Page:Wikipedia and Academic Libraries.djvu/163

150 chapter email lists, and the MLA newsletter. Though the WWG had successfully held virtual events in the past, it was gratifying to work with fifty-four volunteer editors in person to improve content related to health disparities. The collaborative atmosphere and success of this event inspired the WWG to explore ways to incorporate in-person events for future campaigns, leading to significant structural innovations for the fall 2019 campaign.

In advance of the fall 2019 campaign, the WWG focused on enhancing the #CiteNLM experience with a more user-friendly web presence and a longer campaign period—two full months—coupled with support for institutions to host affiliated local events at any time during this period. is campaign did not o er a dedicated one-day virtual edit-a-thon; the WWG instead invited individual participants to attend a kickoff training session and then edit independently throughout October and November. The WWG built a new web page (https://nnlm.gov/national/guides/ccs/wikipedia-edit-thon) with everything needed to host affiliated events or participate as an individual. A new #CiteNLM Guide for Organizers, adapted from #1Lib1Ref, laid out the steps for hosting independent events in a straightforward PDF format. This campaign was the WWG’s most successful yet, with at least 108 editors and 9 affiliated events, several of which are detailed below.

2020 Campaigns

The WWG planned for spring 2020 largely by looking to build on the successes of fall 2019; the only major change was a reduction in the campaign period from two months to one to reduce the amount of staff time required. Unfortunately, April 2020 proved to be an extremely difficult time for libraries to offer programming as institutions scrambled to shift operations from in-person to virtual in the midst of a global pandemic. It is also likely that individual participation was reduced by the dramatically altered circumstances as potential participants focused on core job responsibilities and adapting to the rapidly evolving situation. As a result, overall participation was fairly low: forty-nine editors participated and only two institutions held affiliated editing events. The WWG viewed the challenges of the spring 2020