The CES community gathered on March 31 and April 1 to help increase inclusiveness and diversity to the articles of Wikipedia. CES hosted a beginner-friendly introduction to creating and editing Wikipedia articles, led by Kevin Payravi, co-founder and organizer of the Ohio Wikimedians User Group. Students and other members of the Columbus community turned out to contribute to Wikipedia topics related to Asian American Studies, American Indian Studies and Latinx Studies, as well as other articles pertaining to ethnicity.

Leila Vieira, associate director of the Center for Ethnic Studies, organized the event. "This free online encyclopedia boasts millions of articles, yet it is far from complete when it comes to topics related to underrepresented groups." She viewed the event as an opportunity to address the lack of inclusion in online public resources, while providing students with an interactive activity to contribute to directly.

The second day was held at the Northside branch of the Columbus Metropolitan Library in order to be more accessible to the central Ohio community. This event had a diverse audience of all ages, including retirees with experience editing Wikipedia articles, who shared their knowledge with the group. Amanda Martin, adult services librarian at the branch, reported on the event: "We also found easy projects to get started, like photographing buildings or locations that don't have photos in their articles, as well as articles that exist but could be expanded. Overall, it was great to learn about ways that everyone can get involved in building and maintaining an online resource to increase public access to information."

Over the course of two days, participants achieved the following: 

• 8 articles created
• 19 articles edited
• 80 total edits
• 3.34k words added
• 69 references added 

The event facilitator for both days was Kevin Payravi, a software engineer from Plano, Texas. He's an OSU alum (2017, Computer Science and Engineering) and currently serves on the Board of Wikimedia District of Columbia, organizing several annual Wikimedia events each year. Kevin expressed his enthusiasm about the intersection of technology and librarianship, and how technology can help facilitate the dissemination of knowledge: "as expansive as Wikipedia is, there are many knowledge gaps that need to be filled, and I hope participants feel empowered to continue to contribute in the future."

The Center for Ethnic Studies plans to hold another editing event like this in the future, as well as other interactive opportunities over the next academic year. CES thanks the Columbus Metropolitan Library and the Barnett Center for partnership in this event. 

For more information about this event, as well as future events and activities within the Center for Ethnic Studies, contact Megan Moriarty, communications and marketing specialist, at moriarty.8@osu.edu.