October 2017 – DH @ W&L

Ada Lovelace Day: A Celebration of Women in STEM

So, who was Ada Lovelace? Some people know her as the daughter of Lord Byron, the famed Romantic poet. People should know her as the first computer programmer—not as the first female computer programmer but as the first ever! She is responsible for elaborating on the “Analytical Engine,” an early predecessor of the modern computer. Her impact on the “Analytical Engine” as well as on other machines was groundbreaking and remains extremely relevant as we continue to embrace and improve upon technology.

Today, we celebrate her as well as all women in science, technology, engineering and math around the world on Ada Lovelace Day.

On October 10th, we had our own Ada Lovelace Day at W&L! Sponsored by the University Library, we took to Wikipedia to edit any page we felt needed a little TLC. Specifically, the edit-a-thon was intended to raise awareness about underappreciated women in STEM, like Ada Lovelace, by inviting students and faculty alike to edit Wikipedia articles, create new articles for important people without them, and supply citations for stated facts without references. Emily Cook, our Research and Outreach Librarian, hosted the event and provided attendees with information on how to get started (as well as candy, hot chocolate and Pure Eats donuts). She emphasized the importance of “verifiable accuracy” as Wikipedia puts it in its stated principles and simply getting the facts out there so that innovators like Ada Lovelace can be awarded the appreciation they deserve.

As I enjoyed a Pure Eats donut, I explored the list of women scientists and important figures and quickly became overwhelmed by the number of underrepresented and underappreciated women whose pages required improvement. I wanted to do them all justice by editing their pages and contributing to the culmination of knowledge already on the Internet. Because I couldn’t choose just one, I aided the issue at large by finding references for different statements without citations on various articles. In this way, I felt that I was able to help in a broad yet impactful way. Now that I have dipped my toe into the world of editing Wikipedia articles, I can dive deeper into individual articles in the future, verifying facts and adding biographical information in the hopes of garnering support for and granting credit to women whose achievements should not go unnoticed.

And there are ways for you to get involved too! Although this year’s Ada Lovelace Day has passed, you too can contribute to the cause and engage in the rewarding feeling of spreading knowledge on the Internet by editing one of the 5,490,757 articles (and counting) currently on Wikipedia. There are an infinite number of ways to celebrate important women in STEM and make a difference.

Check out these links to get started:

How to Edit Wikipedia Articles

WikiProject: Women in Red

WikiProject: Women in Science

Women in History Stubs

Statements that Require Citations

-Jenny Bagger, DH Undergraduate Fellow

Hi! My name is Jenny Bagger, and I’m a junior from Westfield, New Jersey. I am so excited to be the new Digital Humanities Strategic Communications Fellow!

I joined the W&L Digital Humanities team because I wanted to gain relevant and energizing hands-on experience along with my academic coursework. My passion for the English language as well as my desire to learn more about editing drew me to DH, specifically the Strategic Communications role. I was intrigued by DH’s initiative of fostering research at a small liberal arts school, while also collaborating as a team of researchers and coders. As the DH Strategic Communications fellow, I have the privilege of exploring the projects and writing blog posts about the many endeavors of the DH program. While I wasn’t entirely sure what I was getting myself into before I started, now a few weeks in I am confident that my work with DH is going to be so much more fun and rewarding than I ever could have imagined.

Although I am a Business Administration and English double major rather than a student of communications, I learned a lot about promoting events and writing about my experiences at my internship this summer. For eight weeks, I lived in London and worked in the marketing department of a theater, where I was responsible for researching different target markets, developing and implementing a community marketing plan for the upcoming theater season, preparing a social media report for the Board of Trustees, and executing social media communications. Once the summer was over, I knew I wanted to continue practicing what I learned about marketing, communications, and representing a larger organization on social media. DH is the perfect opportunity for me to expand on my knowledge and develop my interests, while also learning about things that are completely new to me.

I didn’t think that I would be able to have an engaging real-world experience such as this as an undergraduate student, but through Digital Humanities at W&L, I get to work and practice writing, communications, and even coding!

I’m so excited for what’s to come!