Abstract
Although academic skepticism of Wikipedia’s value as an information resource is widespread, the collaboratively created online encyclopedia is in fact one of the most frequently used health information resources in the world, including among students and professionals. As a result, the U.S.-based Network of the National Library of Medicine (NNLM) has, since 2018, organized biannual “#CiteNLM” edit-a-thons aimed at strengthening Wikipedia’s health pages by adding content and citations to trusted sources of information.
The first #CiteNLM edit-a-thon was a one-day virtual event in April 2018; since then NNLM’s edit-a-thons have evolved into month-long campaigns engaging primarily academic libraries with in-person edit-a-thons as well as virtual events. Hundreds of students, faculty, and library staff across the country (many of whom were new to Wikipedia editing) have collaborated in NNLM’s e orts to support universal access to high-quality health information. To date, over 600 health articles have been edited by over 400 editors. The current #CiteNLM campaign structure makes it easy for either individuals or groups to contribute or host affiliated events, which can include classroom exercises, citizen science projects, or library engagement efforts.
Introduction
Despite widespread skepticism of the value of Wikipedia as an information resource both within and outside academia, the collaboratively created online encyclopedia is one of the most frequently used health information resources in the world (Heilman & West, 2015). is includes students and professionals and also holds true in the medical field, with over 90 percent of medical students (Heilman & West, 2015; Metcalfe & Powell, 2011) and 50–70 percent of physicians (Heilman et al., 2011) using Wikipedia to find health information. Wikipedia’s health articles receive over 6.5 billion page views annually and are written in over 255 languages (Heilman & West, 2015).
As a means of improving this popular and accessible health information resource, the Network of the National Library of Medicine (NNLM) has, since 2018, organized biannual “#CiteNLM” edit-athons focused on using trusted sources of health information to add
