GLAM/Newsletter/August 2025/Single
Wikipedia Pages Wanting Photos campaign 2025 in Albania and Kosovo
Wikipedia Pages Wanting Photos campaign 2025 in Albania and Kosovo
From August 1 to 31, 2025, the Wikimedians of the Albanian Language User Group (WoALUG) participated in the Wikipedia Pages Wanting Photos (WPWP) campaign to contribute to illustrating Albanian language Wikipedia articles with images from Wikimedia Commons.
On August 23, our community gathered online for a 3-hour editathon, and the contributors focused on adding photos and illustrating articles with images that reflected Albanian and Kosovar culture, natural heritage, people, etc. The photos we used came from the contributions of our community over the years through our contests like Wiki Loves Monuments, Wiki Loves Earth, Traditional Albanian Food Contests, and Photowalks organized locally.
By bringing different images into 136 Wikipedia articles, we helped make knowledge in Albanian more visual and accessible. This editathon highlighted the power of online collaboration within our community one more time. Even in a virtual format, participants shared knowledge, exchanged ideas, and worked together to make Albanian Wikipedia richer.
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.
Expanding Cultural Heritage in Brazil: School communities, Wikisource course, GLAM-Wiki Impact and Wiki Takes Alcântara
My School, Our Heritage: Expanding Cultural Documentation in School Communities
My School, Our Heritage is an educational and cultural initiative that aims to integrate free knowledge and the appreciation of local heritage into the daily life of Brazilian schools. With a focus on training students and teachers, the project encourages the documentation, photography, and georeferencing of schools that are themselves heritage sites, using collaborative platforms such as Wikimedia Commons, Wikidata, and OpenStreetMap. Carried out by members of the Wikimedia Brasil community and funded by the Creative Commons Open Culture Platform Activity Fund, the project promotes heritage education, digital culture, and the pedagogical use of open technologies and platforms.
Activities took place in the end of July 2025 in five schools across the Brazilian state of Bahia, resulting in the amount of 2,160 openly licensed images already shared on Wikimedia Commons, produced collectively by students, teachers, and school communities.
Instituto Nossa Senhora da Piedade – Ilhéus (BA)
The first school to join the project was the Instituto Nossa Senhora da Piedade, a private school of great historical and cultural relevance in Ilhéus, a city in the south region of Bahia. Activities with 11th-grade students combined lectures on heritage, copyright, and open tools, followed by a guided tour of the heritage-listed building. Students received basic training in photography techniques and carried out a systematic photographic survey of the school. Local professionals, including museologists Vitória Bispo Carvalho and Juliane Bento, enriched the discussions on cultural preservation. The effort produced 1,095 images documenting the school's architecture and spaces, now freely available to the public.
Colégio Estadual Ypiranga – Salvador (BA)
At the Colégio Estadual Ypiranga, located in Salvador, the project engaged both high school and technical tourism students. Workshops explored the educational use of mobile devices, open licenses, and documentary photography practices. Students conducted photo walks throughout the school, documenting both its interior and surroundings. A highlight was the integration with the tourism curriculum, sparking discussions on heritage as a driver of local development. The participants contributed 580 images in total to Wikimedia Commons.
Colégio Estadual Central da Bahia – Salvador (BA)
At the Colégio Central da Bahia, also in Salvador, activities involved tourism students and provided a space for in-depth reflections on heritage education, collective memory, and the decolonization of knowledge. In addition to photography practice, students discussed the role of images in constructing narratives about their territories. Guided tours, indoor and outdoor photo documentation, and critical debates highlighted the impact of tourism on heritage sites. The initiative resulted in 391 images enriching the school's presence on Wikimedia Commons.
Colégio Estadual Azevedo Fernandes – Salvador (BA)
Situated in Pelourinho, the Colégio Estadual Azevedo Fernandes had no prior visual presence on Wikimedia platforms. In a single afternoon, middle school students documented architectural and environmental features of the campus. Despite the limited time and mixed-age groups, the activity produced 63 images, marking the school's first step toward building an open digital heritage record.
Escola Municipal João Lino – Salvador (BA)
Another school located in Pelourinho was the Escola Municipal João Lino, hosted the project with a focus on empowering teachers and strengthening the school's institutional visibility. As the Colégio Estadual Azevedo Fernandes, this school also had no prior documentation on the Wikimedia platform; The July activities marked its first open contributions. Teachers received training on digital culture and open educational resources, complemented by a guided visit to the renovated facilities. The school's initial contribution was 28 images, forming its first digital heritage collection.
Overall Impact
In addition to the near 2,160 images already uploaded to Wikimedia Commons, the project has produced over 3,000 additional photographs that are, during August and September, being organized and prepared for upload, which will further expand the documentation and visibility of Bahia cultural heritage.
Throughout its implementation, the project also faced challenges such as unstable mobile connectivity, restrictions on cellphone use in classrooms, and initial difficulties with account creation for new contributors. These were addressed through collaborative strategies, including device sharing among students, adapting field activities, and direct support from the Wikimedia community, which provided guidance and temporary permissions to facilitate participation.
More than numbers, the initiative has sparked meaningful reflections on preservation, digital culture, and citizenship, fostering the leadership of teachers and students in producing free knowledge about their own communities and strengthening the connection between schools, local heritage, and global collaborative platforms.
Photographs are still being uploaded since the events. Other activities on this project are currently being developed. Keep updated clicking here.
Course: Introduction to Wikisource for Libraries, Archives, Museums, and Other Memorial Institutions
During the month of August, professionals from libraries, archives, museums and other memory institutions participated in "Introdução ao Wikisource para bibliotecas, arquivos, museus e outras instituições de memória", a training program designed to introduce Wikisource as a tool for open access, heritage dissemination, and collaborative networking. Organized by the Programa de Pós-Graduação em Gestão e Preservação do Patrimônio Cultural das Ciências e da Saúde (PPGPAT/COC) and the Instituto de Letras da Universidade Federal da Bahia (ILUFBA), and supported by Wikimedia Brasil, the course combined theoretical lectures with hands-on activities, enabling participants to engage directly with the platform.
