The second edition of the Wikimedia+Libraries International Conference took place from 15 to 17 January 2025 (the first edition was held in 2022 in Dublin; so we tell you then). On this occasion, representatives of the Wikimedia community and library staff from around the world met in Mexico City with the aim of promote the generation of projects in the field of libraries and Wikimedia.
A topic of enormous topicality, disinformation, gave content to the meeting that was organized in the College of Mexico (Colmex), a Mexican public university. Were three days dedicated to learning, debating and sizing this phenomenon and the role of the Wikimedia universe on it. A role probably more fundamental than ever, since there are already few projects and places on the Internet in which, as in this one, the greatest possible approach to the truth is sought without other interests than leaving it documented. At least, few of such a universal character and of such massive access.
Despite the conviction that we work with those of us who dedicate part of our time to enriching Wikipedia and the rest of the tools of the Wikimedia universe, disinformation is also a threat to this free knowledge project. Therefore, having the complicity of library and archive professionals is an important strategy to continue providing rigorous content to this tool and counteract the danger of disinformation within it.
Our contribution as a Wikisphere was expose the project Researchers at the State Archives, which we developed during 2024 in coordination with the Subdirectorate-General for State Archives of the Spanish Ministry of Culture. Our experience aroused the interest of many people linked to libraries and archives, as well as Wikimedians, with whom we were able to share impressions, learnings and outline projects for the future in common.
As my colleagues warned me, the most impactful thing about these meetings is to size the Wikimedia project and everything that revolves around it: knowledge, challenges, people. Feeling part of something huge and transformative, of a unique project and whose role acquires even more relevance in this complex moment of disorientation in terms of access to information.
Return from Mexico full of motivation and contacts. With even more desire to continue being an active part of this Wikisphere community that is contributing so much to those who make it up. It is also an illusion to see that our work is framed in something bigger and that it is so countercultural that even the powerful of our time are stirred by not being able to handle it.
* Credit image header: WikiLibCon25 group photo at the Olympic Stadium | WMMX Communication | CC BY-SA 4.0 Wikimedia Commons
English (UK)