I have been casually on the job hunt since graduating with my PhD in August 2016. I plan to stay home with my youngest until she starts school, which is still a few years away, but sometimes really cool jobs just pop up and I have to apply. This was one of them.
Karl came to visit me during my morning jog.
In October 2018 I found a job posting for a Wikimedian in Residence to work with the LD4P initiative. The job would be working with affiliated libraries’ staff to upload and connect their collections with linked open data on Wikidata.
I passed the first round of interviews and was invited to Stanford University’s campus in December 2018 for an all-day on-campus interview. For any academic, you know these days are long and tell you a lot about the position and institutional culture.
Festive Southwest jetway decorated for the holidays
I booked a last-minute flight to San Francisco right before Christmas, which was a little tricky! I checked into my hotel when I arrived in Palo Alto mid-afternoon. It was a historic hotel – I love staying in historic hotels! I walked around town, enjoying the atmosphere, ate some ramen, and met up with a friend for dinner.
The next day I met a good Wikipedia friend for a walk and lunch. It’s always a delight catching up with her. She’s doing a lot to connect public librarians with Wikipedia. She even edited a book!
After a great day of interviews and a great chat over dinner, I was sure I’d receive a happy phone call in January. I really enjoyed meeting the various staff members, was thrilled by the challenges of the role, and encouraged by what this project meant for free knowledge.
Unfortunately, as for the job, an internal candidate expressed interest in the position. Being they had the institutional knowledge I did not, it was an ideal match. I really got my hopes up!
While I did not end up in the Wikimedian in Residence position, I do hope this project fulfills all the goals. It is a critical relationship to develop connections between knowledge institutions and Wikipedia. I get emotional thinking about how many (big name) institutions are on this partnership and what this means for the knowledge they possess and the knowledge seekers can receive.