Article written by Briar Grayson. This event received a Wikimedia Canada microgrant.

On January 16^th a #1lib1ref Wikipedia Birthday Bash was held at the FIMS Graduate Library (FGL). The FGL is located within the Faculty of Information and Media Studies at Western University, and users include graduate studentis in the Library & Information Science and, Journalism & Communication, Health Information Science, and Media Studies programs. For this event, an open invitation was extended to staff at Western Libraries. The event itself ran for two hours and the dashboard which tracked user activity was open for two weeks. In total we had 16 editors, added 35 references, and added 2, 000 words to various articles.

Funding from a Wikimedia Canada microgrant was used to purchase food, refreshments, and prizes for top editors. To further incentivize participation, we used the FGL’s makerspace to create Wikipedia themed buttons, and we created a custom digital banner for participants to display on their user pages. The Edit-a-thon was promoted through program group chats, email lists, and the library website, as well as through a window display that highlighted library books and other materials about Wikipedia, including a board game.

The event began with a presentation which emphasized Wikipedia’s prominence as a free, reliable knowledge source. Part of the presentation involved group discussion about sources, and which sources Wikipedia considers reliable, as well as the importance of good citation practices. This also included information about various open sources, and prioritizing using open sources over ones that have more barriers to access. We also provided information about coding on Wikipedia with Wiki Markup compared to the visual editor, and helped new editors make Wikipedia accounts. With three facilitators, we were able to offer support to all event attendees, primarily with adding citations, but also teaching Wikipedia’s principles more generally, frequently prompting participants to ‘be bold’.

The birthday bash event, including the presentation, was streamed over Zoom, which allowed editors to participate remotely. We also had a facilitator who was dedicated to monitoring the Zoom chat to ensure that remote participants would get assistance when they needed it. In addition, all resources were provided electronically. Most of these were linked to the online dashboard. This collection of resources was designed to assist new editors in a variety of ways and included editing tips and support, Wikipedia guidelines, open access resources, and citation tools and resources.

Participants were also provided with specific sources to assist them with adding citations. Some resources were found for specific missing citations before the event to give part, providing that “quick win” for participants and various Wiki projects, such as Women in Red were highlighted, to share resources where participants can find opportunities to continue editing with a lens on increasing equitable coverage of information on Wikipedia and encourage future information professionals to be mindful of equity issues in their work within the field of librarianship.