From local libraries, to global impact: A world tour of January 2023 #1Lib1Ref Campaign – Diff

From local libraries, to global impact: A world tour of January 2023 #1Lib1Ref Campaign – Diff
Skip to content
The
#1Lib1Ref
campaign invites us –open knowledge enthusiasts, Wikimedians, book lovers, and library workers– to collaborate on verifying, increasing, and diversifying references on Wikipedia.
The campaign happens twice a year (January and May), and at the end of this post, we will tell you more about the second round. However, let’s engage on a celebratory trip for this campaign’s seventh birthday in January, by giving our traditional statistics a twist to travel the #1Lib1Ref globe in ten stops:
Serbian
Let’s start with our contributions-champions in Serbia, which celebrated the end of the campaign
with 38 editors who edited 5,461 articles and added 12,689 references
! We also love to note that the three top editors are a
dedicated pedagogy student
a brilliant librarian
, and
a member of Serbia’s Senior Citizen project
. It is clear to us: a diverse team makes a great one!
1Lib1Ref in Serbia with the amazing Gorana Gomirac who organized the regional competition for Central and Eastern Europe (CEE)!
Image by
Gzanag
CC BY-SA 4.0
The wider CEE region
While we’re close, let us also celebrate other members of the CEE region. Polish Wikipedia contributors did around
4,000 edits in more than 2,000 articles
29 editors of Romanian Wikipedia edited more than 600 pages
16 editors of Bosnian Wikipedia gave reliable sources to more than 160 pages
; we also salute the five editors in both
Serbo-Croatian
and
Croatian Wikipedias
; the four enthusiastic Czech Wikipedia’s editors, and the
four Macedonian Wikipedia editors who managed to edit more than 700 pages
! Let us close this CEE trip with a special mention to Ukrainian editors, who closed this year’s campaign with
more than 50 users, and made over 1000 useful edits in 700+ articles on various topic
s.
Ukrainian training with #1Lib1Ref at the V.G. Korolenko Kharkiv State Scientific Library, January 18, 2023. In the image, a participant of Kolodna 1920 edits Wikipedia.
Image by
VenzKor
CC BY-SA 4.0
French
Let us move now to the French-speaking space, the second language on the board thanks to the editors at the
National and University Library from Strasbourg
Librarians from Bordeaux Montaigne University
, the
Aix-Marseille Université
, the
École nationale supérieure des sciences de l’information et des bibliothèques
editors in the museum and library of Les Champs Libres in Rennes
, the
Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec
Université de Lorraine
Bibliothèque de l’Assemblée nationale du Québec
, and the
Bibliothèque Universitaires des Langues et Civilisations
(that we know of!). This community has even created a
podium
, and it is exciting to see how they’re even
planning to join the second round in May
The 28 editors of the English Wikipedia have also made great contributions, and
at least half of them are from the State Library of Queensland
. Thanks to them, we now have verifiable information
on 195 articles about the second-largest of the Australian states
Catalan
We fly to Catalonia and the 11-year-old
Amical Bibliowikis project
in which more than
200 libraries
make knowledge accessible through Viquipèdia. To get a taste of one of their many long-standing partnerships, we can read
this post
about the Learning and Research Resource Center’s
45 power participants (who added 1,916 references
!). And even if last year’s record was not overcome, it is so nice to see the Autonomous University of Barcelona’s library’s self-improvement spirit,
who wished to surpass the more than 4,000 references the Catalan team added in 2022
Spanish
And while we’re near, why not see Wikimedia Spain’s
post
on the campaign? There are many interesting highlights in this text, like the fact that from the local languages, Extremaduran Güiquipedia is now third on the board with 15 articles, 23 editions, and 3 editors! Another take-away lesson is the importance and impact of workshops at
Ignacio Aldecoa’s Library
, or at the
Amurrio Library
, which had a direct impact on the stats, so kudos to
Arantxa
Mentxu
Indonesian
After a great trip, we arrive in Indonesia to greet the 21 users who improved more than 100 articles (all the way from
Agriculture in the countr
y and
art museums
to
earth worms
and
Lake Sipin
#1Lib1Ref 2023 workshop in Malang, Indonesia
Image by Wikimedia Indonesia,
CC BY-SA 4.0
Malay
We drive 92 hours and say hi to the 40 editors who have enabled readers from Malayan Wikipedia to easily access reliable information on
Organic Agriculture
Maize
Sabah’s people culture
, and so much more!