Over the three sessions, the program covered the history and principles of Wikisource, its integration with the Wikimedia ecosystem, and its potential for use by cultural heritage professionals. Participants learned how to insert and organize works and documents, edit metadata, and practice collaborative transcription and revision of digitized texts, using selected collections from Fiocruz. The course also highlighted the role of Wikisource in building collaborative networks, with special attention to initiatives such as the MOOC Paleografia na Rede Wiki.
By the end of the course, attendees were able to recognize the strategic importance of Wikisource in preservation and access to historical documents, explore its applications in institutional and educational projects, and strengthen connections with the wider community of users dedicated to free knowledge and cultural heritage. In total, 43 people subscribed to the course.
Brazilian National Archives: Reaching 1 BILLION views!
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In May, Wikimedia Brasil announced the release of a new tool for measuring reach and impact of GLAM-Wiki initiatives. After some months of testing and fixes, we relaunched the tool, just in in time to announce that the GLAM-Wiki partnership between the Brazilian National Archives and Wikimedia Brasil has reached an staggering amount of 1.009.870.057 views in just shy of 8 years of partnership!
The medias uploaded through the partnership illustrate more than 12 thousand pages in Wikimedia projects, being the photograph of Michel Foucault, taken in 1974 by an unknown photographer during a series of lectures by the French philosopher at the Hospital das Clínicas of the State University of Guanabara, the most visualized of the collection available in Wikimedia Commons, with 28.8 million views since its upload.
We congratulate every volunteer involved in the upload, maintenance and enhancement of metadata on this and other collections Wikimedia Brasil helped upload and disseminate.
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Michel Foucault, 1974, with 28.842.181 views so far -
Maracanã Stadium, 1950, with 24.481.717 views so far -
Tom Jobim and Chico Buarque at the Festival Internacional da Canção, 1968, with 16.808.580 views so far -
Golden Law, 1888, with 11.358.935 views so far -
Jânio Quadros awards Ernesto Guevara with the Order of the Southern Cross, 1961, with 9.828.385 views so far
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Wiki Takes Alcântara
Wiki Takes Alcântara was an initiative to increase the amount / quality of information about the small city of Alcântara, settled in Maranhão, available in Wikimedia projects in Portuguese. Alcântara is a city in Maranhão that has been considered a National Heritage Site by IPHAN since 1948. In addition, in 2004, it was recognized for its cultural, historical, landscape, urban, and archaeological value. Walking through the streets of Alcântara is like strolling through an open-air museum, passing by architectural complexes that include old churches, ruins that represent the grandeur of the constructions that once existed there and housed the Maranhão export elite, and recognizing characteristic elements of the colonial period with its strong Portuguese influence, highlighting the city’s former economic importance as reflected by those who once lived there.
Another important point to highlight is that Alcântara is home to more than 200 quilombola communities, making it the municipality with the largest number of such communities among Brazilian cities. This is reflected in Alcântara’s culture, which can be observed in its festivities, cuisine, beliefs, handicrafts, and more. The city also carries Indigenous influence, as the territory once belonged to the Tupinambás people.
Recognizing the historical and cultural importance of Alcântara, the initiative Wiki Takes Alcântara was held in the city, aiming to increase both the quantity and quality of information about the municipality within Wikimedia projects. The activity took place within the context of the Wiki Loves Maranhão campaign, a project that seeks to shed light on the historical, cultural, and natural wealth of this great state and to improve its representation within the Wiki environment.
Between August 27 and 31, members of the professional team and volunteers from Wikimedia Brazil were present in the city to establish different connections and carry out various activities in order to showcase to Brazil and the world the beauty and richness of the municipality. There were conversations with cultural and heritage leaders, interviews with community members, filming sessions and dialogues with quilombola women who carry out a unique and centuries-old work with ceramics, as well as an immersion into everything Alcântara has to offer—its history, its culture, its mysteries, and its cuisine.
The activities of Wiki Takes Alcântara took place between August 29 and 31, covering a weekend. Hosted at Museu de Alcântara, which belongs to IBRAM (Brazilian Institute of Museums), Wiki Takes brought together museum staff, members of other institutions such as the Department of Culture and IPHAN, as well as members of the local community. All participants proved to be engaged, passionate about Alcântara, and open to learning more about Wikimedia projects in order to use them as tools to spread knowledge about the city.
During the event in Alcântara, the following activities took place:
- Photographic walk, covering both well-known sites in Alcântara as well as ruins located slightly beyond the usual tourist routes.
- Wikimedia Commons workshop, where participants were taught how to upload their images to the platform, including the photos taken during the walk.
- Wikipedia workshop, explaining the platform’s guidelines, rules, and pillars, enabling participants to use the tool effectively and correctly.
- Collection digitization workshop, where the Portable Museum Kit was presented, highlighting its ease of use and importance.
- Georeferencing of the municipality’s streets and roads.
- Discussion circles.
With the number of participants ranging from 12 to 15 in each activity, everyone involved showed curiosity and interest in better understanding how Wiki tools work and in learning how to share their knowledge and passion for the city and culture of Alcântara on the platforms, contributing accurate and truthful information, as well as photos captured through the eyes of those who live and breathe Alcântara.
The outcome of the event was highly positive and rewarding, further enriching Wikimedia Brazil’s experience in organizing this type of activity, always paying attention to and respecting the characteristics of each chosen city, as well as its community and the functioning of its institutions and daily life.
