GLAM/Newsletter/April 2025/Single
Wikipedia Event for International Roma Day 2025
On April 12, 2025, Wikimedians of Albanian Language User Group (WoALUG) marked International Roma Day by organizing an event to increase the visibility of the Roma community on Albanian Wikipedia.
This gathering brought together 6 participants from the Roma community and non-Roma civil society organizations from Peshkopia and Bulqiza in Albania. Among them was Klaudjo Taho, Specialist at the Directorate for Social Protection and Inclusion, part of the General Directorate of Civil Protection at Tirana Municipality, who contributed insights on social inclusion and the representation of Roma people in public institutions.
Throughout the event, participants discussed ways to improve and create articles that reflected the culture, history, and contributions of the Roma community in Albania. They worked on translating existing content and enriching biographies. This initiative aimed to empower Roma contributors and strengthen the presence of Roma-related topics on Wikipedia to promote free knowledge that includes everyone.
Social media
- We have a public channel on WhatsApp of Albanian Language if you want to join and discuss Wikimedia projects.
If you want to see more about our activities, you can:
- Like our Facebook page, follow us on formerly Twitter or X or Instagram.
Highlighting Feminist and women's histories and a Wiki Day at the South Australian Museum
From Archives to Wikipedia: Documenting Australian Feminism Through Radical Acts
The "Radical Acts" project at the State Library of Victoria, funded by Wikimedia Australia, focuses on enhancing the representation of Australian feminist activism within Wikipedia and archival records. It involves two Wikimedians-in-Residence who have created new biographies and improved existing articles, aiming to combat gender bias and illuminate the contributions of Australian feminists. By linking Wikipedia content with library resources, the project increases visibility of feminist movements and enhances access to significant historical materials.
Kerrie and Ellie have utilised SLV’s extensive collection of Australian feminism and Women's Liberation materials during their research. They have worked both remotely and onsite to gather information from various resources, including books from the La Trobe and Redmond Barry Reading Rooms, and items from the SLV Manuscripts collection.
New articles include notable Australian figures and organisations such as:
In addition to creating new articles, Kerrie and Ellie have enhanced existing entries by improving textual content, adding citations, and incorporating multimedia resources. They've implemented the “archives at” property (P485) in relevant Wikidata items, linking them to available papers at the SLV.Read the full report on the WIkimedia Australia website.
A Wiki Day at SA Museum: From Photos to Facts
On April 12, 2025, Wikimedia Australia hosted an exciting meetup at the South Australian Museum, where attendees participated in a hands-on workshop titled "Wiki Day at SA Museum: From Photos to Facts." Led by Dr. Mike Dickison, a seasoned Wikipedian and Wikimedian at Large for Aotearoa New Zealand, the event aimed to empower participants to contribute meaningfully to Wikimedia projects. Throughout the day, participants explored the Wikimedia Commons workflow, learning how to take photos and turn them into valuable contributions on Wikidata and Wikipedia. The workshop included practical sessions on:
- Organising and uploading images to Wikimedia Commons, which involved creating new categories.
- Enhancing and creating entries on Wikidata, including the addition of relevant images.
- Utilising uploaded images to improve Wikipedia articles.
Mike Dickison's expertise was invaluable as he guided both seasoned editors and newcomers alike, helping them sharpen their skills and deepen their understanding of how their contributions to Wikimedia projects help increase open knowledge.
The workshop concluded with lunch and a feedback session, where participants had the opportunity to share their thoughts and express interest in future Wikimedia initiatives. The event not only enhanced participants' skills but also provided an opportunity for the Adelaide editing community to get to know one another and connect with Wikimedia Australia staff and initiatives. See the meet up page.
Celebrating Women's Achievements: The Know My Name Campaign in 2025
In 2019, only 18% of biographies on Wikipedia were about women. Fast forward to late 2024, and thanks to dedicated efforts, that percentage reached 20%.
In response to this imbalance, Wikimedia Australia joined the "Know My Name" campaign in partnership with the National Gallery of Australia in 2020. This initiative aims to enhance the understanding and appreciation of work by Australian women artists, addressing their historical underrepresentation.
Since then, the campaign has hosted a series of successful edit-a-thons each March, coinciding with International Women’s Day. These events are not restricted to urban centres; they travel across regions to various locations hosting the "Know My Name" exhibition, ensuring that women's contributions to art are recognised nationwide.
On March 15, 2025, a recent edit-a-thon was held at the National Gallery of Australia Research Library, where 15 enthusiastic editors—many new to the process—gathered to add numerous women artists to Wikipedia. Read the full post on the Wikimedia Australia website.
