On Sunday, November 3, 2024, I participated in “Wikipedia BUNGAKU 12 Abe Kobo” held in Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan.
“Wikipedia Town” in Japan
Since 2013, “Wikipedia Town”, a citizen-participation workshop in which participants work on “Wikipedia” editing with “town” as the theme, has been held all over Japan.
Because it is an event that makes use of the local materials held by libraries and the reference skills of librarians, it won the Excellence Award at Library of the Year 2017. The short comment at the time of the award was “Co-creation activities of public information assets using local information resources”.
Bungaku means literature in Japanese. “Wikipedia BUNGAKU” is a literary-themed event that is a derivative of Wikipedia Town, which is based on the local theme.
“Abe Kobo Exhibition” at the Kanagawa Museum of Modern Literature
In the morning, I visited the special exhibition “Abe Kobo Exhibition” at the Kanagawa Museum of Modern Literature.
In Wikipedia BUNGAKU, participants are given the choice of which article to edit, and this time, the candidates for articles to be edited were people and regions that Abe Kobo was involved with, works he wrote, and projects he worked on.
Kanagawa Prefectural Library Wikipedia Editing Meeting
The venue for the afternoon was the multipurpose space on the 4th floor of the Kanagawa Prefectural Library.
Hundreds of books prepared by the executive committee were lined up. After receiving a lecture on Wikipedia from executive committee member and instructor Tago Tamaki, all participants declared the topic they wanted to edit and began editing.
There were various ways to participate, including a group of several people editing the existing article “Abe Kobo,” a group of experienced Wikipedians and first-time editors creating a new article “Monami (Higashinakano),” a person creating a new article “Tadeusz Kantor” alone, and a person participating remotely from Hokkaido creating a new article “Asahikawa City Chikabumi Daiichi Elementary School.”
Two librarians from Kanagawa Prefectural Library will be on hand for the event, so even if you are editing a topic that the executive committee did not anticipate, you can provide on-site references. In addition, many experienced Wikipedians will be participating, and the executive committee members will also provide thorough support to first-time editors, making this an event that is easy for first-time editors to participate in.
Hopes for a ripple effect throughout Japan
There are many Good Articles (GA) on modern Japanese literature on the Japanese Wikipedia. However, the coverage of contemporary literature and foreign literature on the Japanese Wikipedia seems to be in its infancy.
A huge amount of literature on authors and literary works has been accumulated in various forms, including books, magazine articles, and academic papers. Wikipedia and literature have a very high affinity. I hope that projects similar to Wikipedia BUNGAKU will spread outside of Yokohama City.
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