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Article written by Michelle Schwartz, Fiona Kovacaj, Magdalen Sinson, Trina Grover, and Jane Schmidt. This event received a Wikimedia Canada micro grant.
The Black Histories Wikipedia Edit-a-thon was held in the Toronto Metropolitan University Libraries’ Collaboratory on Thursday, February 26, 2026. This annual event series, begun by library staff at Toronto Metropolitan University, Toronto Public Library, University of Toronto, and York University, has been running since 2020. For the past two years, the event has received funding through Wikimedia Canada.
Our event this year was themed around the contribution of Black artists to the Toronto music scene. Our keynote speaker, Dr. Sam Tecle, kicked off the event with a talk that focused on the unique geography of Toronto and the ways that neighbourhoods shape the music that emerges from them. Dr. Tecle’s talk received great engagement from participants. The keynote was followed by a Wikipedia editing training session and an open editing session. We provided physical materials from TMU Libraries’ collection for editors to use as sources, but also encouraged the use of digital and online sources.
The event brought together students, librarians, faculty, and members of our local community for music, food, editing, and conversation. Coming together for the edit-a-thon was a valuable opportunity for the community to connect with each other in a meaningful way.
Having a theme helped us ground the event and fostered interest and excitement. In line with the theme, we created a playlist and an editing task list to inspire participants. We recommend a strong theme for anyone planning a similar event, as it helped us plan and promote the edit-a-thon, it will help other elements fall into place.
Having a cohesive theme attracted members of our community who were passionate about the topic, but were new to Wikipedia editing. We had 25 attendees from the TMU community as well as members of the public. For future events, we will consider more training or one-on-one support for new Wikipedians. Potential considerations include a buddy system, in which experienced Wikipedia editors can help new Wikipedia editors with getting started, denoting tables or areas of the space based on Wikipedia skill level, and focusing more time on helping users join our group editing dashboard. We can support new Wikipedia editors who are attracted to an edit-a-thon session based on its theme by providing more personalized training and support and helping to foster the next wave of Wikipedians!
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