GLAM/Newsletter/February 2022/Single
Traditional Food Photography
Traditional Food Photography
Wikimedians of Albanian Language User Group kicked off the 2022 activities agenda with the Traditional Albanian Food Photography Contest. The contest aimed to upload traditional food and beverages pictures to enrich Wikimedia Commons which will illustrate Wikipedia’s articles with images on upcoming campaigns. This campaign started on February 7 and lasted for 3 weeks. To promote it and gather many people to take part in this photography contest, our Group reached out to partners to share the social media posts. In addition, we wrote newsletters that were published on online portals and newspapers, and representatives from our Group appeared on TV and radio to talk about the contest, other running activities, and upcoming campaigns. We also approached different Photography and Cuisine Facebook Groups to post our campaign on their pages to attract as many people as we could.
We created the contest page on Wikimedia Commons and its own category to have the participants read the campaign's information, rules and upload their pictures. We also provided a video in Albanian created by our group on how to upload images on Wikimedia Commons. For more details, check out some information here.
Participants have uploaded 151 pictures on Wikimedia Commons. The pictures represent traditional Albanian food and beverages from different regions in Albania and Kosovo, highlighting the timing and period when people eat the food.
Social Media: wikimediashqip.org, @sqwikimediansug, FB/sqwikimediansUG, ig/sqwikimedians_ug YoutubechannelWikimedians of Albanian Language User Group
Wikimedia Australia launches a new GLAMR training program
There are so many opportunities for galleries. libraries, archives, museums and record management (GLAMR) to grow their impact through Wikipedia and other Wikimedia platforms.
Over the last six months, Wikimedia Australia has collaborated with New Zealand Wikimedian Mike Dickison (User:Giantflightlessbirds) to develop a special four-part training program for GLAMR organisations in our region to explore opportunities for how Wikimedia platforms and projects can extend their collections and engagement.
Training developer Mike Dickison says the modules explore the philosophy of the movement as well as practical exercises to start participants on their editing journeys. "I wanted to create a session that was short, worked over Zoom, had clear learning goals, and made participants do at least one short activity so they stayed actively engaged," he said.
This training was designed to be run by a Wikimedia Australia team of facilitators, but can be presented in a self-guided manner by any organisation using the downloadable resources. Slides and notes are provided for each module, and each is designed to be presented over one hour.
- Slide examples
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Clay Shirky's motivation for editing (Module 1) -
Adding a COI box to your User page (activity from Module 2) -
Digitisation with Wikisource (Module 3) -
How Wikidata is used in Wikipedia (Module 4)
Module 2 - How Wikipedia WorksWikipedia is a ubiquitous part of the Internet, but where did it come from, and why do we rely on it so heavily? Run by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation, Wikipedia is maintained not by an editorial board but by hundreds of thousands of self-organising volunteers. Along with its sister projects Commons and Wikidata it now underpins the world’s knowledge ecosystem, but has significant biases and gaps – and, famously, anyone can edit it.
Module 3 - Organisational Wikipeda StrategySince so many of us rely on Wikipedia, it’s important to know how it works. We’ll lift the hood and look at how edits are made, how vandalism is detected and removed, and how Wikipedia tries to stay neutral and reliable while avoiding “edit wars”. You’ll learn how to assess the trustworthiness of an article by who’s edited it, and how to make changes yourself. Anyone who clicks the edit button and improves the encyclopaedia is a Wikipedian, and at the end you will be too.
Module 4 - Working with WikidataAnyone can edit Wikipedia, but should they? Attempts to use it for marketing or spin can end in disaster; but used well, Wikipedia is a powerful tool for disseminating information. Learn how your organisation can reach an enormous audience by being part of the Wikimedia community: the different strategies range from simply using an open licence for your images to working with a Wikipedian in Residence.
Wikidata is a free and open knowledge base that can be read and edited by both humans and machines. Launched in 2012, Wikidata acts as central storage for the structured data of its Wikimedia sister projects including Wikipedia, Wikivoyage, Wiktionary, Wikisource, and others. Learn what Wikidata is, explore key concepts and vocabulary, how it relates to other Wikimedia projects and see what makes it so powerful.