Campaign to document the 2025 Falla monuments in Valencia
More than 2000 photos related to the festival were uploaded to Commons
ETNO, the Valencian Museum of Ethnology, organized a Wiki Takes Fallas on Sunday March the 16th, with help from Amical Wikimedia and Wikimedia España. The aim was to photographically document the maximum number of Falla monuments. About twenty volunteers, most of them from Valencia, but also from Barcelona and Madrid, participated in the photographic safari throughout the morning, divided into five routes. The final result can be seen in the category Wiki Loves Falles 2025 by Commons, with a total of 2048 photographs uploaded. Have a look at them!
The work focused on the city of Valencia, where the Fallas monuments from 164 different commissions were documented (there are more than 350 in the whole city), including all the main ones. In previous years the maximum number of documented monuments was around 40. One of the routes also moved through some of the nearby villages affected by the flooding last autumn, such as Paiporta and Benetússer, photographing eight fallas. In addition to the monuments, the wikipedian volunteers also uploaded other pictures related to the festival, such as pyrotechnic spectacles or traditional sweets, that are now also documented in Commons. In addition, the photographs uploaded within this campaign are also part of the international Wiki Loves Folklore contest, which closed on March 31st.
Fallas are held on the occasion of Saint Joseph and since 2016 are included in the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) of Humanity of UNESCO. The monuments are build in the streets and can be admired for five days, but they are finally burned on the night of March 19th.
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Some of the volunteers who participated in the Wiki Takes Falles. Photo: Ponscor CC BY 4.0 -
One of the falla monuments built in this last edition of the festival. Photo: Rafa Esteve CC BY 4.0
Wikidata and Research
The programme for the “Wikidata and Research” conference is now available online. Scheduled for 5–6 June 2025 at the University of Florence, this event is convened by a volunteer Scientific Committee in collaboration with Wikimedia Italia and the University of Florence.
“Wikidata and Research” will examine Wikidata’s role as both an open-data infrastructure and a research tool, showcasing its integration into scientific workflows, open-data management and semantic-web ecosystems. As the primary structured-data repository underpinning all Wikimedia projects (Wikipedia, Commons, Wikisource, etc.), Wikidata’s CC0 licence ensures unrestricted reuse and seamless linkage with other open datasets.
Over two days of plenaries and parallel tracks there will be:
- Scholarly presentations on novel research applications of Wikidata
- Project demonstrations from GLAM institutions and research groups
- Hands-on workshops and collaborative editing (in both Italian and English)
- Panels and open discussions on methodology, tooling and community practices
A pre-conference meetup (in Italian) will take place on 4 June at the University’s Social Sciences Library, allowing participants to network and discuss early insights.
This conference is designed for researchers and data scientists leveraging Wikidata in their work, GLAM and cultural-heritage professionals exploring structured data, Wikimedia volunteers and community members and any advocate of open data reuse in academic and cultural contexts.
Open Collection Highlights
Project "Open Topstukken" ("Open Collection Highlights") - Maastricht University and Radboud University
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Maastricht University and Radboud University (Nijmegen) are two Dutch universities located in the south-east of the country. Both universities' libraries hold rich and extensive special collections (Special Collections Radboud University / Special Collections Maastricht University). Until the end of August 2025, both universities collaborate on a project named Open Topstukken (Open Collection Highlights) in which 15 collection highlights from each university library - a selection of rare books and manuscripts - are selected, digitized, and published, and also made available on Wikidata.
Both universities use Omeka S as Linked Open Data collection management software. In the Open Topstukken project, software is developed to automatically transfer metadata about the universities' collection items from Omeka S to Wikidata.
Wikimedians Daan van Ramshorst and Sandra Fauconnier work for the project as Wikidata specialists. You can see the first uploaded collection highlights and read more about the project on its project page on Wikidata: Wikidata:WikiProject Open Topstukken Maastricht University and Radboud University
Women in Architecture, BHL, and the Commons Workflow
Women in Architecture Walking Tour and Edit-a-thon April 2025
A+W, Auckland Museum and Wikimedia Aotearoa NZ, as part of the New Zealand Women in Architecture Wikiproject, collaborated on a two day walking tour and edit-a-thon over the weekend of 5-6th April.
Day one consisted of a walking tour led by GButtersnap around the iconic Parnell Baths. In 2003, Jane Matthews of Matthews & Matthews Architects led the conservational redevelopment of the baths. The facilities were refurbished while still maintaining their 1950s lido charm. The tour covered the history of the baths, its social importance and highlighted its interesting design features. Participants had the chance to wander the baths and were encouraged to take photographs.
The walking tour of 14 then made their way to Residium Design + Building Centre were they were taken through a step by step tutorial led by Winnieswikiworld and Pakoire of how to upload their images to Wikimedia Commons.
The edit-a-thon took place in the Auckland Museum research library, where a group of 11 participants learnt from Pakoire, how to edit, draft and create Wikipedia articles.
Participants worked across Wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons and Wikidata. At the end of the weekend there were 21 articles created, 54 articles edited, 704 total edits, 31.6K words added, 136 references added and 158 commons uploads!
