#CiteNLM campaign not as failures but as informative setbacks that provided motivation to make #CiteNLM more flexible and better able to meet the ongoing need for virtual programming opportunities.
Acknowledging the altered working conditions due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the WWG approached the fall 2020 campaign with renewed energy and developed a new hybrid campaign structure combining a month-long campaign period for affiliated events with a scheduled two-hour live collaborative edit-a-thon for individuals. The campaign training webinar featured strategies and resources for institutions to host their own virtual #CiteNLM edit-a-thon any time during the month of October. At the live event, participants received a brief training and then joined breakout sessions to edit articles related to the campaign topic of maternal and child health, chat and ask questions about Wikipedia, and connect with the #CiteNLM community. Over thirty editors participated in this virtual event and many have expressed excitement about making their first Wikipedia edit during the session.
Leading up to the fall 2020 event, a new outreach campaign was launched aimed at reaching library and information science (LIS) students. is group is an intended audience for NNLM outreach and LIS students are well-situated to be excellent Wikipedia contributors due to their likely interest in information literacy, research, and reference. The WWG invited students to join the two-hour live editing event, pitching it as an opportunity to meet practicing information professionals and network with other LIS students from around the country while also learning about Wikipedia editing and Wikipedia’s health information. Messaging was sent to MLIS programs promoting the #CiteNLM edit-a-thon as an opportunity to build reference skills, health information literacy, familiarity with trustworthy health information resources, and an understanding of how to utilize Wikipedia responsibly. As a result of this simple campaign, LIS students from at least six different programs across the country joined the virtual editing event. The WWG hopes that these new editors will continue to contribute to Wikipedia and pass information about the importance and ease of doing so along to their colleagues as they finish their degrees and enter the field.
