SCRC student project updates Wikipedia

UK Libraries Special Collections Research Center student worker Sarah Coblentz recently updated more than 50 Wikipedia pages to include links to related UK Libraries finding aids and digitized collections. Updated pages include:

·         Frontier Nursing Service

·         Roman Catholic Diocese of Bardstown

·         Kentucky in the American Civil War

·         Adams Express Company

·         John Jacob Niles

·         Ellen Churchill Semple

·         Elizabeth Madox Roberts

·         Clay Lancaster

·         Kentucky Wildcats football

This project was inspired by the National Archives’ Wikipedian-in-Residence program.

Archivist of the United States David Ferriero has encouraged archives and special collections collaboration with Wikipedia. As Ferriero stated during the Closing Plenary of Wikimania 2012, “At the Archives, the concepts of openness and access are embedded in our mission. And the work we do every day is rooted in the belief that citizens have the right to see, examine, and learn from the records that guarantee citizen’s rights, document government actions, and tell the story of the nation.”

The Special Collections Research Center will continue updating Wikipedia pages as more finding aids, digitized collections, and other resources become available online.