Wikipedia:The Wikipedia Library/Professional Interns

Libraries, special collection, archives have long been sending interns and student hires within their organization to Wikipedia to contribute content in order to expand the visibility of their collections and digital resources. This strategy works: there are a number of documented case studies within this professional community that show increases in traffic to organizations from the general public reading Wikipedia and moreover, from the Wikipedia community.

As part of The Wikipedia Library, this resources page and its support pages outline a curriculum (outlined here) that allows library consortiums, library schools and other cultural professional communities to organize interns and other employees to engage Wikipedia within community best practices. The self-guided curriculum is designed to help interns hired by libraries, special collections or archives get a better sense of the expectations of such contributions to the Wikimedia community, find support among fellow interns and community members, and ensure that they follow best practices that conform to the principles laid out by the GLAM-Wiki movement. We have multiple levels of participation for both students without formal library/archival training and students trained in librarianship or archival studies and the resource is appropriate for guiding groups of professionals in a professional development situation. As part of a student's education, it is important that interns understand the "why" of their contributions and how they can use the skills in their future. To provide information for interns and their supervisor, this page offers an overview of research, editing practices and educational goals that guide Wikipedia Library Internships.