CHAPTER 9
ENGAGING STUDENT EMPLOYEE EXPERTISE TO IMPROVE WIKIPEDIA EDIT-A-THONS
Brittany Paloma Fiedler,1 Maggie Bukowski,1 Chelsea Heinbach,1 Eduardo Martinez-Flores,1 and Rosan Mitola1
1 University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Abstract
Since 2007, the University Libraries at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, has had a student employee peer learning program composed of six to seven undergraduate students. The Mason Undergraduate Peer Research Coaches, known as peer coaches, work within the instruction and outreach department co-teaching library instruction sessions and connecting with students through cocurricular outreach activities. When three librarians decided to plan their first Wikipedia edit-a-thon in 2017, the peer coaches became their collaborators. Since then, the peer coaches have developed lists of resources, identified notable individuals, evaluated Wikipedia pages, and worked with students during the event at orientation, citation, information, creation, and translation stations. They have also engaged in extra projects like creating playlists, designing swag, developing a trivia game, and pop-up tabling. Because of the
