Historically, the library community has discouraged the use of Wikipedia because of doubts about its reliability. But, because Wikipedia is the fifth most popular website, a Kansas City librarian decided to learn about Wikipedia’s rules, including how to edit it and how to help patrons using it in their research. Information literacy is a skill that is important especially now. And during the eight-week OCLC course "Libraries + Wikipedia: Better Together," we learned that editors are typically white and male, limiting the scope of articles.

Our popular Edit-a-Thons take seemingly unrelated things and combine them together into fun, educational community events where people walk away with new connections and new skills. Our participants range from seasoned Wikipedia editors, to individuals who have never had an email address before. Programs that bring such differing populations and skillsets together are rare. It also allows us to be creative in the partners we choose.

Our editors expanded their community, meeting others with a common interest. They also learned something new and put skills like digital literacy, research and writing into action. Library collections have been made available on a global scale. By adding citations from our collections, we can make our resources discoverable to those unable to come in to the library. Our group of editors have moved the needle on Wikipedia’s editor demographic. They reflect our community, as did the articles we improved.