Researching Oakland street fairs and the history of the Chinese community in Oakland.
The first history editathon was a huge success! What are some of the highlights of the event? Things we created? What are suggestions for improving the wiki or the event? Strange and interesting historical tidbits?
Pages Created/Updated
- "Harlem of the West", a bustling 1940s blues scene on 7th st. in West Oakland. Also, a small section on it in the West Oakland article.
- Center for Contemporary Music
- Elmhurst
- Temescal Street Fair
- Swan's Market
- Oakland Chinatown StreetFest
- Old Oakland
Highlights
Special tour of the library's storage are for rare or fragile materials.
- The Sunday Librarian, Martha Bergmann, went above and beyond to provide us with a comprehensive understanding of resources available to us. She put tons of thought and passion into her presentation. Thank you so much!
- The group received a special tour of the library's storage facility!
- Got to see the library's map room which contains historic Sanborn Maps , posters, and historic property tax/property assessment records.
- The History Room's "protests and activism" primary documents file.
Suggestions
Getting an orientation to the history room from librarian Martha Bergmann.
- We should create a Neighborhoods Template!
- Hold editathons in other libraries, galleries, archives and museums (possibly also focus on unique archives at specific cultural institutions and/or focus on the communities that are served by them)
- Hold themed editathons (ex: WWII history)
- Hold editathons in coordination with particular groups (ex: League of Women Voters)
- Hold editathons in other locations, focusing on particular issues (ex: Swan's market, focusing on intentional communities; editathon at the Sudo Room, focusing on local hackerspaces (also, the building the Sudo Room is in has some pretty interesting history content waiting to be written up!))
- Eat-a-thons! Politely ask local eateries/business districts/food events for a taste of their delicious foods in exchange for high quality content on their businesses. YUM! :]
Cool history stuff
- In 2006, a UC Berkeley professor had his students create a 3D video game representation of the "Harlem of the West", West Oakland's famous post-war jazz and blues scene.
Press (yeah!)
Librarian Martha Bergmann shows participants the Sanborn Maps.
- LocalWiki blog post about the event (1/18/2013).
- "Weekly Oakland Wiki Edit-a-thons start at the History Room" (Oakland North, 1/14/12)
Announcements
Digitizing historical material with camera and portable scanner.
- Learn more about Oakland Wiki by attending a general meeting. We meet on Thursdays at 7pm in the Sudo Room!
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We will be meeting again next Sunday in the Oakland History Room, 1-5pm.
