2021 African Librarians Week – AfLibWk 2.0
Published: MAY 1, 2021
Updated: MAY 9, 2021
#AfLibWk is almost here again!! Are you prepared?
Starting 17th-24th May, 2021, AfLIA will launch the second African Librarians Week, an exciting period where African library and information professionals concertedly provide reliable and factual information to the world through Wikipedia as part of the global #1Lib1Ref campaign which is expected to run from the 15th May – 5th June, 2021.
The week-long virtual campaign engages the African library community to help fill key gaps in African content on Wikipedia by adding missing references to articles about Africa on the online encyclopedia. #AfLibWk sets in motion a major iterative opportunity for all African librarians to share knowledge, insights and perspectives that represent African voices, cultures, philosophies and other information that are worthy of being open and integrated into the global body of knowledge.
This year, we focus on the theme; “Learning in Africa“. As Africans we recognise that learning takes place within classroom walls and within community created systems and networks that pass on information from one generation to another. The theme encompasses;
- Formal learning Institutions at different levels of education in Africa
- African libraries as learning spaces
- Informal learning through apprenticeship schemes and customary rites of some ethnic groups
- Learning systems and infrastructure including those that enable physical and digital learning
- Architecture of learning in Africa
Activities and participation
By the end of last year’s AfLibWk campaign (24 – 30 May, 2020), 27,846 edits had been made, 3,946 articles edited, 10,055 references added and not less than 660,539 more words had been added to Wikipedia, with 81 uploads to Wikimedia Commons. AfLIA is committed to mobilizing African library and information professionals to do more, as we seek to enhance quality content about Africa on Wikipedia, for free use.
A number of activities have been carefully lined up to prepare all existing and potential editors for full participation. This includes; regional based training sessions and office hours, live editing sessions, competitions and an open pre-conference. The training sessions will run as follows:
| AfLibWk 2.0 Training sessions / Sessions d’entrainement | Date | Time |
|---|---|---|
| AfLibWk 2.0 Virtual Training [English] | Monday, 10th May, 2021 | 12 noon GMT |
| AfLibWk 2.0 Formation virtuelle [Français] | Tuesday, 11th May, 2021 | 12 noon GMT |
| AfLibWk 2.0 Virtual Training [English] | Wednesday, 12th May 2021 | 12 noon GMT |
| AfLibWk 2.0 Formation virtuelle [Français] | Thursday, 13th May, 2021 | 12 noon GMT |
| AfLibWk 2.0 Office Hour | Friday, 14th May, 2021 | 12 noon GMT |
The official launch of the second #AfLibWk will take place on Monday, 17th May, 2021. The second African Librarians Week pleasantly dovetails into the 4th AfLIA Conference and the 6th African Library Summit scheduled to take place from 24-27 May 2021. On 24th May, 2021, AfLIA will hold an extended Wikipedia Workshop as a pre-conference activity. This workshop will be free and open to everyone (will not require participants to pay any registration fee). Tentatively, the workshop will cover topics such as Wikidata, Local languages and orality in Wikipedia, and Wikipedia in Education – offline access to Wikipedia, among others. More specific details about the training sessions, office hours and the pre-conference workshop will be communicated in due course.
Competition
This year’s competition has been taken a notch higher with exciting new prizes which include; branded executive gift packages and t-shirts to be given to the top 20 contributors. All active participants will also be given certificates of participation signed by AfLIA and the Wikimedia Foundation. The peak of this year’s competition will be from 17th – 24th May, 2021 however, the AfLibWk dashboard will remain open to track contributions till 5th June, 2021. The AfLibWk event dashboard will be set up and communicated to all participants soon.
As always, to participate is easy, you will simply sign on to the #AfLibWk event dashboard, add citations to Wikipedia and include the official campaign hashtags #AfLibWk and #1Lib1Ref in the Wikipedia Edit Summary.