Submissions/Getting the Public (Library) Involved

Submission no. 5021 - G2

Title of the submission

Getting the Public (Library) involved

Type of submission (lecture, panel, tutorial/workshop, roundtable discussion, lightning talk, poster, birds of a feather discussion)

roundtable

Author of the submission

Christina Riehman-Murphy

E-mail address

cer20@psu.edu

Username

seltzerlibrarian

Country of origin

USA

Affiliation

Penn State University

Personal homepage or blog

Abstract (up to 300 words to describe your proposal)

Open, as a movement, has an undeniable appeal - who could possibly argue with making most research open to the public? Often lacking from discussions in the open community, however, is what it looks like for research to be open FOR the public. And very often the public and public librarians are not even included in those discussions. Wikipedia is a model of knowledge that is both open to the public and open for the public and has evolved greatly as an open source of scholarship during its 16 years, and yet It is still only slowly creeping its way into the academic communities through forward-thinking librarians. Many subject faculty still utter the "Wikipedia is an unacceptable source" mantra, much as they can struggle to value or understand other open initiatives and how open scholarship has evolved.

Having struggled with attempts to convince faculty to participate with students in edit-a-thons and contribute their expertise to the world's largest encyclopedia, the moderator will lead a discussion around one model that moved away from starting with the top-down hierarchy of a university which is skeptical of Wikipedia and other open scholarship and instead partnered with a local public library to run Wikipedia workshops and edit-a-thons for the public. The partnership between an academic library and its local public library maximized library resources and collections, harnessed the interests of the public, and brought about increased public engagement with both Wikipedia and the university. In this roundtable, the moderator and participants will explore additional ways in which universities can partner with public libraries to help the public be active contributors and users of the scholarship that is intended for them and possible options for inviting faculty to be part of these partnerships.

What will attendees take away from this session?

Attendees will:

Learn about best practices for partnering with public libraries

Understand how shared goals will lead to greater success

Brainstorm other models of open scholarship that start with the public in mind

Theme of presentation

Outreach

For workshops and discussions, what level is the intended audience?

All levels are welcome to attend

Length of session

25 minutes

Will you attend Wikimania if your submission is not accepted?

I am intending to

Slides or further information

Google slides

Special requests

Wifi & HDMI cable

Is this Submission a Draft or Final?

This is a Completed submission for Wikimania 2017 ready to be reviewed by a member of the Programme Committee.