Submissions:2016/Enhancing Collaboration in Academia through GLAM Edit-a-thons
- Enhancing Collaboration in Academia through GLAM Edit-a-thons
- Theme
- GLAM and education
- Type of submission
- presentation
- Name
- Rebecca Thorndike-Breeze:
- E-mail address
- rtb@mit.edu
- Affiliation
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Abstract
GLAM edit-a-thons can enhance the presence of underrepresented groups and topics on Wikipedia, and by sharing valuable cultural holdings these events can also foster the public’s cultural awareness. And when university students and faculty are invited to these events, the impact can be even greater. Scholars in the fields of library science and writing studies have shown that Wikipedia’s collaborative composition model supports key learning goals for students, including collaboration, information literacy, and critical thinking about knowledge creation (Head, Todorinova, Jones, Purdy). Further, as writing studies scholar Matthew Vetter argues, these lessons are enhanced when university library archivists and writing instructors collaborate.
At MIT, librarians, archivists, writing instructors, and local Wikipedians have collaborated to host several edit-a-thons. Our goals have been to address content gaps on Wikipedia, while also offering the public and the MIT community (including students, staff, alumni and faculty) new ways to engage with the institute’s archives and special collections. These include working physically, in-person, with collections, and online, as researchers discover collections through Wikipedia. As we organized these events, we observed other opportunities for librarians, archivists, and instructors to collaborate.
This presentation shares results from these edit-a-thons, and explores ideas about how the common project of contributing to Wikipedia can enhance other kinds of collaboration -- among students, among librarians, archivists, and instructors, and across the broader academic community.
- Length of presentation
- 15-20 min.
- Special schedule requests
- cannot present on Friday or Monday
- Preferred room size
- 25
- Will you attend WikiConference North America if your submission is not accepted?
- yes
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