(29 Jul 2024) Stela Madruga, head librarian at the Institute of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of São Paulo (USP) in Brazil, began her journey with Wikimedia Projects in 2019: “The library where I work hosted a ‘Wikipedian Librarians’ event. It was initiated by a professor and his outreach team. The workshop aimed to teach USP librarians the basics of editing Wikipedia and to present possibilities for promoting collections.” That event was a catalyst for Madruga to engage more deeply with Portuguese Wikipedia and Wikidata editing. In 2020, her involvement with Wikimedia activities connected her with João Peschanski, CEO of Wiki Movimento Brasil (WMB).
WMB is a nonprofit organization, currently made up of 17 staff and 8 contractors, dedicated to expanding, improving, and diversifying the content and community of Wikimedia projects, especially in Brazil. Funded primarily by grants from the Wikimedia Foundation, similar organizations exist in the US, including Art+Feminism, Wiki Education, and AfroCROWD. What makes WMB unique is the more recent focus on libraries, which is based on their successful, ongoing partnerships with museums. In 2023, WMB began the first stage of a three-year initiative to partner with libraries in Brazil to expand the reach of open knowledge.
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