The Wikipedia Library/1Lib1Ref

The Wikipedia Library

#1Lib1Ref

Imagine a World where Every Librarian Added One More Reference to Wikipedia.
Wikipedia is a first stop for researchers: let's make it better!

#1Lib1Ref (One Librarian, One Reference) is a campaign during the week of January 15–23, 2016, calling on librarians around the world to apply their special expertise in research to add just one more reference to Wikipedia. The campaign is part of Wikipedia's 15th anniversary celebration.

Wikipedia is an invaluable part of every researcher's process: every reference added by a librarian means one more reference in any Wikipedia article that helps the next researcher, or librarian helping a researcher, ensure that the best information gets shared with the public. Join us, and make a small contribution to the sum of all human knowledge!

The National Library of Israel regularly answers reference questions for Wikipedia editors and readers. Learn more about how research libraries can contribute to Wikipedia!

Because anyone can edit Wikipedia, the Wikipedia community developed a core strategy for ensuring quality of information in its articles: including footnotes to reliable sources to allow Wikipedia readers to "verify" the information. This strategy helps the global volunteer community effectively work towards meeting Wikipedia's vision: "the sum of all human knowledge."

On English Wikipedia, and many other language Wikipedias, readers and editors who don't feel confident about the information in an article will add a "citation needed" tag next to that statement. In many ways, these tags are reference questions you would expect at a library reference desk: members of the public asking for that information to be backed by reliable research. English Wikipedia alone has over 350,000 such statements. Moreover, hundreds of thousands of articles just need more references, with 200,000 articles having no references at all. Globally there are hundreds of thousands of librarians. Imagine if every librarian in the world took 15 minutes to solve one of the citation needed queries! Wikipedia would no longer have these gaps.

The #1Lib1Ref campaign is supported by Wikipedia Library and Your organization (click to learn how you can sponsor the campaign). * If you need help at any time, just post a message to the Talk page

Get Started

File:Verifiability and Neutral point of view (Common Craft)-en.ogv

A video explaining how references support Verifiability and Neutral Point of View on Wikipedia

1. Watch the video on the right (there are closed captions in a dozen languages)
2. Register an account
3. Check that the Visual Editor is turned on by ensuring "Temporarily disable the visual editor..." is unchecked in your preferences on your main language Wikipedia (here on the English Wikipedia). Visual Editor allows you to use a feature called "Citoid" which uses an API to get preformatted reference information (see the documentation for more details).
4. Pick a strategy in the "How to participate" section
5. Whenever you make an edit to Wikipedia, make sure to include the hashtag #1Lib1Ref in the edit summary.

Note that instructions 1–3 default to English Wikipedia. Change the language to your preferred Wikipedia, though note that accounts are global.

Adding references

In Visual Editor

These instructions are for English Wikipedia; other Wikipedias have slightly different interfaces. Instructions for adding references in Visual Editor are documented here.

The citation popup in visual editor, that allows you to automatically generate or manually create citations.

1. Identify a source that will help verify information on a Wikipedia article
2. Press "Edit" at the top of an article
3. Click after the sentence you want to add a citation to support
4. Click on the "Cite" button (looks like )
5. Autogenerate a citation using a URL or DOI (this scrapes data from the page to create citations), or choose the second tab and fill in the appropriate citation fields for your source
6. Click insert
7. Click save in the top right corner of the page
8. Add an edit summary of your change that includes the hashtag #1lib1ref

In Wikitext

The reference toolbar in the Wikitext editing interface, showing where to find the different types of citation styles.

1. Identify a source that will help verify information in a Wikipedia article
2. Press "Edit source" at the top of an article
3. Search for the information you want to verify with a source, and click after the sentence
4. Click on the "Cite" dropdown menu
5. Choose a reference type (see the dropdown in the image on the right)
6. Fill in the relevant source citation fields
7. Insert the citation
8. Add an edit summary of your change that includes the hashtag #1lib1ref
9. Click save below the edit summary box

Tips

• Wikipedia articles don't use any one standard reference style, though they favor the templates created by the tools described above, you can always write a plain-text citation.
• Reliable sources for Wikipedia include any source with a history of editorial control (newspapers, books, finding aids, scholarly journal articles, editorially controlled websites). The stronger the reputation or the greater the authority of the author on a topic, the more well received it will be.
• Though Wikipedia favors sources that are Open Access, it doesn't require them (after all, some knowledge can only be found in print books or behind paywalls). However, a reference to an open access source means that more public readers get a chance to find and read the research they need through Wikipedia.

How to participate

Your goal today is to add one reference to Wikipedia! Any reference to a reliable source (a source with editorial control), in any Wikipedia article, is a benefit to Wikipedia readers worldwide.

When you add the reference to the article, make sure to include in the edit summary the hashtag #1Lib1Ref, so that we can track participation.

Fill a needed citation

The simplest way to engage with Wikipedia is to work on parts of Wikipedia which already have identified a need for a citation, in the language you are most comfortable working in: these tags exist in English or 44 other languages).

A screenshot of the Citation Hunt tool, showing the category selection feature in the tool.

