GLAM/Newsletter/March 2023/Contents/Australia report

This Month in GLAM – Volume XIII, Issue III, March 2023

Australia report

Know My Name edit-a-thon at the National Gallery of Australia

Know My Name

Know My Name is an annual edit-a-thon event run during International Women's Week with Wikimedia Australia and the National Gallery of Australia (NGA) to improve representation of Australian women artists on Wikipedia.

Beginning in 2020 as part of the NGA's Know My Name art exhibition, the edit-a-thon's have created 119 new Wikipedia articles, and 200 editors have added 210,000 words and over 2,000 references.

This year, we focused on improving existing Wikipedia articles. Twelve editors worked from a list prepared beforehand, and following an introductory session on the Wikimedia Movement and how to edit Wikipedia, then they dove in and began adding content.

Archivists from the NGA Research Library prepared artist files from their collections, making referencing incredibly easy. These files contained press clippings, exhibition listings, and flyers relating to the artists, and our volunteers were able to use these alongside other online resources.

In 2020, the NGA published a book for their Know My Name art exhibition featuring images and information on many of Australia's women artists and creators. Ahead of the edit-a-thon, Wikimedia Australia gave a presentation to the gallery staff on the importance of publications like this for helping fill notability criteria on Wikipedia.

During the edit-a-thon, a reporter from ABC Radio Canberra stopped by and interviewed several participants about why they edited Wikipedia, and the importance of increasing the number of articles about Australian women on Wikipedia, and their quality.

We look forward to heading back to Canberra next year to host another Know My Name edit-a-thon during International Women's Week 2024. Both Wikimedia Australia and the National Gallery of Australia are keen to find additional ways to continue to engage with our community and further improve the representation of Australian women artists and creators on Wikipedia. We hope to announce more later this year.