BHL Day 2025
New Zealand editor Ambrosia10 jointly presented with Sabine von Mering from the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin at the Biodiversity Heritage Library Day 2025 event. They presented on the Wikidata and Biodiversity Data Standards work they and their collaborators have been undertaking on research expeditions and how vital the Biodiversity Heritage Library is for this work. The slides and script for the presentation can be found at this link and a recording can be found on Youtube at the 10min30s point.
For more information on this work see Wikidata WikiProject Research Expeditions.
The Commons Workflow
Strengthening Cultural Heritage through Partnerships and Knowledge Sharing: Insights from World Heritage Day in Nigeria
Heritage Institutional Partnerships
In celebration of World Heritage Day, Nigeria made remarkable strides in heritage preservation and open knowledge dissemination through collaborative efforts with key cultural institutions. These partnerships, carefully curated and strategically developed, underscore the nation's growing commitment to preserving its tangible and intangible cultural assets. The World Heritage Day event in Nigeria served not only as a commemorative platform but also as a nexus for intellectual exchange, fostering synergy between digital initiatives, academic contributions, and practical heritage management.
At the core of this initiative were partnerships with leading institutions that brought diverse expertise into the spotlight. The International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS Nigeria), a pivotal player in heritage conservation, played a central role in mobilizing professionals, scholars, and cultural advocates. Alongside ICOMOS, Legacy 1995, an organization renowned for its custodianship of key railway heritage sites, including the Jaekel House and Ilukwe House, lent historical depth to the event. These sites are not only architectural landmarks but also repositories of colonial and post-colonial Nigerian railway history.
Further support came from The Architects' Resourcery, an institution that integrates architecture, heritage advocacy, and sustainability through interdisciplinary storytelling. Known for pioneering the concept of "archimentaries"—documentary narratives rooted in architectural and cultural heritage—the organization enhanced the interpretive power of the event.
Digitization efforts were spearheaded by TECRES Technologies, a digital heritage firm dedicated to preserving Nigeria's archives through technology. Their collaboration ensured that discussions around cultural preservation were not merely theoretical but backed by scalable, tech-driven approaches for digital continuity. Adding a visual and brand storytelling layer to the initiative was JEFHEX Studios. Responsible for crafting the brand identity of the celebration, JEFHEX Studios contributed compelling visual representations and graphic design elements that enriched public engagement and representation of Nigeria’s heritage narratives in accessible formats.
These collaborations underscored a broader movement toward inclusive, participatory knowledge-sharing in the GLAM (Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museums) community in Nigeria. By pooling resources from diverse sectors—academic, technological, architectural, and cultural—the initiative made heritage more visible and understandable to the public. The celebration of World Heritage Day transformed from a ceremonial gathering into a digitally enriched, interdisciplinary learning experience.
The webinar, which lasted two hours and fifteen minutes, convened professionals, scholars, and enthusiasts from across the nation. Attendees included members of the Nigerian Institute of Architects (NIA), the National Commission for Museums and Monuments (NCMM), representatives of ICOMOS Nigeria, and a vibrant mix of heritage stakeholders in the built environment. Together, they explored the intersections between law, conflict, disaster resilience, and cultural preservation, reinforcing a culture of collective learning and policy dialogue.
The success of the event highlights the critical role institutional partnerships play in advancing open access to heritage knowledge. Beyond just celebration, the event exemplified how Nigerian institutions can collaborate to provide practical solutions and education, addressing long-standing gaps in heritage policy, conflict mitigation, legal protection, and digital documentation.
Legalities, Conflict, and Disaster-Resilient Heritage
The second major thrust of the World Heritage Day webinar focused on thematic knowledge-sharing under three essential tracks that align with ICOMOS’s international framework: legal protection of cultural heritage, conflict-resilient heritage, and disaster-resilient heritage. These sessions, delivered by subject matter experts, brought fresh insights into some of the most pressing challenges facing Nigeria's heritage sector today.
Dr. Afolasade Adewumi, a seasoned heritage legal expert, anchored the session on legal aspects of cultural heritage. Her presentation laid bare the regulatory frameworks governing heritage preservation in Nigeria. She delved into the complexities of existing laws, highlighting areas where legal ambiguities have hindered effective protection of heritage sites. Dr. Adewumi explained the intricacies of the National Heritage Laws and provided practical interpretations of statutes concerning ownership, conservation rights, and the role of federal and state institutions. Participants engaged actively with her talk, raising questions around enforcement gaps, heritage site designation processes, and community inclusion in legal discourse. Dr. Adewumi responded with clarity, suggesting reforms that prioritize local stakeholder engagement and align Nigeria's laws with international treaties.
