Wikipedia:GLAM/SLIC/Events/Women of Skye Wikipedia Editathon

Skye librarians and archivists training

Booking

Email d.dallison@scottishlibraries.org to sign up.

About the event

With 47 million articles in 229 different languages, Wikipedia is now both a well-established force for the democratisation of knowledge, and a key outreach tool, with one recent study showing that the encyclopedia shapes, as well as reflects, scientific thought. However, Wikipedia has a gender problem: the encyclopedia and its content is weighted toward men. In a 2011 survey, the Foundation found that only around 9% of contributors identified as female, and less than 1% as trans*. This imbalance in demographic leads to a content gap - as of 1 January 2018, just 17.37% of biographies on English Wikipedia were about women. It’s a form of systemic bias that both the Wikimedia Foundation and the Wikipedia community are working to fix, with projects like Wikiproject Women in Red and the Gender Gap Task Force. But we need more people to help.

This event is the culmination of a year long series of art projects celebrating the 100 years of women's suffrage led by Atlas Art on the Isle of Skye. Our aim is to create new pages and improve existing ones to increase the coverage of notable women of Skye on Wikipedia. No prior experience of editing Wikipedia is necessary, as full training will be given on the day, but participants should create a Wikipedia account in advance (see below).

We Can Edit

How do I prepare?

• Create a Wikipedia account
• Bring a laptop if you like (wi-fi will be provided) - there are also a number of PCs in the computer room.
• Learn about editing if you like: Tutorial, or Getting started on Wikipedia for more information
• Think about what you would like to edit - if there's a person or topic on the hit list that particularly catches your eye, feel free to do some research in advance & bring materials with you on the day.
• Learn about creating women's biographies: Primer for creating women’s biographies
• Learn more about good practice for writing about women on Wikipedia: Writing about women

Link to Wikiproject: Women in Red

• This Wikiproject links to some great resources. Wikipedia:WikiProject Women in Red/Meetup/00/2018

Where

• The event will be held at the Portree Community Library on level 1.

Programme

Saturday 19 October

• 10:00 - 11:00 Introduction to Wikimedia
• 11:00 - 13:00: Training
• 13:00 - 14:00: Break for lunch
• 14:00 - 16:00: EDIT!

Sunday 20 October

• 10:00 - 13:00: EDIT!
• 13:00 - 14:00: Break for lunch
• 14:00 - 16:00: EDIT!

For those arriving later

- Don't worry if you can't arrive in time for the main training session - Delphine Dallison will be on hand to give help and advice.

Trainers

• Delphine Dallison, Wikimedian in Residence at the Scottish Library and Information Council

Hit list of articles to be created or improved

Helpful updates could be as simple as:

• Making sure reference links are still appropriate and functional
• Adding new inline citations/references
• Adding a photo
• Adding an infobox
• Adding data to more fields in an existing infobox
• Creating headings
• Adding categories; etc.

The following is a small sample of topics to work on. Feel free to come up with your own ideas!

Articles to be created

• Elizabeth Rhoda Wakefield - community activist (Draft article in development)
• Ethel Bassin - teacher and folklorist (Draft article in development)
• Pat Gordon - Manager of mental health drop-in centre and community activist (Draft article in development)
• Ann MacKinnon - Nurse, hospital supervisor and war heroine
• Alexandrina Matilda MacPhail - physician
• Ishobel Ross - war time nurse and teacher (Draft article in development)
• Seonag MacInnes - teacher, nurse and crofter (Draft article in development)
• Otta F Swire - author (Draft article in development)
• Norma Morrison - community activist
• Kay Simpson - veterinarian who led voluntary action in under-developed countries
• Fiona Manderville - crofting activist
• Rhona Rauszer - author (Draft article in development)

Articles to be improved

• Flora MacDonald - Jacobite Heroine
• Anne Martin - Gaelic Singer
• Morag Henriksen - author, poet, storyteller and teacher
• Frances Tolmie - Gaelic song collector
• Mary MacPherson - (Mairi Mhor nan Oran)
• Margaret MacPherson - writer and crofting activist
• Dame Flora Macleod of clan Macleod - Chief of Clan Macleod and Skye tourism promoter

Sources

Wikipedia is a tertiary resource, which relies upon good quality secondary sources and some primary sources. Wikipedia is not a place for fringe theories, untested hypotheses, or personal interpretation. For more guidance on the use of sources, see this guide here.

The Portree Library and Archives have gathered some sources for participants to improve their research and those will be available throughout the editathon.

Other sources:

• Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
• Shareable Images can be found through a Creative Commons search(which includes Google, Flickr & Wikicommons in its search).
• Scottish Bibliographies Online
• Histories of Scottish Families
• Spartacus Educational is used as a source for history teachers
• Women's History Scotland Suffrage Learning resource
• Ancestry - Available in public Libraries
• Find My Past - Available in NLS online resources

Outputs

Pages Created

• Ann MacKinnon
• Alexandrina Matilda MacPhail

After the event

You may find these useful if you want to learn further about editing:

• Video tutorials
• Instructional videos on using Wikipedia