Help Us Spread The Word About Ohio’s Literary Heritage on Wikipedia

Toni Morrison on Wikipedia

Wikipedia is consistently among the Top 10 most-visited sites on the Internet as well as being at or near the top of every Google search. For better or worse, this is where people are getting a lot of their information.

In light of this, the Ohio Center for the Book is encouraging librarians and others interested in quality information to help us edit, improve, and augment Wikipedia articles about Ohio’s authors, illustrators, journalists, poets, playwrights, comics creators, and more. We have a rich literary tradition in the Buckeye State, so let’s make sure the world knows it! If we all don’t do it, who will? Feel free to use the hashtag #OHbookWP (for Ohio Center for the Book Wikipedia Project) to tout your participation or if you tweet or post about your contributions. You can also include it in your Wikipedia edit descriptions.

If you’re already a Wikipedian, we encourage you to jump right in. If you’re new to editing Wikipedia, here are some resources to help get you feeling confident. We encourage you to abide by the Wikipedia motto: Be Bold! To learn how to edit the online encyclopedia, we can recommend the following:

If you’re looking for articles to edit (and don’t forget you can create articles, too, if they fit with Wikipedia’s Notability Guidelines), here are some places to start in addition to simply searching Wikipedia for your favorite Ohio creators:

  • Lists of Ohio authors can be found at the Ohio Center for the Book as well as the Ohioana Library websites.
  • Wikipedia Category: Writers from Ohio which also includes Writers from some individual Ohio cities.
  • Wikipedia Category: Artists from Ohio which also includes Artists from some individual Ohio cities.
  • Also be sure to look at the categories at the bottom of articles for other options to explore for finding Ohio authors.

Together, we can make Wikipedia better and let the world know about Ohio’s well-earned place in the world’s literary heritage.

Happy editing!