Meanwhile, Professor Wariebi Brisibe delivered a deeply reflective session on conflict-resilient heritage, drawing from both his academic expertise and field-based heritage work in the Niger Delta. His presentation, titled "Battle Scars: Heritage Sites in Zones of Conflict," emphasized the role of wartime architecture and conflict-associated structures as potent carriers of collective memory. He explored case studies including the Opobo war houses, fortified structures that played a strategic role during historic conflicts in the Niger Delta region. These buildings, rich in symbolic and historical relevance, have witnessed armed resistance, trade diplomacy, and social evolution.
Another highlight from his presentation focused on structures operated by women during World War II, shedding light on the often-overlooked contributions of women in wartime logistics and civil society infrastructure. These sites, frequently unlisted and lacking official recognition, stand today as quiet witnesses to eras of turmoil and resilience.
Professor Brisibe emphasized that "these war heritage structures may be nameless, but they are not faceless." Their anonymity in official records does not diminish their cultural weight. They hold profound legacy value, reflecting the lived experiences, struggles, and triumphs of the communities that built, used, and preserved them. His call to action was clear: Nigeria must begin to identify, document, and protect these intangible traces of historical conflict, especially as many such sites exist quietly across towns, villages, and cityscapes.
This nuanced view of conflict-resilient heritage as inclusive of unmarked, community-held structures broadens the heritage discourse and invites GLAM stakeholders to expand the scope of what is recognized and preserved. Professor Brisibe’s contributions struck a powerful chord, especially among practitioners working in grassroots heritage contexts where official maps and inventories often exclude vital local narratives.
The third thematic focus, disaster-resilient heritage, was led by Dr. Adetunji Olufemi, who presented a data-driven analysis of natural and human-induced disasters affecting heritage sites in Nigeria. His talk explored floods, fire outbreaks, and urban encroachment, all of which pose serious threats to built heritage and archaeological sites. He highlighted recent incidents, presenting data from satellite imagery and field surveys to show the extent of loss. Dr. Olufemi introduced participants to global frameworks like the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction and proposed integrating these principles into national heritage protection strategies. He emphasized preventive measures, such as risk mapping, community disaster education, and climate-resilient architectural designs for restoration.
Each of these presentations not only provided high-level insights but also filled important knowledge gaps in the Nigerian GLAM and heritage community. The Q&A sessions proved particularly impactful, offering real-time problem-solving and clarifying long-standing confusions in policy and practice. For example, questions around jurisdictional overlaps between local and federal heritage bodies were addressed with legal precision by Dr. Adewumi. Meanwhile, Professor Brisibe tackled the complexities of post-conflict reconstruction of cultural landmarks, and Dr. Olufemi fielded questions on integrating disaster risk data into preservation planning.
Collectively, these expert contributions forged a bridge between theoretical heritage protection and its real-world application. The result was a well-rounded, practical, and forward-thinking conversation that energized the heritage community in Nigeria. It reinforced the idea that the future of heritage conservation lies in a multi-pronged approach: one that considers legal integrity, resilience to conflict, and readiness for disaster, while also being grounded in technological innovation and open knowledge dissemination.
Charting the Future of Collaborative Heritage Knowledge
The World Heritage Day webinar in Nigeria was more than a commemorative event—it was a convergence of vision, scholarship, and collaborative action. By uniting heritage professionals, government bodies, technology partners, legal experts, and visual storytellers, the celebration became a powerful template for what an inclusive, interdisciplinary approach to cultural preservation can achieve.
The partnerships forged—with organizations like ICOMOS Nigeria, Legacy 1995, The Architects Resourcery, TECRES Technologies, and JEFHEX Studios—are proof that the GLAM ecosystem in Nigeria is evolving into a more cohesive and impact-driven network. These collaborations are already bearing fruit in the form of digitized archives, engaging heritage visuals, legally informed preservation strategies, and enriched educational dialogues.
The thematic tracks—legalities, conflict, and disaster resilience—addressed some of the most critical yet under-discussed aspects of heritage management. Dr. Afolasade Adewumi’s legal insights provided clarity and direction on heritage governance; Professor Wariebi Brisibe’s exploration of hidden war heritage emphasized memory, identity, and recognition; and Dr. Adetunji Olufemi’s disaster analysis presented a strategic path for risk-informed heritage protection.
Together, these contributions filled notable knowledge gaps within the Nigerian GLAM community, fostering open access to ideas and tools that can guide future policy, research, and practice. Participants left with not just information but inspiration—empowered to implement change within their own contexts, whether in museums, archives, cultural NGOs, or architectural firms.
In an age when cultural heritage faces increasing threats from urbanization, environmental change, conflict, and neglect, the 2025 World Heritage Day celebration in Nigeria stood out as a beacon of proactive engagement. It modeled how heritage professionals can move from passive custodianship to active advocacy—building systems that are legally sound, conflict-aware, disaster-ready, and technologically supported.
