Wikipedia Webinar Series for African Librarians
The African Library and Information Associations & Institutions (AfLIA) and the Wikimedia Foundation, the non-profit behind Wikipedia, have partnered through a new Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to collaborate on training African librarians to use and contribute to Wikipedia through webinars, trainings, and a pre-conference session at the AfLIA 2021 Conference in Accra, Ghana. The new partnership will equip African librarians to participate in editing and adding content to Wikipedia, the world’s resource of free, fact-based information online.
Read more about the partnership here >>>
Following this MoU, we announce the first series of webinars scheduled to be rolled out in the course of the year. The webinar series will be organized in four episodes and carefully designed to help attendees to learn more about how the library community partners with Wikipedia on its mission of free and open knowledge in the world; share experiences of Wikimedia communities from other parts of the globe with the African audience; understand how Wikipedia has helped bring knowledge about Africa and African diaspora communities to a global audience and to learn more about African Libraries Week and how to participate in the campaign!
In the table below is the complete schedule and details of upcoming webinars. Register now!!
| Webinar | Date | Topic | Expected outcome(s) | Registration link |
| 1 | 20th February, 2020
3pm UTC/GMT |
Why Wikipedia in Libraries? | Learn more about how the library community partners with Wikipedia on its mission of free and open knowledge in the world, and how OCLC trained librarians in the United States to integrate Wikipedia into their work. | CLICK TO REGISTER
NB: Registration closed. |
| 2 | 12th March, 2020
3pm UTC/GMT |
Global Library Outreach Program | Learn more about how Wikimedia communities have worked with communities in different library environments, including public libraries in Bulgaria and digitizing rare book collections in Argentina. | CLICK TO REGISTER
NB: Registration closed. |
| 3 | 2nd April, 2020
3pm UTC/GMT |
Representing African Knowledge and the African Diaspora for Wikipedia’s Global Audience: | Learn more about how Wikipedia has helped bring knowledge about Africa and African diaspora communities to a global audience, through experiences from the Caribbean, New York City and South Africa | CLICK TO REGISTER
NB: Registration closed. |
| 4 | 23rd April, 2020
3pm UTC/GMT |
Learn more about African Librarians Week – AfLibWk – and how to participate in the campaign! | Every year the #1lib1ref campaign celebrates the vision of “Imagine a world where every librarian added one more citation to Wikipedia.” A single citation improves the representation of reliable knowledge about the communities that libraries represent. Learn about the launch of the debut of African Librarians Week co-organised by AfLIA and Wikimedia as part of the May #1lib1ref campaign and how to participate in the campaign. |
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INFO: Please note that once you register for any of the webinars, you have automatically enrolled for all the webinars in this series and you will be notified and reminded by mail as and when necessary. |
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Who should attend?
- Librarians from all Library types are eligible to attend.
- Also, interested persons and professionals who wish to learn more about the One Librarian, One Reference” (#1Lib1Ref) campaign and how to be a part of it.
Technical Requirements
Upon registration, reminders will be sent to all registrants periodically. This webinar will be hosted on Zoom Conferencing Platform. Participants, who do not have Zoom on their mobile devices and or computers, need to download, install and create an account on Zoom ahead of time (CLICK TO DOWNLOAD). Webinar attendees are encouraged to join early, preferably 15 minutes before the start of the webinar, as one may need time to launch the application.
The speaker(s) will use a webcam to connect with attendees. Audio and video for the session will be streamed over computer speakers. Attendees are therefore encouraged to connect with a headset or earpiece for maximum utility. Participants will be able to ask questions and interact with the presenters and other webinar participants via the Q&A and chat features in Zoom.
Webinar Materials
A list of resources and further information will be made be available at the end of the webinar, to enable thorough engagement with the webinar content. As a webinar registrant, you will receive follow-up correspondence from AfLIA specifically related to this webinar including, but not limited to, instructions for accessing both the live webinar and its archived recording and presentation slides. The webinar recording will be uploaded on AfLIA Youtube Channel soon after the webinar. Webinar attendees who will present for at least three out of the four episodes of this 4-part webinar series may be eligible for a certificate of participation from AfLIA.
Queries
For further enquiries and assistance about the webinar contact us at afliacomm@aflia.net. Remember to bring this to the attention of your colleague librarians as well as those in your professional circle. It is free!!!