The University of Michigan announced that it has the nation's first Wikipedian in residence at its presidential library.

Michael Barera, U-M School of Information's masters student, will now act as a facilitator between the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library and Museum and the Wikipedia community.

The university has named Barera as the Wikipedian in residence in a bid to make the collections in the museum available across the world virtually. The university said that he (Barera) "will enhance the library's presence on the Internet's largest and most widely visited general reference work." His internship started last week.

"Our goal is to have our content accessible to everyone, everywhere," said Bettina Cousineau, exhibit specialist at the Ford Library and Museum.

"Wikipedia is a completely new outreach venue for us. Not everyone can visit our museum and library in person, but everyone can visit us online. With our content and Michael's technical skills, we are looking forward to getting more of our collections out to the broadest possible audience," Cousineau added.

The university, in a press release claimed that other museums, libraries and archives host similar positions but Barera is the first to be embedded in a library.

Wikipedians in Residence is one of the unique initiatives by the Wikimedia community to enlarge its already mammoth multilingual encyclopedia project. The Wikipedians dedicate time to working in-house at an organization and digitize, compile and organize resources that are simply intended to be shared with the Wikipedia community.

Barera has been part of the user-edited encyclopedia for the past five years. In 2012, in his final leg at Michigan, he joined the U-M Wikipedians, the first Wikipedia student club in the nation, according to the institution.

Meanwhile, Barera also feels it is a perfect position for him. "It combines my academic passions for history, archives, open source advocacy, and technology. I see my role as a facilitator, helping to bridge the gap between those who have the content and those who have the technical skills to make that information accessible to the whole world," he said.

"The Ford Presidential Library is honored to have the opportunity to partner with Wikipedia in making its rich collections more available to individuals around the world," said Elaine Didier, director of the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library and Museum.

"We look forward to working closely with our Wikipedian in residence, Michael Barera of the U-M School of Information, as we jointly define the scope of this exciting project," Didier said.