As the GLAM community continues to expand in Nigeria, these partnerships and dialogues will be essential to ensuring that cultural heritage is not only preserved but made accessible, understood, and appreciated across generations.
Wikimedia MKD's new GLAM collaborations and activities
Wikimedia MKD is constantly expanding its network of partnerships and collaborations. The organization aims to establish contact and establish cooperation with a large number of institutions and organizational units that have the will and potential to help create free content and make access to information free for the entire Macedonian reading and educational-scientific public.
The latest formalized cooperation comes with the Museum of Macedonia. On 02.04.2025, Wikimedia MKD and the Museum of Macedonia signed a Memorandum for collaboration. This memorandum confirms the efforts of the two organizations to cooperate together, and more specifically the Museum of Macedonia with its potential to help Wikimedia MKD in achieving its set goals - free access to free content and knowledge. Through cultural, scientific, historical, museum and socio-political materials, the Museum of Macedonia will provide significant assistance and support for achieving the goals of the organization.
The Director of the Museum of Macedonia, Mr. Borce Topukovski, and the Executive Director of Wikimedia MKD, Ms. Snezana Štrkovska, signed this important document for Wikimedia MKD at the premises of the Museum of Macedonia, which significantly increases the potential for Wikimedia MKD's activities.
Also, this year, “Crafts and Folk Costumes” is the central theme of the GLAM programme of Wikimedia МKD. Besides decrease the content gap, the programme aims to document, textually and visually, the crafts and traditions that are in danger of being forgotten.
On April 15, 2025, Wiki Club Veles, under the mentorship of Professor Lili Arsova, organized an educational workshop at the “Kovač Goce” blacksmith shop, located in the Prevalec neighborhood in Veles. The Wikipedians had the opportunity to meet Goce Grujov – the last active blacksmith in Veles, who inherited the craft from his father Aco Grujov, the initiator of this family tradition in 1970. During the workshop, the young Wikipedians got a closer look at the techniques of forging, the types of tools used – from nails and different types of hammers to tools specially made for shaping metal. Grujov demonstrated the entire process – from heating to shaping, which the participants enjoyed.
The next day, on April 16, the second workshop was held, this time in Vane’s pottery workshop in the Kojnik neighborhood of Veles. There, the students had the opportunity to follow the entire process of making pottery products – from processing the clay, shaping it on a pottery wheel, to the final firing in a kiln that reaches temperatures of up to 900°C. Every tool, every movement and every detail was explained with enthusiasm. At the end of this adventure, the potter Vane presented the students with a unique, handmade product – a symbolic gift that will remind them of the experience and knowledge they have gained.
With these activities, Wikimedia MKD not only strengthens the skills of young Wikipedians and stimulates their interest in cultural heritage, but also actively contributes to its preservation through free and accessible content on Wikipedia. The documentation and promotion of the crafts represent an investment in the collective memory of a society.
What's up in GLAM in Poland
WikiChełmoński: Where Free Knowledge Meets Museum Research and Exhibition
Wikimedia Polska, in collaboration with the the National Museum in Poznań and the the National Museum in Krakow, has just launched WikiChełmoński – a nationwide editing campaign dedicated to the works of Józef Chełmoński, one of Poland’s most acclaimed realist painters. The campaign is a response from the free knowledge community to one of the largest research and exhibition initiatives undertaken by Polish national museums in recent years.
The campaign runs from April 9 to June 29, 2025, and includes an open editing contest on Wikipedia and Wikidata.
Prepared jointly by the National Museums in Warsaw, Poznań, and Kraków, the exhibition began with a record-breaking success in Warsaw, attracting unprecedented public interest. It is currently on view in Poznań, where the Wikimedia campaign is in full swing. The final stage of the exhibition will open in Kraków, where the outcomes of the campaign will be integrated directly into the museum space.
Through QRpedia, museum visitors in Kraków will be able to access selected Wikipedia articles – created or improved during the campaign – about five key paintings on display. This marks the first time Wikipedia is an official knowledge partner of a national museum exhibition in Poland.
The campaign focuses on:
- creating and expanding Wikipedia articles on Chełmoński’s artworks and recurring natural motifs,
- translating selected entries into other languages,
- enriching Wikidata and improving image metadata,
- adding alternative text descriptions for accessibility,
- and supporting Wikimedia Commons with high-quality reproductions.
Although the contest concludes on June 29, we are planning a final event for participants in early September in Kraków, including a guided tour of the exhibition and a community meeting.
By bringing together museum professionals, researchers, and the Wikimedia community, WikiChełmoński illustrates the power of collaboration in making cultural heritage more visible, contextualized, and accessible to all.
More information can be found on the WikiChełmoński campaign website.
