WASHINGTON, February 18, 2021 — To highlight and enhance the awareness of Black physicists, the American Institute of Physics is partnering with Black in Physics to host a Wikipedia Edit-A-Thon to address inaccuracies and incomplete information on the popular resource website about African American and Black scientists.
The event will take place during the last week of Black History Month, Feb. 22-26, and bring together volunteers in the physics community to build and edit Wikipedia pages about Black physicists. Wikipedia editors will provide training and information to assist the volunteers with the Wikipedia Edit-A-Thon.
Members of AIP’s Center for History of Physics and the Niels Bohr Library & Archives will host information drop-in sessions for Wikithon editors seeking resources and best practices for citing sources on Wikipedia pages. The AIP oral history collection will be utilized as a resource for Wikipedia Edit-A-Thon volunteers to find citable material.
The Wikipedia Edit-A-Thon drop-in sessions will last about an hour but could extend depending on the work being done. Volunteers from Black in Physics will be participating in the weeklong event.
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About American Institute of Physics
The American Institute of Physics (AIP) is a 501(c)(3) membership corporation of scientific societies. AIP pursues its mission—to advance, promote, and serve the physical sciences for the benefit of humanity—with a unifying voice of strength from diversity. In its role as a federation, AIP advances the success of its Member Societies by providing the means to pool, coordinate, and leverage their diverse expertise and contributions in pursuit of a shared goal of advancing the physical sciences in the research enterprise, in the economy, in education, and in society. In its role as an institute, AIP operates as a center of excellence using policy analysis, social science, and historical research to promote future progress in the physical sciences.
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