Wikipedia:Meetup/Wellington/Libraries

What's it about?

An edit-a-thon is an event where volunteer editors tackle a part of Wikipedia that needs improvement. Complete beginners are welcome; training and troubleshooting is provided. All you need to bring is a laptop!

This edit-a-thon is being hosted by the VUW School of Information Management, and will focus on improving the coverage of New Zealand libraries. You don't need to be a librarian: anyone can help with editing, researching, proofreading, and adding photos.

When and where

Timetable

To attend

Media

People attending

In person

Remotely

What to bring

Preparation

  1. If you're coming, try to create a Wikipedia account beforehand: don't wait until the day to do it! Here's a form you can use if you like. Creating an account makes editing much easier (here's more info on why you should). You'll need to pick a "handle" for your username; you could use your real name, but it's nice to have the option to be a bit anonymous if you want. Here's some advice on picking a username.
  2. The more you prepare, the more you'll be able to get done. You may want to read up on avoiding common mistakes, but Wikipedia has a "don't bite the newbies" policy, and we'll be there to troubleshoot.
  3. Have a think about topics you'd like to work on; do a little research first so you're prepared. You don't have to be an expert; anyone who can do library research and write clearly can help improve Wikipedia. The best candidates for Wikipedia articles are people or places who are "notable". In Wikipedia terms, "notable" people usually means they're been covered in a number of reliable independent sources, such as news, books, authoritative websites, or magazine interviews. If you're proposing to create to Wikipedia article it's important to make sure your subject is "notable"; talk to us if you're not sure – we can help.
  4. If you want to bring photos along and add them to Commons and Wikipedia, they need to be free of any copyright or released under a Creative Commons license that lets anyone use them. (What's Creative Commons?) If not, you must be the creator/copyright holder – ask us if you're not certain what's allowed, and we'll help.

Useful

Resources

To work on

New Wikipedians at the NZ Libraries editathon, 19 Feb 2019

To improve

  • Christchurch Central Library: hopelessly out of date, and no photos of the building! Tūranga has been split off and turned into something semi-decent.
  • List_of_libraries_in_New_Zealand: needs to be updated and better sourced (I put a couple of comments on the talk page DrThneed (talk) 03:02, 19 February 2019 (UTC))
  • National Library of New Zealand: could do with a better section explaining the Turnbull Library's holdings.
  • Wikidata items needed for every item on the library list; coordinates and a map for each library article
  • A decent photo in Wikimedia Commons for each library's article or Wikidata item, and the libraries properly categorised

To create

Outcomes

Edits Files in use Files uploaded Wikidata items created Wikidata items improved Participants New editors Pages improved Avg. daily views to pages improved Unique pages with uploaded files 7 day retention
82 1 4 30 41 12 3 23 5,653 2 0
Screenshot of openstreetmap map generated by NZ Libraries wikidata query
User:Ambrosia10 helping new Wikipedians at the NZ Libraries editathon, 19 Feb 2019

Media

We'll be taking photos for the record. If you don't want to be in a photo, just choose a red name lanyard; if you don't mind, pick a green one.

Acknowledgements

Many thanks to Jennifer Campbell-Meier for getting the ball rolling, and the support of VUW for making this event possible.