How Libraries Can Use Wikipedia to Combat Book Bans and Misinformation

Giving good information a wide audience

Posted on September 9, 2024 in Blog Posts

Authors:

Laurie Bridges
A librarian editing Wikipedia to combat book bans and misinformation

In a time when misinformation spreads rapidly and book bans continue to increase, librarians play a crucial role in ensuring access to accurate information about books. But you might not be aware that one of the most effective tools for promoting understanding and combating misinformation is already at your fingertips. Enter Wikipedia—often the first stop for anyone seeking information about a book.

Using Wikipedia to counter book bans

Consider this: when you Google the title of a book, the Wikipedia article for it often tops the search results. For many in your local community, it’s their gateway to understanding a novel’s themes, controversies, and critical reception. A well-crafted Wikipedia page can serve as a source of factual, well-sourced information, offering plot summaries, literary accolades, professional reviews, and documented instances of censorship. 

Library staff have a unique opportunity to shape these pages, ensuring they are accurate and comprehensive. Take, for example, The Bluest Eye, written by Nobel Prize–winning author Toni Morrison. The novel was (once again) on the American Library Association’s 2023 list of the most banned books in the US. The Wikipedia article for The Bluest Eye has been live since May 2005, and in 2023 alone, it was viewed 339,000 times. That’s hundreds of thousands of people seeking information about a book–many likely spurred by headlines about the book’s ban. A deeper look into the article’s traffic shows that on January 26, 2023, the page saw a spike of 3,500 views. Why? A quick search in Google News reveals that that same day, news broke about The Bluest Eye being banned in Florida. The correlation is clear: as soon as the headlines hit, people turned to Wikipedia for more information. While the article isn’t perfect—no online resource ever is—librarians have the power to make it better.

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Fighting misinformation with Wikipedia

But how does editing Wikipedia combat misinformation? In the spring of 2023, I co-taught a small seminar course at Oregon State University alongside another librarian on exploring Wikipedia. As part of the course, each student was tasked with either creating a new Wikipedia article or substantially editing an existing one. One student chose to create an article for This Book Is Gay, with the aim of providing an accurate summary of the book and detailing the author’s motivations, specifically to counteract the misinformation circulating on social media and in public school board meetings. 

Although the student was familiar with the author’s background, she had not yet read the book, so her first step was to dive into the text. However, midway through her reading, another Wikipedia editor—unrelated to our course—created and published an article on This Book Is Gay. Initially, the student felt a bit of disappointment that she didn’t get to be the first to create the article. However, she soon realized there were still significant gaps to fill, including chapter summaries and detailed information on censorship controversies. By enriching the page with comprehensive and accurate content, this undergraduate student recognized that her work would make a meaningful contribution to a national conversation.

By editing and enhancing Wikipedia articles about books, you can ensure that the next time someone in your community turns to the site—whether they’re a student, a parent, or just a curious reader—they find well-sourced, reliable information. As we move forward in fighting for the freedom to read, editing Wikipedia articles might be one of the most important roles you play in the battle against censorship.

Getting started on Wikipedia

How do you get started with editing book articles in Wikipedia? Just start! You don’t need an account, and you can easily copyedit and make changes without a username. However, creating a username is a simple first step if you want to track your work over time. After you’ve created a username, you are limited to editing for the first four days your account is active; after that, you can create new pages. You can find specific details about editing and creating book pages using the LibGuide I created last year, “Creating and editing Wikipedia articles about books.”

Wikipedia footprint of ALA’s Top 10 Most Banned Books

Book TitleNumber of page views in English Wikipedia in 2023
Gender Queer173,252
All Boys Aren’t Blue76,392
This Book is Gay6,157
The Perks of Being a Wallflower343,115
Flamer52,212
The Bluest Eye339,020
Me Earl and the Dying Girl31,818
Tricks14,381
Let’s Talk About It: The Teen’s Guide to Sex, Relationships, and Being a HumanNo Wikipedia article in 2023
Sold20,258

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