Wikimedia+Libraries International Convention 2025/Programme/gender-gap-librarians
Bridging the Gender Gap: The Vital Role of Librarians in Shaping Knowledge Systems on Wikipedia and Wikidata- Núria Ferran-Ferrer, Universitat de Barcelona
- Miquel Centelles, Universitat de Barcelona
Time: 11:30-13:00
Room: Alfonso Reyes A (40)
Abstract:
This panel discussion titled ""Bridging the gender gap: The vital role of librarians and in shaping knowledge systems on Wikipedia and Wikidata"" will explore the critical role that librarians and information professionals play in addressing gender disparities in knowledge organization systems. The panel will share insights from current projects (Cover Women and HerStory-NesyAI), providing the audience with a thorough understanding of the subject matter. Moreover, it will offer practical ideas on how to enhance Wikipedia and Wikidata's knowledge organization from Library and Information Science’s (LIS) expertise.
This panel is concerned with improving the quality and reliability of information in the Wikimedia movement, whether by addressing disinformation directly or by ensuring that all voices, especially those of marginalized groups, are accurately represented.
Representing the WikiWomen research group (https://www.ub.edu/wikiwomen/team/), we will present our findings from multiple projects.
1) First, Dra. Núria Ferran-Ferrer /with co-authors Enric Senabre, Miquel Centelles, and Laura Fernández and Fran Kuggler) will present findings from the 'Cover Women' project (https://www.ub.edu/wikiwomen/research/cover-women/) funded by the Wikimedia Foundation, examining the effects of outlier data on gender and intersectionalities in Wikidata and its influence on the content featured on Wikipedia's main page. These insights can be found:
''Fernández, Laura; Ferran-Ferrer, Núria (2024). Navigating bias: gender and intersectional insights into wikipedia’s front page through gatekeeping and agenda-setting frameworks, 11th WikiWorkshop, June 20. PDF.
Ferran-Ferrer, Núria; Fernández, Laura (2026). Uncovering gender and intersectionality biases on the front page of Wikipedia, In Rebecca Ann Lind (Ed.), Race, Gender, Class and Media: Considering Diversity Across Audiences, Content, and Producers (6th Edition), New York: Routledge. [Accepted]
Ferran-Ferrer, Núria; Laura Fernández; Centelles, Miquel (2024) “Behind the front page: A comparative gender gap study on Wikipedia’s main page through gatekeeping and agenda-setting theories, 10th European Communication Conference, “Communication and social (dis)order, ECREA ECC24-2025 Section Gender, Sexuality and Communication, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ljibljana, Slovenia, September 24-26.
Ferran-Ferrer, Núria; Centelles, Miquel; Laura Fernández; (2025). Wikipedia’s Front page ten years evolution: analysis of the representation of gender and intersectionalities on biographic content and its editorial policies. Online Journal of Communication and Media Technologies [Under Review]'' This presentation will conclude with a dynamic co-creative group activity aimed at improving content curation on the Wikipedia homepage from the professional perspective of librarians.
2) Professor Miquel Centelles (with co-authors Núria Ferran and Raquel Garcia-Casanova) will discuss how artificial intelligence can be utilized to enrich marginalized narratives and reduce the gender gap in media content. In this panel we will offer our ideas of the project HerStory-NesyAI (https://www.ub.edu/wikiwomen/research/herstory-2024-27/) funded by the Spanish Research, Innovation and Universities Ministery (Ref PID2023-147673OB-I00) on how to improve the gender gap with AI.
This presentation will provide a comprehensive overview of the ongoing project aimed at promoting gender equity in digital knowledge platforms and highlight innovative approaches to enhancing the representation of marginalized groups in these spaces.
This panel is concerned with improving the quality and reliability of information in the Wikimedia movement, whether by addressing disinformation directly or by ensuring that all voices, especially those of marginalized groups, are accurately represented.