Wikipedia entries on Kansas City jazz were notably light on detail, and other articles about important musicians, artists and women lacked references to the city’s jazz scene. Edit-a-thon participants worked to correct that, drawing from content in the library’s collections and other sources to beef up content. For many, it was a lesson in Wikipedia editing. Editors of Wikipedia tend to be predominantly white and male, and our participants were far more diverse.

Staff members took a nine-week Online Computer Library Center (OCLC) Wikipedia + Libraries course to learn editing and how to teach others to edit. In addition to the library’s collections, information for Wikipedia entries was drawn from the American Jazz Museum and Kansas City Jazz Orchestra. Participants made 36 edits to 12 Wikipedia articles, created one new article and added nearly 3,000 words on Kansas City’s rich jazz history to the online encyclopedia.

The targeted Wikipedia articles have had more than 16,000 worldwide views since the Edit-a-thon. The program taught participants valuable skills related to digital literacy, research and writing, and enhanced their social skills. The exercise also lent greater exposure to information on jazz history in the library’s collections that is hidden behind database paywalls or is inaccessible if you can’t get to the library. It now is discoverable on a global scale.