Wikipedia Workshop at the National Museum in Poznań
On April 25, a training session was held at the the National Museum in Poznań for the museum staff, focused on improving and expanding Wikipedia articles. The workshop was led by Agata Stadnicka – a volunteer and Wikimedian in Residence at the Czartoryski Library of the National Museum in Kraków, Marcin Szwarc – an experienced Wikipedian and Wikipedia administrator, and Kamila Neuman from Wikimedia Polska.
The workshop was designed to help participants gain practical editing skills, with theory limited to the necessary minimum. It was also a response to a common situation encountered by museum professionals – noticing missing or incorrect information on Wikipedia, feeling frustrated, but not knowing how to fix it. This training aimed to turn that frustration into action by equipping participants with the skills to make improvements themselves.
During the three-hour session, participants learned the basics of editing Wikipedia, including how to add references, improve existing content, and create their own user accounts. They edited various articles related to art – both those selected collaboratively and individually.
The event was part of the WikiChełmoński editing campaign, organized in partnership with the National Museum in Poznań and Kraków.
Many thanks to all participants for their active involvement and to the Museum for its openness and hospitality!
Special thanks to Marta Tomczak from the Museum for her support and coordination.
WikiChełmoński in Action! An Inspiring, Curator-led Tour and Meeting at the National Museum in Poznań
On April 26, participants of the WikiChełmoński editing campaign gathered at the National Museum in Poznań for a special event – a curator-led tour of the exhibition Józef Chełmoński 1849–1914, conducted by Dr. Maria Gołąb, Director of the Museum and curator of the exhibition.
The tour offered new perspectives and helped participants better understand Chełmoński’s work in a broader context, including the artist’s life story and the curatorial concept behind the exhibition’s arrangement. It was an important step in deepening the knowledge we collaboratively build on Wikipedia.
After the tour, participants met in the Museum’s Library with Anna Gruszecka, Head of the Library, and Kinga Sibilska from the Education Department. The library impressed us not only with its rich collection of sources on Chełmoński’s work, but also with its atmosphere – a charming space perfect for focus and reflection. The meeting provided a valuable opportunity to exchange ideas, discuss future plans, and talk about the next steps in the campaign.
We sincerely thank all Wikipedians who joined the event, as well as the National Museum in Poznań for the inspiring conversations and warm welcome!
The guided tour was also a great opportunity to connect with our partners – in addition to staff from the National Museum in Poznań, the event was attended by representatives of the the National Museum in Krakow, who traveled to Poznań especially for the occasion. We truly appreciate their presence and engagement!
Scholarships and Call for Sessions Proposals for GLAM Wiki 2025 will open soon: Stay tuned!
Scholarships and Call for Proposals for GLAM Wiki 2025 will open soon
You may be aware that Glam Wiki 2025 is scheduled to take place in Lisbon from October 30th to November 1st, as a partnership between Wikimedia Portugal and Wiki Editoras Lx, with funding support from WMF.
Currently, the CoT along with the Scholarships and Programming Committees are working to finalize all the details of the application processes. This effort is aimed at providing the smoothest experience for our attendees, as we know these processes can be stressful for some.
In light of this, we kindly appreciate your continued understanding as the scholarship application period and call for proposals will begin in the coming weeks.
We hope to see you in Lisbon!
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.
FemNetzCon 2025; GLAM Meeting Biel/Bienne; Digi Archive
FemNetzCon 2025
The FemNetzCon is the yearly women conference in the German language Wiki world that was realized at the local community space called temporärhaus in Neu-Ulm offering lots of workshops, from ceramics and soldering to electronics and a stitching machine. After discussing what editgroups need and how that can be improved an online editing group where people from FemNetz can participate was found. User:S.v.Mering who works with wikidata at the natural science museum explained how plants were called after women and how they researched items for the Women Genera Project. The international network of scientists helps collecting and adding missing data as women and minorities had been overseen. The colonial conext is just at the beginning of exploration. User:S.v.Mering presented the concept of Linked Open Data and showed how she worked with it in the GLAM field.
GLAM Meeting Biel/Bienne
The regular meeting focussed on how we perceive faces. As face recognition is now used everywhere including mobile phones we were talking about how behaviour patterns are changing. Artificial Intelligence is not a future model but already used and changing how we perceive each other. What does it mean to work virtually and how is it changing the way we talk with collegues? Thinking about face expressions and geometry we were discussing how face masks during Covid changed private and work lifes. Faces today are also subject of operations. People try to look perfect and take the risk of operations changing their eyes, lips or skin. The French artist Orlan shows surgery operations as her art. What does it mean to change one's appearance? How does the perfect illusion of the face shape our everyday lifes? Do we need to be aligned to the pefect symmetry with perfect proportions? Symmetry with perfect proportions is linked to the golden ratio, a mathematical method of calculation.
