Page:Wikipedia and Academic Libraries.djvu/155

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.
142
Fiedler, Bukowski, Heinbach, Martinez-Flores, and Mitola

in advance. While this seems contradictory, librarians do not need to create the teaching plan from nothing. Find an existing online resource about editing and dedicate adequate time for everyone to learn together (Bukowski & Heinbach, 2020). In fact, one peer coach felt that seeing librarians also in a learning role was an important experience. “I have learned that not knowing something doesn’t take my position as an expert or as the teacher away. I appreciated navigating Wikipedia with librarians I consider experts and seeing that they were looking for answers alongside us” (B. Lopez, personal communication, July 17, 2020). Their final piece of advice is “don’t forget to ensure your students feel welcome and cared for!” (P. Gutierrez, personal communication, July 17, 2020).

Conclusion

At this point, the edit-a-thons have grown beyond expectations. The program is well-attended, instructors offer extra credit to participating students, and one instructor replaced their traditional research paper assignment with one where students create new pages for women of color artists. The team hopes to expand the program in a few ways. First, library faculty and staff want to grow partnerships with UNLV instructors by bringing Wikipedia into more classes. Additionally, the planning team would like to start a community of practice that regularly edits Wikipedia together. is would help keep skills fresh, increase confidence in Wikipedian identities, and honor the work of the peer coaches through continued use of event materials. The team would also love to involve community partners like regional colleges and nonprofit organizations. Finally, because the peer coaches have developed extensive lists of pages to edit, library faculty and staff plan to share resources through an online edit-a-thon.

There are many possibilities for the future of the team’s Wikipedia work, and all of them will include the voices, perspectives, and efforts of peer coaches. e peer coaches share their expertise in very event-specific ways such as editing Wikipedia and teaching others to