There is a tool focused on English Wikipedia's citation needed statements that randomly suggests which statements need to be researched at https://tools.wmflabs.org/citationhunt/ . When using the tool, you can either select a random article from all of Wikipedia's citation needed statements, or use the search menu in the bottom left to choose a category (Wikipedia's version of a tag) of article that you have a special expertise in (for example, British novels or Provinces of Afghanistan ).

If you make a good effort at finding a source to confirm the statement on Wikipedia, but can't find one, feel free to remove the statement. Wikipedia's principles around sourcing and Verifiability require that every statement that is controversial be supported by a reference or be removed if it's likely untrue.

After adding a reference to the article, make sure to delete the "Citation needed" template (highlight and backspace in Visual editor, or remove the template which adds that tag (it looks like {{citation needed}} )

Find an article with sourcing problems

Wikipedia articles are frequently tagged for not having references to support information in the article. These articles can be found in automatically generated lists on on English Wikipedia and in 48 other languages.

If you are interested in working on articles from a particular topic area on English Wikipedia, there is an index. Here is how to use it:

1. Visit the index of articles on Wikipedia that need cleanup
2. Select a topic you are interested in and click on the "by cat" link.
3. Look for the "Sources Lacking" section
4. Click on an article that appears interesting, or looks familiar.
5. Add a reference to the article (see the instructions above).

Select an article while browsing

Another strategy to finding a Wikipedia article to work on is simply browsing Wikipedia, or using it for your own research. Every article on Wikipedia needs more sources, so add either new footnotes to verify content, or if there is a relevant source but you don't know what it verifies, feel free to add it to the "Further reading" sections.

Cite a source from your collection or research

One of the easiest ways to add a reference to Wikipedia is to work with a topic you are familiar with. The Wikipedia Library has outlined strategies for adding references to digital and physical collection materials on English Wikipedia.

Engage your network

We are looking for partner organizations. Partner organizations can help spread the campaign by:

• Participating in blogging, email and social media sharing during the campaign.
• Directly calling on librarians in your network to participate in the campaign
• Holding webinars or other educational activities during the week

If you are interested contact Alex Stinson (astinsonwikimediaorg or @Sadads ) or the whole TWL team (wikipedialibrarywikimediaorg or @Wikilibrary ). They can help with communications strategies, resources to share with your network, and finding volunteer networks in your area. Partners get the added bonus of being listed on this page, and being included in our social media push during the campaign.

We are also excited to help librarians learn about this campaign, but we need to share it. Tweeting about your contributed Wikipedia references, links to this page, and generally sharing the page using social media are all helpful. Here are the platforms where we have a presence:

• Tweet and share on Twitter @WikiLibrary or through our hashtag #1Lib1Ref
• The Wikipedia Library is on Facebook

Also, reach out to your press contacts, to helps share the news about the campaign in library and information science networks.

Further engage your library!

Libraries are fundamental allies to the mission of Wikipedia: collecting and disseminating the sum of all knowledge. Because of this basic mission alignment, Wikipedia editors have been engaging their local libraries as part of the Wikimedia movement's GLAM (Galleries, Libraries, Archives and Museums) outreach strategy. There are some amazing and impressive examples of librarian engagement with case studies from the Catalan Network of Public Libraries, the State Library of New South Wales, the National Library of Israel, the National Archives of the United States, and many more.

To learn more about how research libraries can engage with Wikipedia, check out this guide for research libraries

To find a Wikimedia editor or community near you to help get your library more engaged, reach out to a local Wikimedia movement affiliate, the library contacts listed below, or a volunteer who act as a contact for cultural heritage organizations in their region.

Help and editing resources

Wikipedia

Guides

• Visual Editor User Guide: Simple overview of the editing interface
• Introductory tutorial: Short review of the basics
• Student training: 1-hour instructional course focused on students
• The Wikipedia Adventure: 1-hour interactive game teaching how to edit

Assistance

If you have questions, share them by:

• Leaving a comment on this Talk Page
• Sending a Tweet @WikiLibrary or with the hashtag #1lib1ref
• On English Wikipedia, the Teahouse is a good place to get help

Contact a library leader in your context

The main contact for the program within the Wikipedia Library is Alex Stinson (User:Astinson (WMF), astinson@wikimedia.org). If you would like to be a local contact for the #1Lib1Ref activities, add yourself to this list:

To add yourself, add *Your name ([[User:NAME]]), location and email address and/or Twitter account you can be reached at'''

• Teri Embrey (User:TeriEmbrey Pritzker Military Museum and Library, Chicago, Illinois, tembrey@pritzkermilitary.org)
• Sara Marks (User:librarygurl; University Massachusetts, Lowell; sara_marks@uml.edu)
• Felix Nartey (User:Flixtey Accra, Ghana, e-mail me and @flixtey via Twitter
• Àlex Hinojo (User:Kippelboy), Catalan areas Libraries, glamwikimedia.cat and @Kippelboy on Twitter) Project page in Catalan language
• János McGhie (User:McGhiever; Saint Paul Public Library, Saint Paul, Minnesota; janos.mcghie@ci.stpaul.mn.us)