Wikipedia:RBMS edit-a-thon 2014

Wikipedia for Librarians of Special Collections materials

Special Collections librarians hear an announcement at the first edit-a-thon sponsored by RBMS, the Rare Books and Manuscript Section of the Association of College and Research Libraries, a division of the American Library Association, held at the University of Las Vegas library, June 27, 2014

Special Collections librarians assemble for the first edit-a-thon sponsored by RBMS, the Rare Books and Manuscript Section of the Association of College and Research Libraries, a division of the American Library Association, held at the University of Las Vegas library, June 27, 2014

What's it about

This informal workshop is designed for library staff who want to take a proactive relationship with Wikipedia. Although one can register and learn Wikipedia on one’s own, there are many issues which, if addressed in a workshop situation, can jump-start a beginner Wikipedian. Additionally, participants can use this time to raise and learn about issues that may be difficult to resolve alone. Although we'll be fairly informal, and participants may choose to come and go, we hope this workshop will briefly lay the foundations of why libraries and archives should engage with Wikipedia and learn some basic editing techniques, learning how to edit articles. Sources are a significant issue in Wikipedia so we'll cover how to create citations, footnotes, and edit bibliographies. After becoming comfortable with editing, the afternoon session will help teach participants how to find and use resources for help. Depending on time and interest, we can also briefly explore other Wikimedia projects, in particular Wikimedia Commons (where license-free images can be uploaded and used by others).

The workshop will be led by:

• Bob Kosovsky user:kosboot
• Merrilee Proffitt

When and where

DATE: Friday, June 27, 2014, 1-4 PM (come for a little bit or stay the whole time!). You may also want to combine this with the demo that UNLV staff will be giving on Linked Data.

WHERE: Tiberti Board Room (3rd floor of the Lied Library) University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Sign up!

Add your name below to sign up. The room can only accommodate 25 people.

1. Kristen Mapes User:Kmapes [Here is my Google Doc of notes]
2. Shannon Supple
3. Colleen Theisen User:Ananda01
4. Anne Bahde
5. Leslie Fields User:Leslie Fields
6. Curtis Small User:Dessalinienne
7. Nancy Kandoian User:Nkandoian
8. Robert Cagna
9. Amy Hunsaker User:Sopranojo
10. Heela Naqshband
11. Katie Henningsen
12. Cindy Aden
13. Greg Aden
14. Erika Dowell User:Erikad
15. Erin Blake
16. Danielle Plumer
17. Melissa Hubbard
18. Cyndi Shein
19. Patrick Earley

What you need to bring

• Participants will need to bring their own laptop or tablet
• Participants should register a Wikipedia username prior to the workshop. You might first want to review the page on usernames.

Projected schedule:

• Welcome and introductions / background. What do you want to get out of this?
• Topics we are likely to cover, depending on interest
  • Wikipedia & Libraries, How Wikipedia works
  • Let’s get started editing!: Wikipedia basics, editing articles, references, bibliographies
  • Editing questions & feedback, tips & tricks; Wikipedia help resources: Teahouse, talk pages, WikiProject Pages
  • Other Wikimedia resources: Wikimedia Commons (how to upload and use images), Wikisource, GLAM

Goals

Depending on what we cover, participants may:

• become novice Wikipedia editors
• understand Wikipedia’s core principals (e.g. no original research, citations, issues concerning conflict of interest)
• understand the use of sources on Wikipedia
• understand how to evaluate Wikipedia articles
• understand how to approach and become a part of the Wikipedia community and social structure
• be introduced to the Wikimedia Commons and (time allowing) other Wikimedia projects relevant to their work in libraries and archives

Suggested articles to edit

• Lied Library
• Vellum
• Library
• Bibliographer
• Manuscript
• Library theft
• William Burroughs

Suggested resources

• Help:Cheatsheet - quick guide to Wiki markup

• Rare Book School - Advance Reading List (contains links to many articles)
• Lied Library -- main site
• Lied Library -- Special Collections

• Wikipedia Loves Libraries - brief overview of effort to foster collaborations between Wikipedia and libraries

Outcomes

Topics covered

• Did we miss anything? Please add it!
• A brief introduction toe Wikimedia Commons. For those interested in contributing large amounts of content it will be work tracking the GLAMToolset
• How to host an Editathon? Here's how!
• An introduction to the new visual editor (in beta) and creating citations
• Some review of basic editing. Interested in learning more, brushing up, or sharing knowledge? These might help!
  • WP:STUDENTS (education program training tutorial, 45 minutes)
  • WP:TWA (wikipedia adventure interactive game, 45 minutes)
• We talked about Conflict of interest
• appropriate sources (primary sources not among them)
• WP:notability
• finding project pages -- there's a project for almost every region, many, many topics (search everything to find them)

Articles edited

Please list which articles you edited as part of the edit-a-thon (replace "name of article" with the article name you edited)

• Delia Bacon
• Charles Fletcher Lummis
• Augustin Daly
• Wikipedia:Adding_historical_information (reverted two layers of spam)
• Redirect to National Library of Haiti
• William S. Burroughs

Drafts started

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