New partnership at national museum

Israel Museum, Jerusalem, begins partnership with Wikipedia

Robert Indiana's LOVE in Hebrew at the Israel Museum sculpture garden.

A partnership between Wikimedia Israel and Israel Museum began in late July. The Israel Museum, located in Jerusalem, is Israel's national museum, serving as the home of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Shrine of the Book, and artifacts discovered at Masada. This new partnership, titled WikiGLAM IMJ was developed by Dr. Allison Kupietzky, Collections Database Manager of the museum. Kupietzky's interest in GLAM partnerships stemmed from hearing Liam Wyatt present about partnerships, including his experience at the British Museum, at the Europeana Open Culture conference in 2010.

At a preliminary meeting on July 19, 2011, Wikimedia Israel met with representatives of the Israel Museum and the decision was made to develop the project. A follow-up meeting took place August 10, following Wikimania, with Liam Wyatt, local and international Wikipedia volunteers and senior staff of the Israel Museum. A pilot project has been developed to create 50 new articles about Israeli artists in English and Hebrew Wikipedias, as well as multiple other languages. The project's first success story was with artist Larry Abramson, whose article has been translated into five languages since its creation. In its first month, the pilot has produced 15 of the 50 new articles about Israeli artists in English Wikipedia.

The first of its kind in Israel, Yair Talmor will serve as the part-time Wikipedian-in-Residence at the Israel Museum, Jerusalem.

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