GLAM/Newsletter/April 2025/Contents/Serbia report
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GLAM Highlights from Serbia
In the past three months, Wikimedia Serbia has carried out a range of strategic and content-focused GLAM activities, contributing to both the local and global Wikimedia community. Through successful campaigns, international collaborations, tool experimentation, and preparations for long-term partnerships, we have strengthened our role as a reliable partner in the field of open knowledge and cultural heritage.
Strengthening global engagement: #1Lib1Ref Campaign
One of the most significant highlights of this period was the success of the Serbian Wikipedia in the . With a total of 15,322 references added by 21 editors, the Serbian community ranked first globally, ahead of Indonesian and Romanian Wikipedia editions. The campaign’s top contributor was Nikolina Šepić, while three additional Serbian editors – Vanilica, Gzanag, and Ljiljana Sundać – also secured spots in the top ten globally.
Wikimedia Serbia played a key role in the global coordination of this campaign. In collaboration with the Wikimedia Foundation, Wikimedia Argentina, and the Let’s Connect working group, we are actively participating in planning and organizing an international Learning Clinic to evaluate the campaign’s outcomes and gather feedback from participants and organizers worldwide. This work not only supported the visibility of the Serbian community's success but also helped shape the future direction of the campaign.
GLAM and Wikidata: The "GLAMorous Wikidata" Campaign
In March 2025, Wikimedia Serbia launched a local thematic campaign called GLAMurous Wikidata, focused on improving data about cultural and heritage institutions on Wikidata. Over the course of one week, seven participants worked intensively on enhancing the quality and quantity of GLAM-related data. The campaign resulted in:
- 701 edited items
- 2,500+ individual edits
- 56 newly created items
The campaign encouraged participants to deepen their understanding of structured data and its importance for discoverability and reuse of cultural content. To recognize their contributions, the most active participants will be awarded book vouchers as tokens of appreciation.
This campaign served as a successful model for engaging volunteers in the often overlooked, yet vital, work of data curation and linked open data within the GLAM sphere.
Exploring OpenRefine for better file management
To support the release and structuring of cultural content, Wikimedia Serbia began exploring the use of OpenRefine, a tool for data clean-up and batch editing, especially relevant for large-scale file uploads and Wikidata management. This exploration marks an important step toward improving workflows around batch processing of metadata, which is often needed in GLAM collaborations involving digitized collections.
By testing and documenting the tool’s capabilities, we aim to empower our collaborations with better solutions for handling cultural data more efficiently and accurately.
Laying the groundwork for future collaborations: Wikipedian in Residence
During this reporting period, we also dedicated time to preparing new Wikipedian in Residence projects. These preparations include identifying suitable partner institutions, drafting project frameworks, and refining learning materials for future WiR's. The goal is to continue fostering long-term collaborations with libraries, museums, archives, and theaters, based on mutual learning and content enrichment.
These efforts are part of our broader strategy to ensure sustainability and continuity in the GLAM program, with a focus on institutional capacity building and meaningful knowledge sharing.
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