How we helped voters get neutral information
The 2020 elections are fast approaching in the United States, and as people prepare to vote (often from home, by mail) they’re looking for information that can help them make up their minds. At first glance that seems surprising: Surely almost everyone has made up their minds about whether they support Donald Trump or Joe … Continued
Wiki Education participants improve COVID-19 local response articles
As the COVID-19 pandemic rages across the United States, residents are seeking information about their local governments’ responses. Local newspapers are often a great source for the most recent news, but it’s hard to get a big picture of the pandemic’s impact on states, cities, and regions from reading a daily newspaper. Wikipedia, however, provides … Continued
How the Colorado Alliance of Research Libraries ensures librarians across the state are “Wikipedia literate”
“I started to see each Wikipedia page as less of a monolith and more as a creative, patchwork monster that perhaps hundreds of people were working on.” In an inter-institutional training course with the Colorado Alliance of Research Libraries (referred to henceforth as “the Alliance”), librarians have had the opportunity to collaborate closely with peers … Continued
Meeting your patients where they are: on Wikipedia
“Our patients are using Wikipedia for their health questions, so the more health professionals we have editing, the better and safer information they get.”* What would the world look like if everyone had unfettered access to knowledge? Free knowledge resources like Wikipedia provide an opportunity to put power into the hands of everyone. The Society … Continued
Making sure Wikipedia tells the stories of African-American suffragists
If you asked people to name an American women’s suffragist, a few names would get repeated over and over. They’d mention Alice Paul, Susan B. Anthony, or Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Perhaps some would be able to name a woman of color, though perhaps just Ida B. Wells. The stories of black suffragettes are often excluded … Continued
Wikipedia didn’t tell the full story of the 19th Amendment…
History books often focus on the white change-makers of the suffrage movement. Until last month, it was no different on Wikipedia. The article documenting the Nineteenth Amendment, which prohibited governments from discriminating against voters on the basis of sex, not only centered the narrative on white people, but on white men. In order to ensure … Continued