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Tiles of Museu Histórico de Alcântara -
Boats in Alcântara -
Collection digitization workshop -
Festa do Divino -
Carmo Church -
Wikipedia Workshop -
Cuxá rice, a tradicional dish -
Divino's House -
Mirititiua Fountain -
Matriz Square
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Partnership with Museu de Alcântara
On August 26, 2025, a partnership was signed between Wikimedia Brazil and Museu de Alcântara, a federal public institution linked to the Brazilian Institute of Museums (IBRAM). Located at Praça da Matriz in Alcântara, the Museum comprises three mansions that are part of Alcântara’s architectural complex.
Ranging from ceramics, furniture, fabrics, tools, to tableware, the Museu de Alcântara has more than 2,000 cataloged items. The Technical Cooperation Agreement signed between the two institutions aims at implementing the “GLAM of the Museu de Alcântara”, in order to upload the Museum’s media and metadata onto Wiki platforms, as well as to create the Museu de Alcântara's GLAM page. This will help disseminate its collection and facilitate access to it at both national and global levels, while also serving as a memory repository for the Museum.
Digitization starts at two more libraries in West Bengal
Digitization starts at Federation Hall Library, Kolkata
The West Bengal Wikimedians User Group has started a GLAM project with the century-old Federation Hall Library, Kolkata from August, 2025. A CZur ET 18 Pro scanner has been purchased and installed at the library. Amitabha Gupta, a Wikimedian from the region, is assigned to digitize the public domain collections of the library. He will be responsible for selection, digitization and uploading of the contents on Wikimedia sites. The paid position will be taken care of by a general support fund from this year from a portion dedicated to Bangla Wikisource.
Digitization set-up at Rolf Schoembs Vidyashram, Ghoshaldanga
As part of an ongoing GLAM project with Ghosaldanga Bishnubati Adibasi Trust, a trustee-run grass-root level organization serving Santal communities in the two villages of Ghosaldanga and Bishunbati situated in the district of Birbhum in West Bengal, India, the West Bengal Wikimedians User Group has installed a CZur ET 18 Pro scanner into the premises of Rolf Schoembs Vidyashram run by the organization. Two persons from the organization were trained to operate the scanner, who will be responsible for relicensing books on Santal literature, culture and heritage written in different languages by different authors from around the region.
Grant for GLAM Indonesia is open!
We are open to your most creative ideas!
Wikimedia Indonesia invites researchers, arts, culture & heritage practitioners, archivists, and communities working in the field of Indonesian galleries, libraries, archives, and museums to submit their ideas for the Grant for GLAM Indonesia 2025 program.
You can submit research, technology development, or creative projects that uphold the principles of openness in terms of access and dissemination. We are particularly keen to support projects that explore the intersection of local knowledge and digital technology for preservation and broader access.
This grant supports small scale project for Indonesian only. For more information about the program, please visit this Meta page.
Save the date
Submit your application by 3 October 2025.
From food festivals to PhD courses: Wikimedia in Italian academia
Academic collaborations in Italy
Two recent university initiatives in Italy have once again shown how Wikimedia projects can be successfully integrated into higher education and research training.
At the Politecnico di Milano, the ninth edition of the doctoral course Science, Technology, Society and Wikipedia (7–11 July 2025) engaged 38 PhD candidates of multiple nationalities in a full week of hands-on work with Wikipedia, Commons, and Wikidata. Supported by Wikimedia Italia trainers, participants created or improved 43 Wikipedia articles in English, Italian, and Chinese, contributed over 120 media files to Commons, and enriched numerous Wikidata entities. A public dashboard tracks the outcomes. Now in its ninth year, the course has become a reference model for integrating open knowledge practices into doctoral education, and its format has already inspired similar projects abroad.
Meanwhile, at the University of Bologna (Forlì Campus), the GIARA project (Gastronomy and Artificial Intelligence for an inclusive Romagna) included a blended seminar on Wikipedia writing (June–July 2025). Eight MA students in Specialized Translation, together with staff and international partners, focused on improving coverage of Romagnol gastronomy on the Italian Wikipedia. Through datathons and fieldwork at the Festa Artusiana food festival, they created or expanded 23 articles, many of them newly illustrated with images uploaded to Commons. All contributions are documented in a dedicated category.
Both initiatives demonstrate how Wikimedia projects can serve simultaneously as pedagogical tools and vehicles for public engagement, while generating high-quality, openly accessible content in specialized domains.
NZ species edit-a-thons, a scholarly article, a course, and Auckland Museum editors at Wikimania
New Zealand Species Edit-a-thons 2025
Three editors from Wellington, Ambrosia10, Stitchbird2 and Noracrentiss, obtained financial and administrative support from Wikimedia Aotearoa New Zealand to provide two edit-a-thons to train new and existing Wikipedia editors in improving New Zealand species articles. These events were held at Ōtari-Wilton's Bush on the 2nd and 9th of August.
The events were well attended with a total of 12 editors on the first day and 15 editors on the second day. These editors improved a total of 145 Wikipedia articles during the two events. More data on both events have been collated on the event dashboards which can be seen at this link for the 2nd of August and this link for the 9th of August events.
Images were also taken during the edit-a-thons by User:Quilt Phase and these, as well as a the slides created for the presentations given during the edit-a-thons, have been uploaded into this Wikimedia Commons category.
A report about these events has been prepared with information on both the achievements as well as recommendations on improvements to the event. This report has been submitted to the Wikimedia Aotearoa New Zealand committee and has been uploaded into the above Wikimedia Commons category.
Scholarly article published
The Commons Workflow as a short online course
In April Giantflightlessbirds ran a workshop on adding photos to Wikimedia Commons, Wikidata, and ultimately Wikipedia. It touched on Freedom of Panorama, moveClaim, DuplicateReferences, WikiShootMe, galleries, CropTool, the Volunteer Response Team, and negotiating a licence change. The response to the workshop was so positive he turned into an online webinar series, aimed at beginners who have done some Wikipedia editing or photo uploading but want to build their skills; Wikipedia editors who don’t really upload many photos, or Commons photographers who are not sure exactly what Wikidata is for. The course runs on the 1st, 8th, and 15th of October, 7pm NZDT (or 0600 UTC). The three sessions cost NZ$20 to register online.
