The Children's Museum's Wikipedian in Residence

What's a Wikipedian?

Wikipedian - n. 1. A person who writes and edits Wikipedia pages, unlike readers who simply read the articles.

Wikipedian in Residence - n.  1. A coordinator of collaborative projects between the museum and the Wikipedia community

Lori Phillips has served as the museum’s Wikipedian in Residence since August 2010. A graduate student in the Museum Studies program at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, she is the longest running Wikipedian in Residence, and the second in the world to hold the title. In addition to her work at the Children's Museum, in 2012 she will also serve as the US Cultural Partnerships Coordinator for the Wikimedia Foundation.

We have contributed many images of our Collections objects that are being used in Wikipedia articles. The museum has over 120,000 objects in its collection. Only a small number of those objects are on display at any given time. Having images in Wikipedia gives people across the world the opportunity to learn about our objects virtually.

We're also making use of Wikipedia in the museum. Next time you're standing in line to ride the Carousel, scan the QR code to read about the history of the Carousel in Wikipedia. If English is not your native language, our special "QRPedia" codes will display the version of the article in your phone's language, if the article has been translated into that language.

For more information:

• Press release
• Wikipedia project page
• Case studies

Wikipedian in Residence Projects

• QRpedia
• Image donations
• Museum Apprentice Program Wikipedia project
• Backstage Pass events
• Edit-a-Thons & Translate-a-Thons
• Collaboration with Wikipedians
• Collaboration with college courses
• Conference presentations
  • Wikimania 2011, Israel
  • Museum Computer Network 2011, Atlanta
  • American Association of Museums 2012, Minneapolis

Wikipedian in Residence Blogs