than ever in some contexts, and information and knowledge providers of all sorts are trying to meet the public’s needs in extraordinary and unusual ways.
It is an obvious time to emphasize that the public not only needs access to information, but that reliable, diverse, and open knowledge can make our world a healthier place.
“Now is the moment where learning and access to information is more important than ever. And we see libraries responding.”
Recent attempts to provide diverse access to free knowledge are mixed, at best. Some academic and newspaper publishers are drawing information out from behind paywalls. Internet Archive boldly (and controversially) opened its digital library of works that are mostly in the digitization blackhole of the 20th century for lending and learning. Technology companies are waving intellectual property rights to help the public overcome the technical challenges posed by COVID-19.
These measures seem bold, but when you reflect on them more: they are only temporarily easing restrictions on knowledge, instead of creating enduring access to knowledge. The temporary measures highlight the inaccessible status quo.
Moreover, an infodemic and the urgent needs of public health information shouldn’t distract us from the entrenched challenges of building a global and diverse knowledge ecosystem. Even as Wikipedia sees peak traffic, the majority of our readers and editors come from Europe and North America.
For this month’s #1Lib1Ref campaign, running now through June 5, we are encouraging libraries in the southern hemisphere in particular to participate. Librarians in these areas are best positioned to help us reevaluate that knowledge imbalance. For example, through a partnership with AfLIA, librarians in Africa will be highlighting African sources of knowledge for the world on Wikipedia during the first-ever African Librarians Week. IFLA is partnering with us to engage librarians at the regional level in the campaign; and our community in India is helping to integrate undigitized knowledge as sources into Wikipedia.
We hope this is just the beginning. The #1Lib1Ref campaign reminds us that we need every librarian in the world to join us, because knowledge missing from Wikipedia comes from everywhere.
Ensuring that citations and sources are freely available is part of both preserving and protecting knowledge and highlighting its relevance for the public. This is especially important when major economic and cultural upheavals in the pandemic may threaten institutions (e.g. we are already seeing permanent closures of museums and other arts institutions). And as we look further into our future, we also know that disruptions large and small, from climate change to war, will continue to disrupt our knowledge ecosystem.
“We need every librarian in the world to join us, because knowledge missing from Wikipedia comes from everywhere.”
In this environment, the skills that librarians bring to our projects can have tremendous impact. Now is the time to add new citations to Wikipedia, bring forward marginalized and missing knowledge sources, and reach the greatest number of people with reliable information.
People everywhere need access to trustworthy, diverse sources to overcome this crisis together. As we face an uncertain world, we invite you — librarians and knowledge lovers around the world — to help shape that reality through #1Lib1Ref.
Alex Stinson is a Senior Strategist on Community Programs at the Wikimedia Foundation. Follow them on Twitter at @sadads.
