Wikimedia and Libraries User Group/Annual Report/2023-2024

This report provides an annual summary of the activities and achievements of the Wikimedia and Libraries User Group for the year 2023-2024. The goal of the user group is to connect librarians with Wikimedians and also to pursue cooperation between libraries and Wikimedia projects. This report gives insights into the efforts of the steering committee to foster the engagement of librarians in Wikimedia projects during the past year.

Steering Committee Members

Windblown29 serves as the chair of the steering committee. The members of the steering committee are AfricanLibrarian, Clifford Anderson, and Orlysi. We will organize the next election for the steering committee of the user group in December 2024. We would like to grow the committee to nine with the aspiration of improving our geographic coverage and representation of different types of libraries.

Steering Committee Meetings

Regular monthly meetings are convened by the Steering Committee fortnightly. The objective is to plan activities to develop our strategic direction and to engage the members of the user group. We have led discussions about artificial intelligence and libraries and planned international events for the library the community.

Wikimedia Summit 2024

Windblown29 attended the Wikimedia Summit as an official delegate of the Wikimedia NYC but she also informally represented the Wikimedia and Libraries User Group. Among the topics she discussed was the changing role of affiliates in organizing future summits given the state of conversation about the Movement Charter.

Wikimania Katowice

AfricanLibrarian, Clifford Anderson, Orlysi, and Windblown29 collaborated on a proposal for Wikimania Katowice (August 7-10). The proposal would highlight the theme of open collaboration from the different perspectives of academic, national, public, and library associations. We are still waiting to hear whether our proposal will be accepted.

Wikipedia+Libraries International Convention

The Wikipedia+Libraries International Convention (WikiLibCon) will take place at El Colegio de México, A.C. in Mexico City, Mexico in January 2025. Following the successful inaugural Wikimedia+Libraries International Convention in Ireland in 2022, The Wikimedia and Libraries User Group accepted responsibility for planning future conferences. The theme of the 2025 conference is "Understanding our roles as collaborators and knowledge service providers; Disinformation as a threat."

AfricanLibrarian, Windblown29, and Orlysi successfully applied for a grant to support WikiLibCon from the Wikimedia Foundation and are actively planning the event with an international program committee and local partners (including Wikimedia Mexico and COLMEX).

African Libraries Activism Month

Windblown29 presented on May 1, 2024 for African Libraries Activism Month to declare the launch of a month long set of activities and trainings for African librarians.

Artificial Intelligence Salons

The user group held two salons about artificial intelligence, libraries, and Wikimedia in September and October. Given the interest in the topic of AI, we are planning continuing salons in spring 2024.

Throughout the year 2023-2024, the Wikimedia and Libraries User Group connected the world of librarians and Wikimedians. Our participation in movement-wide strategy sessions and Wikimania advocated for broadening participation of libraries in the Wikimedia movement. Our Artificial Intelligence Salons proved a popular form for discussing the transformative impact of artificial intelligence on libraries and Wikimedia projects. Our user group looks forward to more such engagements in the year ahead, especially the much-anticipated second Wikipedia+Libraries International Convention in 2025.