Auckland Museum at Wikimania 2025
From August 5th to 9th, Wikimedian in Residence, Anjuli Selvadurai and Online Collections Data Analyst, Brodie Hoare attended Wikimania 2025 in Nairobi, Kenya. They both received full scholarships from the Wikimedia Foundation to travel and attend the annual conference and were joined a group of over 700 attendees from across the globe.
Anjuli and Brodie attended GLAM and technical related talks and shared the work being done at Auckland Museum with conference attendees. Brodie took part in the Hack-a-thon over the course of the conference and Anjuli attended presentations about GLAM, education and youth engagement.
In an exciting end to the conference, Anjuli’s poster about the Wikipedia Summer Student programme at Auckland Museum won best poster for excellent content and design.
Before heading to Wikimania, Anjuli hosted a presentation with The University of Auckland's Art History Society where they learnt about how Wikimedia platforms function in GLAM and taught students how to set up their own accounts and start editing!
Following the conference, Brodie (User:Dactylantha) presented at Wiki Mentor Africa: Tool Spotlight to speak on her hackathon experience and present improvements made to the tool worked on, along with explaining outstanding bugs to get the dev prototype operational for public deployment. The ISA Tool is a very important tool for GLAM involvement with Wikimedia Commons, and allows for crowsourced ‘depicts’ statements and captions to be added to GLAM content contributed to the Commons. Wiki Mentor Africa is a programme designed to engage and promote technical contributions within African Wikimedia communities.
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Anjuli opening the GLAM preconference -
Brodie at Hack-a-thon -
Anjuli painting the New Zealand and Tino Rangatiratanga flags
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Highlights from Wiki Heritage Fellowship and Policy Advocacy in Nigeria
Wiki Heritage Fellowship - From Virtual Learning to Real-World Impact
The Wiki Heritage Fellowship, a flagship program under the Wikimedia Nigeria User Group, has been an incredible journey of learning, collaboration, and cultural preservation.
After months of virtual classes designed to equip fellows with digital skills for heritage documentation, the participants finally had the chance to bring theory into practice with a visit to the Lagos State Records and Archives Bureau.
This visit allowed fellows to immerse themselves in the rich archival collections of Lagos State while applying the knowledge they had gained virtually. It was a powerful moment—seeing the fellows step into the physical world of heritage documentation after learning online for so long.
As the Wiki Heritage Fellowship draws to a close, we are eagerly looking forward to the impact the fellows will make through their contributions to open knowledge and cultural preservation in Nigeria.
Find more information through the metapage
Bini Architecture and Policy Advocacy in Nigeria’s GLAM Space
The GLAM (Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museums) environment in Nigeria has also been buzzing with important conversations around heritage identity and policy reform.
During recent advocacy sessions, Ceslause Ogbonnaya shared thought-provoking insights on Copyright Policy Reform in Nigeria, emphasizing how clearer and stronger legal frameworks can support the preservation and accessibility of cultural heritage.
Adding another layer of depth, Arc. Valerie delivered a compelling talk on the heritage identity of the Benin people, highlighting how architectural history and cultural legacy intersect to shape the identity of communities.
These conversations are paving the way for stronger collaborations between cultural institutions, policymakers, and the open knowledge movement—ensuring that Nigeria’s cultural treasures are documented, preserved, and shared with the world.
Wiki Loves Film – Collaboration with MakeDox Film Festival
As part of the GLAM program of Wikimedia MKD, we joined the global initiative Wiki Loves Film by establishing a collaboration with the MakeDox Creative Documentary Film Festival in Skopje,Macedonia. This collaboration aimed to document an important cultural event in the field of film and to bring freely accessible knowledge about it to Wikimedia platforms. MakeDox is one of the most recognized and long-standing documentary film festivals in Macedonia, with international reach and an important role in promoting creative documentary filmmaking. This year the film festival was from 21 August till 28 August. Despite its relevance, information about the festival was either limited or missing on Wikimedia projects. Through this initiative, we aimed to address that gap and to enrich the coverage of contemporary cultural events from our country.
During the festival, Wikimedia Macedonia appointed a Wikipedian in Residence who actively participated in the initiative. As part of his activities:
- A new Wikipedia article dedicated to the MakeDox Film Festival was created and expanded on Macedonian Wikipedia, providing background information, historical context, and details about its cultural significance. This ensures that the festival is now documented in an encyclopedic and reliable way.
- A set of photographs from the festival was uploaded to Wikimedia Commons, capturing the atmosphere of the screenings, events, and guests. These images are now freely licensed and available for use in illustrating Wikipedia articles and other Wikimedia projects, as well as for the wider public.
- The collaboration served as an opportunity to raise awareness among festival organizers and participants about the mission of Wikimedia and the importance of free knowledge.
This activity proved to be a valuable step forward in strengthening our GLAM partnerships with cultural and artistic institutions. By participating in Wiki Loves Film, Wikimedia MKD not only contributed to the global documentation of film culture but also highlighted the richness of cultural life in Macedonia. We see this as a promising start and plan to continue expanding collaborations with cultural festivals in the future.
You can see some of the photographs of the MakeDox film festival bellow:
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The opening ceremony -
The film festival volunteers -
Photo exhibition of Kiro Urdin, Suli -
Make CoProDox Forum 2025, Presentation of awards -
Kurshumli An before the final festival screenings -
The team
WikiChełmoński: When Wikipedia Becomes a Guide in the Museum
WikiChełmoński: When Wikipedia Becomes a Guide in the Museum
This summer, Wikimedia Polska, together with the National Museum in Poznań and the National Museum in Krakow, concluded WikiChełmoński – a nationwide editing campaign dedicated to the works of Józef Chełmoński, one of Poland’s most renowned realist painters. The campaign accompanied a major three-part exhibition organized by the national museums in Warsaw, Poznań, and Kraków.