Digi Archive
Archiving means organizing documents and make them available for research. Switzerland has lots of records on the second world war that help understanding and reconstructing the history. The last decades in Europe have been marked by the absence of wars until 2022. In all these years a huge body of art could develop that might be relevant to future generations containing research and insights on humanity. At the end of their lives artists leave their body of work behind. Well known artists are shown in cultural institutions and collections but all the other artists that also have a great body of work are forgotten. Some art work might not be able to be shown in institutions as for Example landart or art in public spaces. The idea of creating digi archives for contemporary art is to also safe art work that is not shown in cultural institutions.
Mapping Museums / Art in Arabic
Putting UK collections on the map
Between January and March, Andy Mabbett (User:Pigsonthewing) was Wikimedian in Residence with the Museum Data Service, making improvements to coverage of accredited museums in Wikipedia, Wikidata and OpenStreetMap, and linking Wikidata and OSM representations of museums to each other. He also helped the MDS find descriptions of museum collections in Wikipedia articles, which the MDS are reusing on their website, thanks to Wikipedia's open licence. You can read the MDS blog post about the project.
Khalili Foundation
There has been a bumper crop of volunteer translations of articles relating to the Khalili Collections.
- The Khalili Collections article translated into Arabic
- The Anis al-Hujjaj article translated into Arabic
- The Khalili Collection of Aramaic Documents article translated into Arabic
- The Musa va 'Uj article translated into Arabic
- The Khalili Collection of Islamic Art article translated into Arabic
- A summary of the Khalili Collection of Enamels of the World article translated into Arabic
- The Khalili Collection of Spanish Metalwork article translated into Arabic
- A summary of the Khalili Collection of Japanese Art article translated into French
- The Khalili Collections article translated into Urdu
These new articles bring the total number of articles created in this project to 77, covering a total of 17 languages. Arabic has become the third most-common language for articles related to the Khalili Collections, after English and Persian.
In addition, there are new articles this month that, while not translations of articles produced by this project, use images shared by the Khalili Collections:
- An Urdu article about the Codex Parisino-petropolitanus
- An Urdu article about the Blue Quran
- A Chinese article about Suba', the 34th chapter of the Qur'an
- An Arabic biography of the artist Mo'en Mosavver
This is not a complete list as it is hard to track new uses of images across all versions of Wikipedia.
There are no new image uploads or new Featured Images this month. The stats server gives 4,662,534 image views for April.
Most of the work this month has been on the UNESCO Memory of the World international register, which has a separate monthly report.
The winners of the Commonwealth Peace Prize (created by the Khalili Foundation) are now mentioned in Wikipedia's List of peace activists and their articles (James Wuye and Muhammad Ashafa) now mention the prize. Other edit requests related to the prize are in a queue awaiting approval.
For the Interfaith Explorers educational site, I have been reviewing the images that were uploaded by the Wiki Loves Folklore campaign and making notes on which images can be used to illustrate Dharmic religions.
April meetings
FAIRly Obscure Anthropology Edit-a-thon
University of Michigan, University of Maryland, and Wikimedia DC held a a workshop, FAIRly Obscure Anthropology Edit-a-thon 2
New Beer's Eve
Minnesota User Group held a meetup, April 2025 Minnesota User Group Meeting
Wildfire Edit-a-thon at Pasadena Heritage
Los Angeles Wikimedians held a meetup, Wildfire Edit-a-thon at Pasadena Heritage.
San Diego
San Diego Wikimedians held a meetup, San Diego/April 2025.
Los Angeles Times Festival of Books
WikiPortraits covered the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, c:Category:2025 Los Angeles Times Festival of Books.
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Claudette S. McLinn, Gayle Forman, Abdi Nazemian, and Ioi Zoboi -
Carolyn Kellogg, Katie Kitamura, and Rachel Kushner -
Big Sean and LZ Granderson
Wikimedians in Residence Exchange Network
Wikimedians in Residence Exchange Network held a Google meetup. They are developing Best practices for contribution.
BHL-Wiki Working Group April monthly highlights
Agenda, notes & recording of the April 2025 meeting
The agenda for the meeting can be found at this link. The agenda document gives notes taken during the meeting, action items, as well as the dates of future online meetings and the zoom link to join. Links to the recordings of the previous meetings are also given.
The next BHL wiki working group is anticipated to be held on Monday 19th of May at 18:00 UTC.
BHL Annual Meeting Update
Ambrosia10 and JJ Dearborn, the BHL data manager, gave an update to the group on the BHL Annual Meeting held in Berlin including a link to the BHL Wiki Working Group Annual Report slides and presentation, the meeting zoom recordings and the Google folder link to presentations at the meeting. JJ also discussed generally the sustainability of the group giving a link to the executive order relating to the Smithsonian and the meeting notes regarding BHL from the Annual meeting.
During the BHL Annual meeting the BHL Day 2025 public event took place. A recording for all the presentations given during BHL Day 2025 can be found on Youtube.
