Engaging with Wikipedia can be fun. It can be instructive. It can be empowering. It is – without question – transformative. Below is a robust list of reading about Wikipedia, its potential use for libraries, its value in education, and some of the very real issues that exist (and persist) in Wikipedia.
From Wikimedia and Wikipedia
- Wikipedia Essentials Training Module
- Evaluating Wikipedia: Tracing the Evolution and Evaluating the Quality of Articles
- Wikimedia Statistics (updates daily)
- Wikipedia: Top 25 Report (updates weekly)
- Wikimedia Financial Reports
- Five Pillars of Wikipedia
- Wiki Edu for Instructors
- Wikipedia: Core Current Policies
Why Wikipedia?
- Top 100 Most Visited Websites in the World (AHREFS Blog, Jul 27 2022) /
- Wikipedia is the Last Best Place on Earth (Wired, Feb 17 2020)
- References that Anyone Can Edit: Review of Wikipedia Citations in Peer-Reviewed Health Science Literature (BMJ, Mar 6 2014)
- Fast “Truths” and Slow Knowledge; Oracular Answers and Wikipedia’s Epistemology (Fast Capitalism, 2022)
- Internet Encyclopaedias Go Head to Head (Nature, Dec 14 2005)
- Free as in Open Access and Wikipedia (Electronic Frontier Foundation, Oc 20 2014)
Wikipedia & Libraries
- Wikipedia is the Last Best Place on Earth (Wired, Feb 17 2020)
- Bringing Wikipedia into the Library (American Libraries, May 1 2018)
- Opportunities for Public Libraries and Wikipedia (International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions, IFLA, Dec 2016)
- Wikipedia and Academic Libraries (IFLA Library Policy and Advocacy Blog, Apr 20 2020)
- 10 Reasons to Engage with Wikipedia (IFLA Library Policy and Advocacy Blog, Jan 16 2019)
- Editing Wikipedia while in Library School (Hack Library School, orig pub Apr 17 2014)
Wikipedia in Education
- Yes, Digital Literacy. But Which One? (Mike Caulfied on Hapgood, Dec 16 2019)
- Analyzing Information Sources through the Lens of the ACRL Framework: A Case Study of Wikipedia (Communications in Information Literacy, Dec 21 2020)
- Rethinking Wikipedia for the Classroom (American Sociological Association, Feb 18 2014)
- Articles about Wikipedia in Reference Services Review (5345 as of Nov 11 2022)
The Problem(s) with Wikipedia
- History has a Massive Gender Bias. We’ll Settle for Fixing Wikipedia. (Washington Post, Feb 17 2019)
- Wikipedia is a Mirror for the World’s Gender Biases (Wikimedia Foundation, Oct 18 2018)
- Wikipedia: Systemic Bias
- We’re All Connected so Why is the Internet so White and Western? (Guardian, Oct 5 2017)
- The Internet’s Dizzying Citogenesis Problem (Slate, Mar 7 2019)
- Circular Reporting (Wikipedia entry)
- Citogenesis (XKCD)
- Wikipedia: Recentism
Interested in updating Wikipedia for your library or creating a page for it from scratch? Library Wikipedia Entry Template Feb 2023 (PDF)
Cristy Moran (she/ her/ ella) will be presenting “Wikipedia @ the Library: Busting Myths and Fostering Information Literacy” at the 2023 CLiC Virtual Winter Workshop on February 24, 2023.
Adult Library Services Senior Consultant at Colorado State Library
Cristy (she/ her/ ella) is the librarian for librarians who serve adults in libraries of all types across Colorado.
Latest posts by Cristy Moran (see all)
- Are You Eligible for Student Loan Forgiveness? Now is the Time to Check!(Before 4/30/2024) - April 18, 2024
- Colorado Libraries at PLA 2024 - March 22, 2024
- Program Spotlight: High Plains Library District’s People & Places in Colorado History - March 19, 2024