The editing contest ran from April 9 to July 13, 2025, with participants creating and improving Wikipedia articles, translating them into other languages, enriching Wikidata, adding alternative text descriptions, and improving image metadata on Wikimedia Commons.
The results were announced on August 8, on the opening day of the Kraków exhibition, which remains on view until the end of November.
Key outcomes of the campaign:
- 59 Wikipedia articles about Chełmoński’s works are now available in Polish – more than double the number before the campaign.
- New international reach: articles were translated into English and Esperanto, making the painter’s work visible beyond Poland.
- Hundreds of edits on Wikidata and over 50 alternative text descriptions made knowledge about Chełmoński’s works more structured and accessible.
- Participants also contributed high-quality reproductions and improvements to Wikimedia Commons.
Our community
In total, 12 editors took part in the WikiChełmoński campaign. We sincerely thank all participants for their contributions.
- Special thanks go to the award-winners: Gower, EwkaC, Marta Malina Moraczewska, Zutkaikoty, Lansinho, Filifionka111, and PMG.
- We also thank the other contributors for their valuable involvement: EsMarkRod, Marta Tomczak MNP, Cyfrowabiblioteka, UserAgata, Julmar27.
A groundbreaking achievement
For the first time in Poland, Wikipedia became an official knowledge partner of a national museum exhibition. In Kraków, thanks to QRpedia, visitors can scan QR codes next to selected artworks and access freshly written Wikipedia articles. This innovation makes Wikipedia an integral part of the exhibition’s narrative and a direct guide to Chełmoński’s art.
By combining the expertise of museum professionals with the engagement of the Wikimedia community, WikiChełmoński not only enriched online resources but also brought free knowledge into the very heart of a national museum.
Help us share Chełmoński’s art worldwide
We now encourage the Wikimedia community to continue this work by translating the newly created and expanded Polish articles into English and other languages. This will help spread knowledge about Józef Chełmoński and his art globally.
- To get involved, please visit the WikiChełmoński campaign website.
If you still have questions, feel free to contact Kamila Neuman, Open Culture Manager at Wikimedia Polska.
Our partners
We would like to thank our partners for making this campaign possible:
- The National Museum in Kraków – with special thanks to Agata Jabłońska (initiator and originator of this collaboration) and Joanna Szytuła, who served as coordinators of the campaign on behalf of the Museum, showing long-standing openness and commitment that made the project a reality, and to Maria Płatos, an intern who supported the coordinating team.
- The National Museum in Poznań – with special thanks to Marta Tomczak, who coordinated the campaign on behalf of the Museum, for her trust, engagement, and for organizing the accompanying events: a guided tour of the exhibition with Dr. Maria Gołąb and a webinar with curator Dr. Arkadiusz Krawczyk.
We are also grateful to both museums for their continued collaboration and dedication to sharing knowledge about Józef Chełmoński with a wider public.
Program, Tours & Culture: Your GLAM Wiki 2025 Update
As GLAM Wiki 2025 is fast approaching, we're excited to share the latest updates on the program, cultural activities, and important dates you won’t want to miss!
Thematic panels
This year’s panels will bring together leaders from Wikimedia and partner institutions to discuss the future of cultural heritage, digital resilience, and community strength.
Building the Future of Cultural Heritage (PT)
- Giovanna Fontenelle (WMF)
- Dulce Fontes (Biblioteca Nacional Portugal)
- Laercia Insali (WM Guine Bissau)
- Tiago Lubiana (BHL)
- Carlos Silva (WMPT)
Digital Resilience
- Nat Baca (WMF)
- Doug McCarthy (Open Future)
- George Oates (Flickr Foundation)
- Lorena Aldana (Europeana)
- + 2 TBC
Community Resilience
- Fiona Romeo (WMF)
- Dee Harris (Creative Commons)
- Alice Kibombo (AfLIA)
- Eric Luth (WMSE)
- Flavia Doria (WELx)
- + 1 TBC
Tours
Ready to explore Lisbon’s cultural treasures? GLAM Wiki participants will be able to join 18 guided tours across museums, archives, libraries, galleries, cemeteries, monuments, and more. Tours run from 10:00 on 29 October to 18:00 on 2 November. Don’t miss this chance to connect with local heritage — and remember to do what Wikimedians do best: document your visits on Wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons, and Wikidata!
Tour sign-up opens 19 September. More info will be available [here].
Culture program
In addition to the panels and workshops, the conference offers plenty of opportunities to connect and celebrate with fellow participants:
- 30 October – Concert, Award Ceremony & Reception (19:00–21:00) – Goethe-Institut Lisbon
- 31 October – Film Screening (19:30) – Cinemateca Portuguesa
- 1 November – Closing Party (19:00) – Carpintarias de São Lázaro
Swags
Pack light, but don’t forget to bring a t-shirt, tote bag, denim jacket, or anything you’d like to customize! AtelierSER, the creative studio behind GLAM Wiki’s visual identity, will host live screen-printing sessions, so you can take home a unique piece of conference memorabilia.
Key dates
Make sure to save these important dates:
- 20/09 - Tour sign-up opens
- 22/09 - Public program published
- 29/09 - Volunteer Signup
- 30/09 - Registration closes
Spread the word!
Are you joining GLAM Wiki 2025? Show your excitement on social media and help us spread the word!
We’ve prepared a first batch of visual materials, featuring icons for each of the four thematic tracks of the conference:
- Collections beyond GLAM – exploring underrepresented collections, traditional knowledge, restitution, minority and underrepresented languages, decolonization, and the gender gap.
- Community and Sustainability – focusing on the Global GLAM Strategy, partnerships, governance, and community resilience.
