Wikipedia:Meetup/2023 Native American Women Activists Editathon at Penn State

In Spring 2023, Penn State University Libraries will be hosting a month-long virtual Editathon focusing on Native American women activists. The editathon will take place between March 27 and April 18, 2023. It will include several (in person and virtual?) events during which experienced Wikipedia editors will be on hand to provide guidance and answer questions.

The Penn State University Libraries team organizing this event consists of (names to be finalized)

When and Where
Date	March 27 - April 18, 2023
Where	4 meetups on Zoom, see below

We will host 4 virtual meetups where you can edit side-by-side with others and ask questions:

• Wed., 3/29 1-3pm
• Tues., 4/4 10am-noon
• Wed., 4/12 1-3pm
• Tues., 4/18 10am-noon

in a hosted Zoom room. All dates Eastern time.

Getting started

Trainings and Help

No experience? No problem! Refer to the tip sheet for participants, based on our 2022 training. Experts will be on hand during the editathon events to help with research questions and Wikipedia questions.

Make a Wikipedia account

• Why create an account?
• Create an account

Join our Event Dashboard

Once you have an account, join our Dashboard in order to claim articles and make sure your edits are tracked for our editathon!

Get familiar with Wikipedia

(update with tutorials)

• Take a look at the Wikipedia resources below and get acquainted with the creation/editing process.
• Visit some Wiki pages and click "Edit Source" on the top of the page to see what it looks like to edit a page!
• Review notability requirements if you're interested in creating a new page.

Choosing an Article

Articles we've selected for this editathon are listed on the Event Dashboard. You can assign yourself an article from the Event Dashboard home page in My Articles -> Assign myself an article from a drop-down or visit the available articles page.

Take a few minutes to click through and read the articles on Wikipedia before choosing the one that most interests you! Then move on to learn about ways you can improve articles and find resources for your research.

When you're done with an article, you can click "Remove" in the My Articles section. Unless two articles are heavily interrelated, stick to assigning yourself one article at a time and leave lots of options for everyone else.

If you're a more experienced editor, check out "New Articles to Create" below!

Improve articles

• Add or edit inline citations/references.
• Add an infobox or add data to an existing infobox.
• Add an image.
• Use headings to improve the organization of the article.
• Add categories.
• Add incoming links.
• Check the article's Talk page to see what else needs work.

Editing Wikipedia: Tips and Tricks

• Cheatsheet for writing in wiki markup (unnecessary if you use the Visual Editor)
• Sample layout for biographical articles
• Tips for writing about Trans and Non-binary people (our own Google Doc)

New Articles to Create

Use the external links as a starting point but they may not be suitable for solo citation. Check out [First Article] for guidance and remember to check the [template].

• Laura Waterman Wittstock (Seneca), related article 1, related article 2
• Donna L Akers (Choctaw), related info
• Vivian Ayoungman (Blackfoot), related article
• Matilda Black Bear (Lakota Sioux), Wikidata page, needs research to find more
• Patricia Penn Hilden (Nez Perce), Wikidata page, needs research to find more
• Audra Simpson (Mohawk), related info also author of Mohawk Interruptus: Political Life Across the Borders of Settler States
• Jasilyn Charger (Cheyenne River Sioux), info page, info page 2
• Charitie Ropati (Kongiganak), article, more info
• Naelyn Pike (Chiricahua Apache), info page, info page
• EllaMae Looney (Yakama Nation), info page

Resources for Research

Wikipedia articles should be based on reliable, published sources. Read Wikipedia's reliable sources policy to learn more.

Be aware of the possibility of bias in any resource, including scholarly materials and existing Wikipedia articles. Read with a critical eye. What do you know about the author? What is their affiliation with this information? Does the resource use demeaning terms? Use information when it is reliable, but do not include bias in your own writing.

Online Resources Requiring Penn State Authentication

Ebooks (access via Libraries catalog; links below)

• Bataille, Gretchen M.; Lisa, Laurie, eds. (2001). Native American women : a biographical dictionary (2nd ed.). New York: Routledge.
• Bloom, Harold, ed. (1998). Native American women writers. Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishers.

Databases

• Penn State Libraries Databases A to Z List
• Major databases of scholarly journals
  • JSTOR provides an archive of important scholarly journals and a selection of scholarly books. JSTOR includes American Indian Quarterly, Wíčazo Ša Review, Studies in American Indian Literature, and Cultural Anthropology. It does not include the most recent years of most journals.
  • Project MUSE provides full text of recent issues of humanities, arts, and social sciences journals from scholarly publishers, including American Indian Quarterly, Wíčazo Ša Review, Studies in American Indian Literature, and Native American and Indigenous Studies.
• America: History & Life with Full Text covers all aspects of the history of the United States and Canada from prehistory to the present.
• American Indian Newspapers contains 45 titles including bi-lingual and indigenous language publications from the United States and Canada. Includes some key 19th century titles, but most publications were founded in the 1970s.
• Ethnic NewsWatch is a comprehensive full text database of the newspapers, magazines and journals of the ethnic, minority and native press. It includes News from Native California.
• Gale Virtual Reference Library (GVRL) is a collection of over 2000 reference resources.
• Gale Literary Sources is a good source for biographical information about authors.
• New York Times Historical (available from 1851) includes a digitized image of every backfile issue of The New York Times from cover to cover.
• Oxford Reference Online contains reference works with biographical information. NOTE: PSU does not have access to all of the content so limit to “unlocked and/or free content” under “availability.”
• Women's Studies International provides access to over 232,000 records drawn from ten important Women's Studies databases.

Online Open Access Resources (Authentication Not Required)

• "Chickasaw Hall of Fame". The Chickasaw Nation.
• Cultural Anthropology: Issues published since 2014 are available for free on the journal's website. Earlier issues are in JSTOR.
• "The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture". www.okhistory.org.
• "Independent Voices". www.jstor.org. is an open access digital collection of alternative press newspapers, magazines and journals from the latter half of the 20th century.
• "Native American Women: National Museum of the American Indian". americanindian.si.edu.
• "Oklahoma Hall of Fame Member Archives". oklahomahof.com.

Print Resources

These print resources are available from the Penn State University Libraries. (Links below go to the Libraries' catalog. The catalog may also contain Google Books links which let you search inside a book to find out whether it's useful for you or even read a relevant section.)

• Bataille, Gretchen M.; Sands, Kathleen Mullen (1984). American Indian women, telling their lives. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
• Perdue, Theda, ed. (2001). Sifters : Native American women's lives. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Sonneborn, Liz (1998). A to Z of Native American women. New York: Facts on File.