Mkahili

Hello!

My name is Melissa Kahili and I am the instructor for the JABSOM Wikipedia editing elective. My favorite Wikipedia page is Kallmünz. The page may be brief but it brings back a flood of childhood memories. Kallmünz is a tiny town in Germany in the Bavarian district. Growing up I lived in an even smaller town named, Eich (which does not have it's own Wikipedia page) and is located just 2 km from Kallmünz. I recall walks along the river Naab with my family from our home in Eich to Kallmünz. It was the German country side so the roads were empty, houses were sparse, it was just fields and forest as far as the eye could see. In Kallmünz we would visit the bakery where I would get my favorite black and white cookie. Or we would visit the butcher or the market where I could get my favorite leberkäse on brotchen (sooo good). I remember the cobblestone streets and the flower boxes that every building had in the windows, filled with geraniums in white and various shades of red and pink. Most memorable of all are the Kallmünz Castle ruins that my sister and I played in. How many people can say they played in a castle as a kid? The castle stood on the hill overlooking the town and we would pretend to be princesses and queens and run and hide and it was just amazing.

So what do I hope to get out of this class? I hope to get to know all of you a little better. I hope to impart my excitement in Wikipedia with you. As a librarian, I see the act of editing Wikipedia as a way of democratizing information. We are privileged at the University to have access to a wealth of knowledge. Your student tuition allows the University (and the library) to subscribe to all kinds of information to support education and research efforts. But what about people who are not affiliated with an R1 institution like our own? Reliable information may be harder to come by which makes free and open resources like Wikipedia all the more important. Some people down play the authority of Wikipedia because they say, "anyone can edit it," but I would argue that is one of it's strengths and more importantly, anyone can read it.