- Emergency and Recovery – tackling challenges such as climate change, natural disasters, war zones, human rights, and culture-averse governments.
- Tools in Practice – highlighting innovative tools, good practices, AI, metrics, and Wikimedia’s tech infrastructure.
The “Participate” tab on the GLAM Wiki 2025 page lists some of the available materials and categories on Wikimedia Commons with all pieces. Feel free to use, remix, and share them across your channels!
Stay tuned for more updates, and see you in Lisbon! - Core Organization Team GLAM WikiCon 2025
BAM Hackathon, 3D for Cultural Heritage, Wiki Cite
BAM Hackathon
The BAM Hackathon in Mexico was supported by Wikimedia CH. BAM means Bibliothecas, Archivos, Museos. It was developed last year during the GLAM Hackathon in Lucerne together with Open GLAM. The focus lies on artistic production regarding the history of objects in Swiss museums. The final report describes the project in detail.
3D for Cultural Heritage
With 3D it is possible to reconstruct destroyed places and objects of recognized cultural heritage. The more wars we are having the more our society needs to be able to reconstruct heritage for not losing our history and for building a sustainable future. The project page shows the opportunities for cultural heritage.
Wiki Cite
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The Wiki Cite conference took place in Bern. The focus was on wiki technology and cultural institutions. Around 30 people participated in person coming mainly from Europe. The conference has been streamed and recorded. All talks will be made available at the project page. The conference was a cooperation between the programmes Innovation and GLAM.
Working towards more image sharing
Khalili Foundation
Most of the work this month has been on the Memory of the World International Register, which has its own report.
A volunteer has translated a short summary of the Khalili Foundation article into Persian.
The image The Giant 'Uj and the Prophets Moses, Jesus and Muhammad was nominated for Featured Picture status on Commons. It was described as "interesting" and "featurable" because of its subject matter, but did not pass the review because of technical quality (image resolution).
We have taken the decision to explore further sharing on Wikimedia of images from the Khalili Collections, given the great reception the existing 1,500 images have achieved. I have been given access to the archive of files so I can see which images are technically suitable and thematically useful, then make a proper request.
The Museums+Tech Conference rejected my proposal for a talk about using cultural collections to diversify Wikipedia, using the Khalili Collections as an example, but said the proposal scored highly and that I should submit to the next conference.
The GLAMOrgan tool reports 4,088,248 image views for August. The more reliable Commons API stats tool has not calculated a figure yet, and I've raised this problem with the GLAM team at the Wikimedia Foundation.
Wiknics
August 2025 Wiknic
San Diego Wikimedians held a Wiknic at Vacation Isle, San Diego, August 2025 Wiknic.
San Ysidro Salon
San Diego Wikimedians User Group hosted a salon at the San Diego Public Library's San Ysidro Library, San Diego/August 2025.
Seattle Wiknic
Seattle Wikimedians held a Wiknic at Washington Park Arboretum, Seattle/Wiknic/2025.
Minnesota Wikipedia Group
Minnesota Wikipedia Group held an online meetup, Minnesota/Online-August 2025.
Editing to the Beat Miami
Wikicurious held an event, Wikicurious - Editing to the Beat Miami, at the Miami-Dade Public Library..
News on BHL transition and updates on work by BHLWiki Working Group members
BHL transition
The Biodiversity Heritage Library has recently announced that it has obtained a new fiscal sponsor - the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIF). CLIF will provide legal and financial infrastructure support to ensure BHL can continue its work as a digital library providing access to biodiversity knowledge. This means BHL now has a new administrative and financial base with CLIR which will help manage contracts, finances, HR, and grant administration.
After the soft-close of the BHL's call for support, they have released this transition update.
BHL initiates regular harvesting of identifiers from Wikidata
After the initial ingest of identifiers from Wikidata into the BHL catalogue in the spring of 2022 (as discussed in this BHL blog), BHL has now begun to regularly harvest identifiers for relevant authors and publications from Wikidata. This will take place every three months.
As a result of this most recent ingestion of data from Wikidata 52993 new author identifiers have been added to the BHL catalogue and 10739 new title identifiers were also added.
A csv error report has been generated for identifiers needing review. Siobhan Leachman has been working on these issues attempting to resolve any that relate to data in Wikidata. A summary of the work currently being undertaken by her to help resolve these issues can be seen here.
Improvements to the BHL Image Explorer
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Tiago Lubiana, previously the BHL Wikimedian in Residence, has made improvements to the BHL Image Explorer ensuring this tool's speed is improved. He is also preparing a submission of the tool for consideration for the Ebbe Nielsen Challenge.
Wikimedia and Biodiversity Data session at Living Data 2025
The preliminary program for the Wikimedia and Biodiversity Data session at the Living Data 2025 conference is available. The session, organized by Tiago, will happen on Wednesday, October 22, and includes talks from several people from BHL and the BHL-Wiki group, including Rod Page, Siobhan Leachman, Giovanna Fontenelle and Mike Lichtenberg.
Diff article on Tiago's work as BHL Wikimedian in Residence
Tiago has published a Diff article detailing the work he undertook as the Biodiversity Heritage Library's Wikimedian in Residence. The article can be found at this link.
BHL2Wiki Tool
Rod Page has reported that he has been improving the BHL2Wiki tool which has been broken as a result of the Wikidata graph split. BHL2Wiki assists editors to create Wikidata items for publications held in BHL that have a DOI.
Steps towards a sustainable cultural commons
TAROCH
Panel discussion at Digime2025
TAROCH is a Creative Commons-led initiative to promote equitable access to public domain heritage in the digital environment. The Finnish local circle for TAROCH organized a panel discussion at the Digime2025 seminar, an annual event organized by the National Library of Finland and partners.