Explore the GLAMR Training Program in full here.
Shakespeare is dead - Contemporary playwriting festival; Public Domain Day Belgium 2022 (10/02) report
Two Edit-a-thons in Leuven
A list of 21 authors was compiled for which we could write a missing Wikipedia article during the Shakespeare is dead festival on contemporary playwriting in Leuven on 23 and 24 February. We were able to photograph 4 playwrights who where present at the festival and write 4 new articles.
Public Domain Day 2022 Belgium (10/02) report
On 10 February 2022, Belgium celebrated the seventh edition of Public Domain Day in Belgium with a well-stocked online programme and 68 candidate attendants. It welcomed speakers from Creative Commons, the Royal Library of Belgium, MoMu Fashion Museum of Antwerp, KOERS Museum of Cycle Racing, Design Museum Ghent, the Collections of Ghent and meemoo. Wikimedia Belgium also launched its Wikimedian in Residence project, which will help institutions to make their collections accessible on Wikimedia platforms.
Good practices for rights information - Creative Commons
Camille Françoise from Creative Commons came to talk briefly about the good practices that her organisation is focusing on in 2022 – in particular the distinction between CC0 and the Public Domain Mark, which are often confused with each other even though they’re actually different. CC0 is a waiver that allows the work that you own the copyright for to be placed in the public domain. The Public Domain Mark, on the other hand, is neither a licence nor a waiver but a communication tool – it’s a label or tag to indicate that a work is in the public domain. One current poor practice is using CC0 even when the work is no longer protected by copyright. Despite the fact that it’s the institution’s intention to indicate that they want to make the object openly accessible, it constitutes an unjustified claim to rights. In this case, the good practice is to use the Public Domain Mark.
OpenGLAM showcase
The OpenGLAM showcase is an annual platform for the heritage sector to present their progress in making public domain collections openly available. It’s the ideal moment for them to share how they have made their public domain collections accessible and facilitated their re-use.
Meemoo kicked things off with an update on the uploading of images from the collection from the Museum of Fine Arts in Ghent (MSK). In autumn 2021, meemoo welcomed Sofie Van Bever as an Information Management graduate intern from Artevelde University of Applied Sciences to help us make progress in uploading collections – in line with meemoo’s KPI to make all public domain images available in the artinflanders.be images database. The MSK were very positive about this initiative and Sofie took care of preparing the images. However, because the Wikimedia Commons image upload tool, Pattypan, wasn’t working until two days before Public Domain Day, the upload wasn’t completed until February 2022.
This update was also a good opportunity to highlight new features in Wikimedia’s tooling. In addition to the new Pattypan upload tool release, following the implementation of structured metadata – to improve searchability in the image database – the images database has now also had a query (or search) service since February 2022, which you can use to look up 80 million images on Wikimedia Commons using SPARQL queries. Try the query service here. You’ll find several examples by clicking on the ‘examples’ button.
Wikimedia is also choosing to integrate more of its tooling in the OpenRefine data cleaning tool. Over the course of 2022, not only will it become possible to upload structured metadata to images on Wikimedia Commons; you will also be able to upload via OpenRefine – greatly streamlining the whole upload workflow.
As it does every year, the Royal Library of Belgium has delved into its collections to see which makers’ works will find their way to the public domain in 2022. Sébastien Hermans presented a selection of under-catalogued etchings, prints and drawings by three Belgian artists who died in 1951, which have now all been catalogued and digitised in advance of Public Domain Day. Finally, items were created on Wikidata for 69 works, with images uploaded to Wikimedia Commons:
Hermans’ colleague Piet Janssens then showed their selection of 50 under-catalogued tourism guides by Maurice Cosyn. Public Domain Day helped these guides to be catalogued and uploaded to Wikimedia Commons in 2021-2022. The collection consists of 50 covers and 101 maps. These walking routes described by the pioneering Cosyn laid the foundations for modern trails, including several ‘Grote Routepaden’ (Long-Distance Trails). The Wikidata items that represent these guides are now also linked to Wikidata items on existing walking trails.
