For many in the Northern Hemisphere, the #1Lib1Ref (One Librarian, One Reference) campaign is synonymous with the colder days of January, time spent keeping warm indoors, and the celebration of Wikipedia’s birthday. However, for those of us in the Southern Hemisphere, January is the peak of summer, with schools closed, beaches packed, and a significantly quieter period for academic and public libraries.
To ensure that library and information professionals from around the world can participate in 1Lib1Ref, the campaign runs twice a year, with the 15 May to 5 June window being the key focus for us here in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand. This timing aligns better with the Southern Hemisphere’s lifestyle, allowing for better engagement without the holiday distraction.
The 1Lib1Ref campaign invites librarians to participate in the online encyclopedia project specifically through improving articles by adding citations.
This year, Wikimedia Aotearoa New Zealand (WANZ) and Wikimedia Australia (WMAU) are teaming up to run a joint campaign. The two chapters are quite close—both literally and figuratively—and this collaboration is part of a continued effort to pool resources and expertise across the Tasman.
Wikimedia Australia is a long-standing chapter with a strong history of GLAM partnerships. As Aotearoa New Zealand’s nearest neighbour, WMAU have been instrumental in establishing a platform for growing Wikimedia engagement in both countries, along with the wider ESEAP (East, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific) region.
By working together, the chapters can better address the ‘information gap’ representing this part of the world. Global knowledge platforms often under-represent Southern Hemisphere communities, histories, and biodiversity. Addressing these gaps is an important step towards addressing systemic bias in Wikipedia content.
A collaborative effort between the two countries will not only help with adding citations and improving verifiability—it will also strengthen the networks of Wikimedians and library professionals across Australasia. This partnership allows us to share training materials and expertise, co-host workshops, and foster a sense of Trans-Tasman community among those on the frontline of making information reliable, equitable, and accessible.
The Australia and New Zealand chapters have joined forces multiple times in the past. Their recent collaboration on the Wiki Science Competition led to over 160 submissions to Wikimedia Commons, improving coverage of science in the region, and bringing multiple new contributors on board. WANZ and WMAU have previously partnered together to run 1Lib1Ref campaigns, and are looking forward to expanding their impact even further this year.
Looking back at the 2024 and 2025 dashboards really reinforces how much the campaign has grown in just a short time:
- Articles created: 9 in 2024 → 112 in 2025
- Articles edited: 299 in 2024 → 908 in 2025
- Total edits: 853 in 2024 → 4.82K in 2025
- Words added: 61.4K in 2024 → 500K in 2025
- References added: 945 in 2024 → 2.61K in 2025
As Wikipedia continues to be one of the most-visited sites on the internet, the role of the librarian remains as important as ever, whether they’re based in a small regional library in rural Otago or a major state library in Queensland. With their help, WANZ and WMAU are hoping that this campaign will help ensure that the “sum of all human knowledge” includes a well-cited and accurate representation of our corner of the globe.
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