Hello all!I was involved in planning an edit-a-thon earlier this month with library school students & faculty, and wanted to share this event with y'all. Working with an LIS community was rewarding and provided great opportunities to think about literacy and open access. Below is a little write up of our event.
-Gina Shelton
Librarians@Pratt: A Wikipedia edit-a-thon took place on Saturday, November 1, 2014. The event was hosted by Pratt Institute’s School of Information and Library Science Student Association (SILSSA) and the Beta-Phi-Mu Theta Chapter, with support from the Metropolitan New York Library Council. Megan Wacha, Performing Arts Librarian at Barnard College, gave a workshop on the basics of Wikipedia editing. Following the workshop, 12 attendees edited several biographical articles about influential librarians with a connection to Pratt Institute. Primary and secondary sources, gathered from the circulating and archival collections from Pratt Institute Libraries and Pratt’s School of Information and Library Science (SILS), were consulted. During two hours of open editing, attendees edited 10 articles and made 73 total edits, plus 62254 bytes were contributed. Four images were added to Wikimedia Commons. The event was successful at building a community of editors within Pratt SILS and connecting them to local NYC Wikipedians.