| #1Lib1Ref | |
|---|---|
An Israeli librarian using Wikipedia (publicity photo for the project)
| |
| Status | Active |
| Frequency | Annual |
| Location(s) | Online |
| Inaugurated | 15 January 2016 (2016-01-15) – 23 January 2016 (2016-01-23) |
| Previous event | 15 May 2024 (2024-05-15) – 5 June 2024 (2024-06-05) |
| Next event | 15 January 2025 (2025-01-15) – 5 February 2025 (2025-02-05) |
| Organized by | Wikipedia:GLAM |
| Website | 1lib1ref |
#1Lib1Ref (known in some Romance languagesas#1Bib1Ref) is a Wikipedia campaign inviting librarians to participate in the online encyclopedia project, specifically improving articles by adding citations.
The first #1Lib1Ref campaign coincided with the 15th anniversary of the founding of Wikipedia in January 2016.[1][2][3] Based on the premise of One Librarian, One Reference, organizers estimated that if each librarian on the planet spent 15 minutes adding a citation, the combined effort would eliminate English Wikipedia's backlog of 350,000 "citation needed" notices.[4] The inaugural, weeklong event ran from 15–23 January 2016, and employed the hashtag #1lib1ref on various social media platforms.[5]
The inaugural campaign ended with 1,232 revisions on 879 pages, by 327 users in 9 languages, using the hashtag #1lib1ref in the edit summary; these numbers likely underestimate the overall impact, since many participants were observed omitting the hashtag from edit summaries. On Twitter the #1lib1ref hashtag was used in over 1,100 posts by over 630 users.[6]
The campaign has been revived as an annual celebration of Wikipedia's birthday,[7] expanding into a three-week event in subsequent years.[8] The 1Lib1Ref campaign is part of the Wikimedia Foundation's GLAM outreach strategy to involve librarians in the improvement of Wikipedia,[9] and other Wikimedia projects (as of 2022 plans).[10]