The discussion touched upon many aspects of public domain heritage from indigenous rights to preparedness in the changing political landscape. Brigitte Vézina, Director of Policy and Open Culture at Creative Commons, opened the session by introducing TAROCH. The panel discussion was moderated by Jessica Parland-von Essen, Development Manager (FAIR data, EOSC) at CSC – IT Center for Science, with panelists Rosa Ballardini, Professor of Intellectual Property Law and Vice Dean (research) at the University of Lapland, Faculty of Law, DIGICHer project, Hannu-Pekka Polttila, Head of Department, Archives and Information Services, Finnish Heritage Agency, Kimmo Tuominen, National Librarian, Professor, National Library of Finland, and Tomi Ahoranta, Archivist, National Archives of Finland, secretary of the Memory of the World National Committee. The recording of the event and the panel discussion in English will be available in October on the event page.
The Finnish advocacy circle
The Finnish TAROCH circle has currently four members: The National Library is represented by Director of Services Johanna Lilja who initially became involved through IFLA. Director of Music Archive Finland Juha Henriksson is extensively networked through Time Machine, Europeana, AI4LAM, common European data space for cultural heritage and the European Cultural Heritage Cloud. Senior Expert Ilmari Jauhiainen at Federation of Finnish Learned Societies brings in the strong tradition of open science through initiatives such as Open Science in Finland and EOSC, the European Open Science Cloud initiative, which also highlights the link to the existing UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science. AvoinGLAM also represents Open Knowledge Finland which is part of the Open Knowledge Network and hosts Creative Commons Finland and participates in the Creative Commons Global Network.
Cultural Rights in the Digital Environment
Creative Commons and IFLA will host a panel discussion titled “Cultural Rights in the Digital Environment” as a side event of the upcoming MONDIACULT 2025 cultural policy conference to highlight the initiative. Tapani Sainio, Senior ministerial advisor at the Ministry of Education and Culture Finland, will bring perspectives from Finland to the discussion on how cultural rights are shaped and challenged in today’s digital world. The event will take place on Zoom on September 17, from 14:00 to 15:00 UTC. Registration is open to all interested participants.
Finland joins the Memory of the World challenge
Finland joins the public writing challenge related to the UNESCO Memory of the World International Register. AvoinGLAM supports Wikimedia Finland in the preparations of the local challenge. Edits to articles in the Finnish, Karelian, Northern, Skolt, and Inari Saami Wikipedias are included in the local contest, and they also contribute to the international challenge.
It is noteworthy that one of the items inscribed from Finland in the Memory of the World International Register is the Archive of the Skolt Sámi village of Suõʹnnʼjel in the Pechenga region, dating back to 1601. The Skolt Sámi population was evacuated in 1939 during the Second World War to Sevettijärvi–Näätämö area in Finland after losing their native lands in Pechenga, and their archive was moved to the National Archives of Finland in Helsinki. In 2012, it was returned to the Skolt Sámi community, which then donated it to the Sámi Archives for preservation.
Join the Finnish local challenge on Finnish Wikipedia 15–30 September!
Oulu Löyly insights
The survey results are out for the Oulu Löyly Community engagement survey!
Oulu Löyly will be a think & do fest to investigate community heritage in the global cultural commons, organized in the context of the European Capital of Culture in Oulu 8–10 June, 2026. The event also hosts Wikimedia meetups of Finno-Ugric Wikipedia communities and regional chapters.
The following insights to the question What is the most important goal, problem, or obstacle facing digital cultural heritage over the next two years? have been compressed from the extensive responses with the help of GenAI. You can see the responses in full in the survey results.
- Threats to the cultural commons – Political neglect, commercialisation, monopolistic tech, and authoritarianism erode cultural heritage and its sustainability.
- Resource gaps in digital heritage – Limited funding, skills, and tools leave institutions unable to sustain or develop digital culture.
- Barriers to openness – Legal, technical, and regulatory hurdles, from copyright to AI rules, threaten open access and collaboration in digital heritage.
- Access and engagement – Poor usability, low-quality digitization, and outdated platforms hinder cultural heritage, while better accessibility, reuse, and participation remain key goals.
- Global infrastructure and interoperability – Open, decentralized, and user-friendly platforms can empower worldwide collaboration, preservation, and ethical use of digital cultural heritage.
- Future-ready preservation – Building decentralized, resilient systems with strengthened skills, standards, and funding ensures cultural heritage remains accessible and protected against obsolescence and deliberate loss.
- Trust and authenticity – Strengthening cultural heritage organisations as reliable stewards and ensuring digital content’s authenticity will be crucial in an AI-driven, polarised information landscape.
- AI opportunities and risks – Harnessing AI for discovery, description, and contextualisation of cultural heritage, while managing risks and supporting minority language tools.
- Equity and representation – Ensuring diverse, ethical, and community-driven preservation combats bias, digital homogenization, and the erasure of marginalized cultural heritage.
- Community and sustainability – Empowering communities, documenting living heritage, and applying standards ensures cultural and ecological sustainability in a technology-driven future.
Co-creating GLAM Wiki
Content Partnerships Hub
AvoinGLAM is contributing to the Content Partnerships Hub initiative by strengthening the renewed GLAM Wiki pages as a resource. We will help build robust pipelines to record learning resources and data about GLAM activities in the global Wikimedia community in Metabase, and showcase this information on Metawiki. We plan to make the GLAM Wiki pages a go-to destination for capacity building materials and a showcase of GLAM Wiki activities across the world.
Collective intellingence at GLAM Wiki 2025
We will set up a collaborative map of commitments and ideas for GLAM Wiki resources at the upcoming GLAM Wiki 2025 conference in Lisbon. Everyone is invited to share resources they know or have produced, and make commitments to the collaborative work.
