May 10 - Wednesday 1:00 - 4:30 PM
May 24 - Wednesday 1:00 - 4:30 PM
Facilitators
Ellen Caldwell, Professor of Art History
ellen.caldwell@mtsac.edu
Eva Rios-Alvarado, Librarian
eriosalvarado@mtsac.edu
Esteban Aguilar, Librarian
eaguilar100@mtsac.edu
Michael Emery, Librarian
memery2@mtsac.edu
Wikipedia Links
Wikipedia's Create an Account Page
Art+Feminism Links
"Mt. SAC Library Wikipedia-edit-a-thon LibGuide" is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0
Wikipedia is a free, online encyclopedia that can be edited by anyone, and most articles are edited by many people over time. To accomplish this, Wikipedia is guided by five fundamental principles or five pillars:
The goal is a neutral, accurate, and free online encyclopedia available to everyone. Part of this goal is that if anyone spots a mistake, they can fix that mistake. The hope is that when changes are made, any disagreements can be kept respectful and civil.
While Wikipedia is not an "academic" source, it is a valuable resource and one that is relied upon by many people around the world.
What is an Edit-a-thon?
An edit-a-thon is a community event to teach how to edit, update, and add articles to Wikipedia. These events often have a specific subject for the event to focus on and usually involve training for new editors. For example, the Mt. SAC Library's previous Wikipedia-edit-a-thons have focused on Art+Feminism.
What is Art+Feminism?
The Art+Feminism campaign is aimed at increasing and improving the coverage sage of cis and transgender women, non-binary folks, feminism, and art on Wikipedia. The goal is to teach people of all gender identities and expressions to edit and improve Wikipedia's coverage.
Why are we doing this?
Getting more women editing Wikipedia is important because there is a documented gender bias on Wikipedia that can only be addressed by getting more women involved in editing Wikipedia.
Another factor is that because Wikipedia defines notability based on significant, secondary source coverage, women (and individuals from other underrepresented groups like people of color and members of the LGBTQA community) are often underrepresented on Wikipedia in part because they are underrepresented in more traditional media coverage. This also means that Wikipedia pages for these individuals are more easily marked for deletion or vandalized by trolls and is a primary reason there is criticism of these notability requirements.
Closing the Gender Gap on Wikipedia - slides from Art+Feminism
View in Google Slides || Download PDF
The Gender Gap - by Art+Feminism (YouTube)
Links to some of the pages from this video:
More videos can be found at the Art+Feminism's YouTube channel
We have access to more information than we could ever possibly use, but finding the most appropriate information at the right time to solve a problem can be a challenge. Information can be powerful, but it has to be leveraged properly. In order to be successful, you need to be able to use information to think critically and make thoughtful, informed decisions.
Sharing information has accelerated gains in medicine, technology, education, and other fields, making the world a better place. For example, social media platforms have allowed political movements to spread their messages more broadly and organize more quickly. The Internet has played a key role in organizing protests such as those that took place during the Arab Spring in 2011 and in Hong Kong in 2014.
Unfortunately, social media sites and the internet can also be a source of not just misinformation, but disinformation that has been intentionally created to be incorrect with the intent to mislead. Both can be dangerous. The COVID-19 global pandemic is a clear example why having robust information literacy skills isn't just useful for doing the research so you can write a paper for school. Being able to correctly navigate what and isn't true in the face of a global pandemic can literally be a matter of life and death.
Resources
Credible Sources on this Wiki Reference Guide
The Mt SAC Library offers workshops online including one for Evaluating Websites