New Zealand’s First Wikimedian-In-Residence

Every month, 470 million people use Wikipedia to access information in 250 languages, but often this information is unverified and unreliable. The Auckland Museum is on a journey to change that through their Wikimedian-in-residence position.

A Wikimedian-in-residence is someone who works for a museum and the Wikipedia community, seeking to link the world’s biggest online encyclopedia with some of the world’s most important collections.

As a part of her Master’s of Museum and Heritage Studies at Victoria University, Susan Tolich became Auckland Museum’s first Wikimedian-in-residence. Tolich was dedicated to bringing the museum’s open collections to Wikipedia and posting license-free images, enlisting the Wikimedia community to help add the museum’s resources.

Tolich’s work sought not only to increase the Auckland Museum’s internet presence, but also to address the fact that Wikipedia’s articles are overwhelmingly about and written by men.

You can learn more about the Wikimedian-in-residence position on the Auckland Museum website here, and you can read about Tolich’s work and experience here.