BHL press release regarding withdrawal of hosting of BHL by the Smithsonian
Ambrosia10 alerted the group to the upcoming press release by BHL regarding the news that as at 1 January, 2026, the Smithsonian will no longer host the administrative functions of BHL.
Impact & Metrics for the 3 Wikimedia Foundation editing events
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Giovanna Fontinelle discussed the impact and metrics gathered from the three recently held BHL image editing events held with the support of the Wikimedia Foundation. During the events 165 images were added to articles in the three language Wikipedias - Portuguese, French and Spanish. The aim was to reuse 10% of the 3,000 images however the participants reused 5.5%.
Giovanna went on to discuss the lessons learned from holding these events. Key takeaways included the need for support of affiliate networks to help promote the event. The registration and zoom platform for the event was discussed as barriers to entry with the suggestion events be streamed on Youtube or a similar platform. Gio emphasised that promotion is really important. She also mentioned that focussed working groups as well as a Wikimedian in Residence are more productive than these editing events.
BHL acknowledgement of harmful content
It was agreed by the group that the BHL acknowledgement of harmful content be placed on the BHL Meta Wiki page and that a link to this statement be placed on each of the three BHL project pages for English Wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons and Wikidata be added.
Living Data 2025
The BHL Wikimedia in Residence Tiago Lubiana is co-organising a session at the Living Data 2025 conference titled Wikimedia and Biodiversity Data: A Mutualistic Relationship in the Open Knowledge Ecosystem. He encouraged members of the group to submit proposals for this session.
Wikimedian in Residence update
Tiago Lubiana, the BHL Wikimedian in Residence, updated the BHL Wiki community on the progress he continues to make in his role. See his biweekly updates at this link.
Surging forward in Spanish and Arabic
This is the seventh monthly report of the ongoing work to improve the representation of the UNESCO Memory of the World international register on Wikimedia projects. This is supported and fully funded by the Khalili Foundation, with the involvement of UNESCO and Wikimedia UK.
Hannah Drummen has been employed by UNESCO as a cultural consultant to work on this project. Martin and Hannah are working together to prepare a data set for import into Wikidata (see below) and fixing minor errors both in Wikipedia and in the MoW online register.
- While 496 MoW inscriptions have pages in English in the current online register, not all of them have counterparts in French. Hannah is creating French pages for 14 inscriptions that lack them. Both the English and French links will be added to Wikidata so that Wikipedia communities can choose the link they prefer.
- Another task Hannah will be doing is contacting host institutions to get images for the inscriptions that lack them.
In the last month, 74 new inscriptions have been added to the Memory of the World International Register, raising the total to 570. (So just as we got the lists on Wikipedia up-to-date, they became out of date.) It will take time for the 74 new entries to appear in the MoW online register, so for now we are concentrating on getting Wikipedia lists up-to-date for the 496 inscriptions as of 2023.
Data import
Martin has captured some basic data from the online MoW register into a Google Sheet. Hannah and Martin are filling this out with facts extracted from the nomination forms and gradually converting it for use on Wikidata. The aim is to get a basic data upload done in May, publicise this to engage Wikimedia volunteers in creating articles or task-lists, then do a more detailed data upload in a few months, including the 74 new additions, and with more detail.
New Wikipedia articles
Wikimedia UK has been working with a volunteer translator to create three new articles in Spanish Wikipedia. I have been finishing up these articles and a new English article, fixing broken links and citation errors.
- English: Westerbork film
- Spanish: The Cabinet of Folksongs
- Spanish: Icelandic census of 1703
- Spanish: Woodblocks of the Nguyễn Dynasty
- Papiamento: Memory of the World
- Arabic: Terengganu Inscription Stone
- Arabic: Baysonghor Shahnameh
- Arabic: Chronicle of the Descendants of Timur
- Swedish: Ravensbrück archive in Lund
- Turkish: Hereford Mappa Mundi
- Basque: Mappa mundi d'Albi
Wikipedia improvements
Martin has been through 59 English articles about MoW inscriptions, adding up-to-date descriptions and links about the Memory of the World recognition. For a few articles in Turkish, Spanish, Dutch, and German, this work involved replacing broken links. Martin also improved the list articles Memory of the World Register – Asia and the Pacific, Memory of the World Register – Latin America and the Caribbean, and Memory of the World Register – Europe and North America to fix errors, add more location information and enable more consistency. The result is dozens more incoming links to the articles about the register, and more links from Wikipedia to the UNESCO site.
Page views on Wikipedia
There has been a surge of interest in list articles about the MoW International Register: 27,155 views this month (across all languages) compared to 16,940 views last month.
Publicity
The UNESCO site now has a set of pages about the Khalili Foundation collaboration which will be continually updated as the project progresses.
The Khalili Foundation published a blog post summarising the project so far.
May's GLAM events
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