Who Loves Wikipedia?

Definitely an important part of the online world…..some interesting statistics on Wikipedia use.
Wikipedia – one of the most used sites on the web at #7        http://www.alexa.com/topsites
Wikipedia stats (Sept 2014) *33.5 million articles (4.7 million in English; Swedish is next largest 1.94 mill, followed by Dutch 1.79 mill then German 1.73 mill.)
images
*287 languages
*English articles equivalent to 2058 volumes of Britannica
*8.7 million views per hour (English)
*793 new articles per day in English  – down from peaks of over 1500 in 2006/2007.
*Active volunteer editors – declining. 3000 editors make 100 changes a month (English) – down from 4 700 in 2007.
*Who edits Wikipedia? Wikipedians write and edit pages.
They do it because they like volunteering to share knowledge and believe that information should be freely available – it’s also fun. A study into editor gender bias revealed 84% of English Wikipedia editors are male (91% globally). 20% of editors are from the US; the top 10 editor countries are all either Nth America or Europe, except for India. Age distribution – 59% are 17-40 yrs; 28% are 40+.
*Harvard hires a Wikipedia editor to be its ‘Wikipedian in Residence’. In March, the Houghton Library at Harvard advertised a 12 week position for an experienced Wikipedia editor to write and improve articles for Wikipedia and to upload some of its own archives into Wikimedia, the parent organisation of Wikipedia. The Houghton Library focuses on rare and older books and it is hoped that there will be more use of their collections, whilst Wikipedia will get enhanced content. Wikimedia has been encouraging liaisons such as this for several years and many institutions have participated – eg. US National Archives, British Library, Smithsonian Archives. Harvard has also hosted ‘edit-a-thons’ for Wikipedia. During Science Week in August, Australia’s first “Wikibomb” sessions were held, where Wikipedia entries about leading female scientists were added.
*Paid editors on Wikipedia Would you trust it any more or less if you knew people were being paid to contribute content? Since August, Wikipedia  allows paid contributors to make changes, as long as they disclose their affiliations. Critics dislike paid editors, as it conflicts with Wikipedia’s core editing policy of neutrality – but of course, PR people are already “wikiwashing” entries for companies, politicians and others.
*Bots as authors and editors on Wikipedia Sverker Johansson in Sweden has contributed 2.7 million articles to Wikipedia – more than anyone else – but most of his entries have been created by a software program (bot). His program searches digital resources and packages the information into an article. Increasing amounts of new content on Wikipedia is now written by bots.
*Are Wikipedia’s days numbered? New editors are hard to retain. Are there too many rules for them? Will Wikipedia adapt to Google Glass and translation services? The format is a bit dated now – should it be redesigned?

Why we need great Teacher Librarians in our Schools

We are teachers first – however the role of the teacher in “teacher librarian” is different from that of a classroom-based teacher providing directed face-to-face instruction and is even more crucial as the Australian Curriculum is rolled out.

Inquiry-based learning underpins the key strands of the Australian Curriculum and given their expertise, the teacher librarian should be an across-school leader in helping TEACHERS become familiar with and able  to implement this pedagogy.  Whether you use a Guided Inquiry model (which is the most effective IMO because it’s underpinned by years of research and supported by a strong scaffold) or a more generic approach, used effectively  it also embraces all the general capabilities that accompany the Australian Curriculum.

So, as well as modelling this with students you teach directly, you should be setting up professional learning opportunities for teachers to understand what it looks like in their area and how to adopt it, and working alongside teachers in a collaborative planning and teaching situation so they  can implement it successfully. There are some great texts by Kuhlthau, Maniotes and Caspari as well as Alinda Sheerman’s site https://guidedinquirycommunity.pbworks.com (which you need
to join to be able to access.)

Secondly, the Australian Curriculum also identifies a number of cross-curriculum priorities that can also be addressed by the careful selection of resources, print and digital, and because the teacher librarian as a teacher is one of a
few on staff who have a broad overview of the whole curriculum – both linear and across the strands  – he/she is in the best position to identify what it currently available and what needs to be provided to meet the needs, interests and abilities of the
collection’s users as well as the demands of the curriculum and the selection criteria of the Collection Policy.  Those resources have to fit in with the philosophy of the school, its identified priorities for development as well as meet the special needs not only of particular students but also the situation. THAT takes a teacher’s knowledge of the school population, child  development, who to liaise with and so on. Lib techs don’t usually have that  sort of specialist knowledge.

Thirdly, it is the teacher librarian’s responsibility as the information services manager to provide equitable intellectual and physical access to those resources and that means much more than downloading prepared records from SCIS. Most schools have their print  collections organised to meet the needs of the students and often the “pure Dewey” number is not the best fit for that.
Similarly, digital resources need to meet criteria beyond the technical such as accessible language,  appropriate and relevant content, privacy protection, copyright compliance, and an awareness of where embedded links might lead and
the appropriateness of accompanying advertisements and that takes a teacher’s knowledge.

Examining the Standards of Professional Excellence for Teacher Librarians http://www.asla.org.au/policy/standards.aspx would also identify other areas that mean it is the ‘teacher’ in ‘teacher librarian’ which makes the role unique.

Adapted from a post on OZTLnet