CHAPTER 8
AFRICAN ACADEMIC LIBRARIES PARTNERING WITH WIKIMEDIA PROJECTS: VALUES AND BENEFITS
Abstract
Wikimedia as a foundation is the mother of all Wikis. “It supports hundreds of people around the world in creating the largest free knowledge projects in history” (Wikimedia foundation, https://wikimediafoundation.org). Its resources give benefits that can emerge from the collaboration of librarians and Wikimedia. However, despite the rich contents and vast availability of information on Wikimedia, many scholars refute the credibility of Wikimedia contents. is chapter addresses the benefits and values of African academic libraries partnering with Wikimedia projects and gives a brief definition on the concepts of Wikimedia and Wikipedia. How academic libraries directly improve Wikimedia resources for a reliable information; particularly, it highlights the need to rightly posit librarians as custodians of knowledge, relating the campaigns of 1Lib1Ref and other related projects where librarians in Africa through the African Library and Information Associations and Institution (AfLIA) collaborated with Wikipedia to add reliable sources, edit articles, and write stories to promote the quality, authority, and reliability of intellectual contents in Wikipedia.
