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  Okains Bay
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  Wellington
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  Granity
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  Parliament

An edit-a-thon is an event where volunteer editors tackle a part of Wikipedia that needs improvement. Complete beginners are welcome; training and troubleshooting is provided. All you need to bring is a laptop!

This edit-a-thon is being hosted by the VUW School of Information Management, and will focus on improving the coverage of New Zealand libraries. You don't need to be a librarian: anyone can help with editing, researching, proofreading, and adding photos.

• Tues 19 February 2019, 10:00 am – 4:00 pm NZST
• Rutherford House, 23 Lambton Quay, Pipitea Campus, Victoria University of Wellington (map)
• Room MZ05/06. The VicBooks cafe is nearby for breaks.
• Wikipedians from anywhere in the world are of course welcome to join in remotely. Please feel free to hashtag edits with #nzlibraries and add yourselves to the participants list below.

• 10.00: Meet and greet
  Introductions, name lanyards, and account creation if needed
• 10.30: Wikipedia tutorial
  We'll learn how Wikipedia works and how to improve, create, and reference articles. Experienced editors present will be buddied up with newcomers. This will be livestreamed over Zoom (check here for details on the day)
• 11.00: Editing
  Our goal is to improve Wikipedia's coverage of NZ libraries. You can improve existing articles, add to Wikidata, or create stub articles for people missing from Wikipedia.
• 12.30: Lunch/coffee break. The VUW Business School is kindly providing a light lunch for volunteers, with vegetarian/gluten-free options.
• 14.00: Q&A tutorial
  A chance to go over any problems or questions you have as a group.
• 13.30: Editing
• 16.00: Finishing up
  Make sure you fill out an evaluation form and add your contributions to the list below.

• The Edit-a-thon is free and open to all, thanks to the support of the VUW Business School and the Wikimedia Foundation.
• For catering purposes, please sign up via Eventbrite: SIGN UP HERE
• This workshop will be following "friendly space" guidelines; check them out. Harassment and disruption won't be tolerated, online or offline.

• Use the bit.ly link http://bit.ly/nzlibraries if you want a short, shareable link to this page

• User:Schwede66
• DrThneed
• redcloverlion

• Laptop and power cord. Laptops are definitely easier to edit on than iPads. The venue has good wifi. There may be a spare laptop for people to use, but bring your own computer if you can.
• Any snacks or drink you want. There's a cafe in the building.
• Any resources such as books, journals, magazine or newspaper articles relevant to libraries you're interested in.
• Photos you've taken or art that could illustrate articles; you'll learn how to donate these to Wikimedia Commons so other Wikipedia articles can use them.

1. If you're coming, try to create a Wikipedia account beforehand: don't wait until the day to do it! Here's a form you can use if you like. Creating an account makes editing much easier (here's more info on why you should). You'll need to pick a "handle" for your username; you could use your real name, but it's nice to have the option to be a bit anonymous if you want. Here's some advice on picking a username.
2. The more you prepare, the more you'll be able to get done. You may want to read up on avoiding common mistakes, but Wikipedia has a "don't bite the newbies" policy, and we'll be there to troubleshoot.
3. Have a think about topics you'd like to work on; do a little research first so you're prepared. You don't have to be an expert; anyone who can do library research and write clearly can help improve Wikipedia. The best candidates for Wikipedia articles are people or places who are "notable". In Wikipedia terms, "notable" people usually means they're been covered in a number of reliable independent sources, such as news, books, authoritative websites, or magazine interviews. If you're proposing to create to Wikipedia article it's important to make sure your subject is "notable"; talk to us if you're not sure – we can help.
4. If you want to bring photos along and add them to Commons and Wikipedia, they need to be free of any copyright or released under a Creative Commons license that lets anyone use them. (What's Creative Commons?) If not, you must be the creator/copyright holder – ask us if you're not certain what's allowed, and we'll help.

• How to edit pages using the Visual Editor: for when you click Edit

• This website is useful as it contains information for expanding or creating wikidata entries.
• List of libraries held by the National Library of New Zealand

• Christchurch Central Library: hopelessly out of date, and no photos of the building! Tūranga has been split off and turned into something semi-decent.
• List_of_libraries_in_New_Zealand: needs to be updated and better sourced (I put a couple of comments on the talk page DrThneed (talk) 03:02, 19 February 2019 (UTC))[reply]
• National Library of New Zealand: could do with a better section explaining the Turnbull Library's holdings.
• Wikidata items needed for every item on the library list; coordinates and a map for each library article
• A decent photo in Wikimedia Commons for each library's article or Wikidata item, and the libraries properly categorised

• Adding Central Otago & Queenstown Lakes Libraries to Wikidata with individual entries for all of the public libraries in that system.
• Added links for medical libraries to University of Otago page
• Updated Wellington Medical and Health Sciences Library on List of NZ Libraries
• Started on list of ATL collections - needs more work
• Added info on FoTL and Turnbull Library Record
• Added a couple of references to stub on Puke Ariki
• Added some info and links about Carnegie libraries in New Zealand to Carnegie Library page
• Adding Southland District Libraries to Wikidata with individual entries for all of the public libraries in that system. Ditto Timaru District Libraries.
• Added url to New Zealand libraries table in the Wikipedia page.
• Added a photo to the Nail (fastener) article and additional info on 'magic' nails.
• Added brief info on Horace Edward Manners Fildes bequest to Victoria University Library.
• Linked photos from Commons to List of Carnegie libraries in Oceania.
• Added section on Puhoi Town Library to Puhoi
• Added Toitu to List of libraries in New Zealand page
• Linked public libraries in the List of libraries in New Zealand page to their Wikipedia pages, where they exist
• Added category 'libraries in New Zealand' (and Fiji and Australia) to Carnegie Libraries of Oceania page

• Added Waitaki District Libraries to Wikidata with individual entries for all of the public libraries in that system

• Started reconciliation of List of libraries in New Zealand with the National Library's list of libraries to identify any additions and other changes (using OpenRefine)

We'll be taking photos for the record. If you don't want to be in a photo, just choose a red name lanyard; if you don't mind, pick a green one.

Many thanks to Jennifer Campbell-Meier for getting the ball rolling, and the support of VUW for making this event possible.