GLAM Wiki 2025 hackathon
AvoinGLAM is coordinating the GLAM Wiki hackathon at GLAM Wiki 2025. The hackathon is designed to fit the needs and makeup of the GLAM Wiki community. No technical skills are required and everyone’s expertise is welcome! The goal is to begin shaping a roadmap that addresses the service needs of GLAM Wiki contributors on Wikimedia platforms. We invite volunteers, affiliates, partners, and representatives from the Wikimedia Foundation Product & Tech team to join the collaborative work. The day starts with a joint discussion, followed by facilitated group sessions. Participants are welcome to join in at any time, every contribution counts!
A pivotal month
This is the eleventh 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.
Wiki challenge
The Memory of the World challenge is running this month, and has already started attracting contributions. Participants can win points for improving Wikipedia or Wikidata representation of the Memory of the World International Register. The Khalili Collections and UNESCO are providing some beautiful books on the subject of cultural diversity as prizes.
The volunteer community has already been hugely helpful, translating the instructions. Special thanks to Susanna Ånäs of AvoinGLAM who helped set up the translatable page and who did the Finnish translations. Clara did the German translation and has also been coordinating prizes for the winners of the challenge from the UNESCO side, such as books on documentary heritage and the Memory of the World Programme, as well as printed tote bags. Susanna has already put a lot of data about intangible cultural heritage into Wikidata and we have started talking about how we can combine these two data sets to make educational introductions to the culture of every country.
Publicity
Clara also worked on improving the UNESCO project hub, explaining how Wikimedia volunteers can use the UNESCO Memory of the World (MoW) International Register as a valuable resource to enrich and expand Wikipedia content. She linked the Beginner’s Guide to the UNESCO MoW International Register as an introduction for new contributors. In addition, she is learning to edit the online register and is working on enhancing its usability.
Clara published an article for the International Day for People of African Descent, highlighting several items from the MoW Register that preserve the histories and experiences of African peoples and their diasporas and mentioning the Khalili Foundation/UNESCO project.
Wiki work
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Martin has added 773 location properties to the Wikidata data set, based on the spreadsheet constructed by Hannah. A "location property" is a statement in database code that says that, for example, The Slave Trade and Slavery Records in Mauritius (1721-1892) are located in the National Archives of Mauritius. As an example of what this makes possible, if we look at Reasonator (a Wikidata-driven application) profiles of the National Library of Thailand or National Archive and Library of Bolivia, and scroll down, it shows the MoW inscriptions that are located (at least partly) at those institutions. We can ask Wikidata for the institutions that host the most inscriptions and get this image gallery. Martin has also continued to add locations to the International Register list articles on English Wikipedia. Now all inscriptions (up to 2023) have locations.
Some locations could not be added to the database because there was no representation of the cultural institution in Wikipedia or Wikidata, such as the Cape Town Archives. This list is itself a valuable resource for the Wikimedia community address under-represented cultures, so will be published separately.
Wikimedia UK ran a campaign to encourage people to fix broken links to the MoW international register. 22 high-traffic Wikipedia articles have had their links updated, including Ludwig van Beethoven, Parliamentary system, and Mass production. Some other high-traffic English Wikipedia articles have had MoW links added where they did not mention the register before, including Karl Marx and The Communist Manifesto.
On Commons, Martin made hundreds of edits categorising images: the category Memory of the World Register, which was ambiguous, is now Category:Memory of the World International Register. Some mis-categorised images have been added or removed as appropriate.
Martin, Clara and Yahia (of the UNESCO MoW team) had an online meeting so that Martin could show how the International Register is represented on Wikidata. Clara demonstrated her new skill by improving information about the Nebra Sky Disk. Yahia explored how Wikidata is being used to conserve endangered languages.
New articles on Wikipedia
- Chuvash: Memory of the World
- Italian: Laurentian Codex
- Czech: The Wizard of Oz
- Latvian: Warsaw Confederation
- Latvian: Hereford Mappa Mundi
Page and image views
The GLAMorgan stats tools says that images related to the MoW International Register had 72.2 million views this month.
List articles about the MoW international register had 18,314 views this month: a similar number to last month.
Wikisource Reader app released on Google Play Store
Wikisource Reader mobile application has been developed and released for Android users at the Google Play Store to allow book-lovers to read books, which are completely proofread and transcluded on the digital library websites of Wikisource. The Github repo is here and a website for the app is also created. The metadata of the books are fetched directly from Wikidata and strictly follows the bibliographical book model of Wikidata. The app is also dependent on WSindex API, which was built specifically to fetch books for the app, WS export tool to generate Epubs, Myne app for user interface and Readium mobile for the actual reading experience.
The app currently hosts more than 7850 books in 24 language Wikisource editions like Assamese, Bangla, Catalan, Czech, Danish, English, French, Gujarati, Hindi, Indonesian, Italian, Javanese, Malay, Malayalam, Marathi, Polish, Punjabi, Spanish, Sundanese, Swedish, Tamil, Telugu, Ukrainian and Vietnamese.
The app has the following features
- Clean and beautiful user interface
- Dark and Light theme
- Option to browse free e-books in multiple languages
- Option to import books from non-Wikisource external sources
- Option to filter books in different literary forms
- Option to download books for offline access
- Option to store, read and delete books from library
- Option to jump through chapters
- In-built e-book reader
- Customization of font color, size and weight
- Light, Dark, Sepia and customized color mode for reading
- Adjustment of page margins
- RTL and LTR support
- System default typeface along with options for Literata, Sans Sarif, IA Writer Duospace, AccsiibleDfa and OpenDyslexic typefaces
- Option to choose among left, right and justified text alignments
- Customization of line height, paragraph indent, paragraph spacing, word spacing and letter spacing
- Options to highlight, underline and annotate texts
- Option to bookmark
- Text to Speech in different languages with customizable speed and pitch
The development of the app was initially financially supported by Centre for Internet and Society until March 2025, who also host the app on Google play store now. The app is now developed and maintained in volunteer capacity.
September's GLAM events
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