Wikipedia Judo: Mutual Benefit by Way of Altruism

Wikipedia is currently one of the most 10 visited sites on the entire Internet. Any Google, Yahoo, or search engine query will invariably turn up a Wikipedia entry on the first page. With a short learning curve, anyone can learn the basic mechanisms for creating and editing Wikipedia entries. External internet links can be added to an article in seconds. The update to the article is immediate for all Wikipedia searchers. Wikipedia rules and culture, however, explicitly prohibit self promotion by interested parties. For example, political candidates and their supporters are discouraged from creating and editing online content. Institutions must clearly understand when, where, and how it is appropriate to contribute and edit Wikipedia before doing so. Is it proper to place a link to a library home page on the larger article for one’s college or university? Is it appropriate to create an article about one’s own library? Individual libraries often have a growing array of resources, both locally digitized as well as more traditional archives. The size of Wikipedia, currently over two million English language articles alone, creates an opportunity to contribute access points in Wikipedia to this local information. For example, the Wikipedia entry on “Samuel Clemens” contains a number of “External Links” including one to the University of California’s Bancroft Library archive of “Mark Twain Papers.” A Google search on “Samuel Clemens” turns up the Wikipedia article on “Mark Twain” as its first entry. It is critical to understand the culture of Wikipedia in order to engage in what might seem as selfserving editorial additions without engaging the wrath of the Wikipedia community. By its nature, anyone may edit any article, and perceived violations can be met with almost violent approbation (and deletions) by the Wikipedia hive mind. Once Wikipedia decorum is understood, librarians can aggressively proceed to contribute links and references to local resources. By altruistically, and appropriately contributing to articles, the weight of Wikipedia itself becomes an asset that can be easily controlled, much as a trained “judoka” controls his opponent. For example, the Western Historical Manuscript Collection (WHMC) at the University of Missouri-St. Louis (UMSL) maintains a photo database in excess of 70,000 items. Wikipedia articles on “Gemini 12,” “Curt Flood,” or “Gateway Arch” all currently have appropriate and useful external links to photographs on these subjects. Without controversy, Wikipedia users are directed to relevant resources and WHMC benefits from the increased visibility. 102 Brick and Click Libraries Symposium Proceedings November 7, 2008 Wikipedia and its users benefit from the efforts of librarians who contribute useful information, once the librarians learn what fine lines to walk in contributing information. This altruism coincidentally benefits the contributing institution in increased visibility on the Internet.