Libraries as Community Catalysts
Libraries as Community Catalysts is an OCLC research and programming initiative that seeks to support libraries and cultural institutions as catalysts for positive change. This work understands libraries as crucial community hubs with dynamic spaces for learning, collaboration, and community engagement.
OCLC Research partners with libraries and cultural institutions to offer the resources needed to meet changing community needs. This approach emphasizes the evolving and expanding role of libraries as essential contributors to a community's well-being and development.
Publications
Reimagine Descriptive Workflows: A Community-informed Agenda for Reparative and Inclusive Descriptive Practice
5 April 2022
Rachel L. Frick, Merrilee Proffitt
This community agenda contextualizes the challenges facing the library and information field in inclusive and reparative metadata work and offers a framework of guidance can help frame institutions’ local priorities and areas for change.
WikiCite 2018-2019: Citations for the sum of all human knowledge
17 July 2019
Phoebe Ayers, Daniel Mietchen, Jake Orlowitz, Merrilee Proffitt, Sarah Rodlund, Elizabeth Seiver, Dario Taraborelli, Ben Vershbow
WikiCite is an initiative uniting the Wikidata, linked data, and library communities to create an open repository of bibliographic data. This WikiCite 2018 conference overview examines the future of open bibliographic data and the impact that WikiCite achieved over the past year.
ARL White Paper on Wikidata: Opportunities and Recommendations
18 April 2019
ARL Task Force on Wikimedia and Linked Open Data
This Association of Research Libraries white paper informs librarians about GLAM (galleries, libraries, archives, and museums) activity in Wikidata to suggest strategies for research library use, particularly in community-based collections, community-owned infrastructure, and collective collections.
Leveraging Wikipedia: Connecting Communities of Knowledge
26 April 2018
Merrilee Proffitt
This book encourages collaboration among academia, archives, libraries, and the volunteer Wikipedia community to connect communities of knowledge. It shows how libraries can partner with Wikipedia to improve content quality and make library services and collections more visible on the open web.