And more!
We’re almost done, so let’s hop on an imaginary satellite and pass by editors in Swedish, German, Euskera, Hebrew, Japanese, Chinese, Belarusian, Portuguese, Aragonese, Arabic, Asturian, Breton, Galician, Montenegrin, Dutch, and Norwegian Wikipedias. No matter how small the contribution, in this disinformation era, they donated their time to make knowledge reliable, and verifiable, one reference at a time.
Ever onward
Our trip ends on a pier and the boat for #1Lib1Ref in May is about to depart, do you want to join? Here’s how
Africa
As in
other years
, the
African Library and Information Associations and Institutions (AfLIA)
is back with the
Africans Librarians Week (#AfLibWk)
from the 14th to the 26th of May – if you want to join this wonderful initiative to add “African Knowledge to the World”, do check out there 7 steps under “
How to participate
” and if you’re unsure of how to start, AfLIA has your back with
wonderful resources
(a
power point
on how to create an account, a one-image manual on
how to add references to Wikipedia
, and more!) – they’ll give out prizes to top contributors!
Unsure how to join a Dashboard campaign? Here’s a one-pager with 5 steps to join the campaign:
Five-step instructions on how to join a Programs and Events Panel campaign
Image by SEgt-WMF,
CC BY-SA 4.0
Latin America
Latin America is also back in the game, with the #1Bib1Ref hashtag! If you want to join the campaign you can learn all about it here:
, make sure you check out the wonderful
resources
they have prepared for us as well, Wikimedia Argentina’s
2 min video on how to add references
(in Spanish), or BiblioColmex’
2 pages manual
on how to use
Citation Hunt
a multiple languages tool for suggesting articles with missing citations to be added.
Argentina
Mexico
, and
Uruguay
have also their dashboards up, so be sure to sign up to them if you want to enter a friendly competition on the number and quality of the references you’re contributing with (links in each countries’ name).
Other regions
If your region is not represented or you want to start a new campaign within the global statistics, register to the
#1Lib1Ref global dashboard
! Just log in with your Wikimedia account and click on the green button that reads “
Create program
“, then click on “Create New Program”, and finally on “Basic program”. Fill out the required information, make sure you select which language Wikipedias you want to track for edits during the campaign, and also if you would like to track Wikidata edits!
P.S. If you have questions or you participated in coordinating a regional activity on January 2023, and didn’t find yourself on this trip…
let me know!
Share this:
Share on Mastodon (Opens in new window)
Mastodon
Share on Bluesky (Opens in new window)
Bluesky
Can you help us translate this article?
In order for this article to reach as many people as possible we would like your help. Can you translate this article to get the message out?
Start translation
Related
Related
Welcome to Diff
Welcome to Diff, a community blog by – and for – the Wikimedia movement. Join Diff today to share stories from your community and comment on articles. We want to hear your voice!
Subscribe to Diff via Email
Wikimedia News
Wikimedia Foundation News
“Cinematic intensity”: The winners of Wiki Loves Earth 2025
2 March 2026
by Wikimedia Foundation
Wikimedia Technology Blog
A Tech Blog Diff
24 February 2026
by LGoto
Down the Rabbit Hole
Announcing Wikipedia’s top 25 most-read articles of 2025
2 December 2025
by Wikimedia
Photo credits
2023 LibRef akcija 01
Gzanag
CC BY-SA 4.0
1Lib1Ref at V. H. Korolenko Kharkiv State Scientific Library, 23 january 2023 (1)
VenzKor
CC BY-SA 4.0
Lokakarya 1Lib1Ref - Universitas Islam Negeri Malang 2023 - 21
Wikimedia Indonesia
CC BY-SA 4.0
Register to a dashboard's campaign
SEgt-WMF
CC BY-SA 4.0