Following the Royal Library of Belgium, it was the turn of meemoo colleague Ellen Van Keer. She explained how meemoo is updating the process for displaying rights information on artinflanders.be. The reason for revising this policy is that metadata provided for the art and heritage image database often contains inconsistencies. The guiding principles we aim to follow for this are:
- ‘to be as open as possible’ by avoiding new rights claims on digital surrogates of public domain work, in accordance with the EU Directive and what has actually already been adopted in Belgian jurisdiction;
- ‘to be as closed as strictly necessary’ where there is a legal basis.
What this means, exactly, is that meemoo is moving away from using CC0 when a Public Domain Mark is more correct. They’re also getting rid of the copyright symbol – to encourage name attribution. When artinflanders.be is contractually obliged to make a work less open, meemoo no longer uses the CC-BY-NC-ND licence (to enforce that no derivatives can be made and that commercial use is not allowed). There is no legal basis that allows the use of this licence for public domain content because there is no copyright. In this case, it is more correct to use the ‘NO COPYRIGHT - CONTRACTUAL RESTRICTIONS’ rights label. If it concerns a three-dimensional piece of work, then copyright does apply for its reproduction under Belgian law, however. Because artinflanders.be contracts often ask for attribution, the best option is currently a CC-BY licence, which requires name attribution of the photographer. In the future, They’re also aiming to work towards: CC0 for reproductions of 3D works, which legally amounts to the same thing as the public domain; Public Domain Mark for reproductions of 2D works, where attribution is not enforced but encouraged.
This will ensure that the reproduction also remains a public domain work – made using public money, after all – in the digital realm of the public domain. These changes mean that artinflanders.be will also need to adapt, and photographers’ contracts will also need to be revised. Finally, meemoo also wants to encourage user involvement by creating a support base among their (content) partners.
Following this presentation, meemoo's Bart Magnus gave us a provisional update after one year of the Public Domain Tool. This tool helps to determine the rights status of a collection – thanks to Wikidata – and to share the information on Wikidata. Bart then also explained which projects set up to deal with the backlog of digital collection data will make use of the Public Domain Tool, and which are planned for upload to Wikimedia platforms.
Panel discussion
Since European copyright laws reform, it has started to become the norm – at institution and government level – to provide access to reproductions of public domain works without new restrictions. We therefore wanted to focus on strategy and practice in this edition: why and how can you share public domain collections? In the panel discussion, four members of the panel outlined specific initiatives that their organisations are undertaking to actively facilitate the (creative) re-use of their collections.
In the panel discussion, each speaker gave a lightning talk to explain their practice. Sofie Teugels described the Collections of Ghent project, which as well as providing access to collections from five Ghent institutions, is also making efforts to encourage their re-use. The Cultural Data Lab, for example, is a platform for experimentation, knowledge sharing and building a community around the reuse of heritage data. There’s also the ‘Co-creation fund’, which provides financial support for creatives to re-use collection data.
Diethard Vlaeminck from KOERS showed how this Museum of Cycle Racing located in Roeselare is aiming to reach its potentially global audience using digital means. KOERS wants to serve an international audience by offering collections on various platforms and linking to social media. They’re also paying attention to using multiple languages by experimenting with Wikimedia platforms. In addition to their organisation’s website, they also have the serviceKOERS platform, which will ultimately become not just a virtual museum with cycle racing stories, but also a good starting point for researching cycling history and a platform for other collectors. They want to provide access to their own and others’ collections here, and showcase their own and others’ research, as well as stimulating the (creative) re-use of collections.
Dieter Suls from MoMu explained how the fashion museum organised an experimental pattern-a-thon at the end of 2021. Museum collections aren’t always accessible in the ways that specific user groups need. As a fashion museum, however, they want to make their study collection available on Wikimedia platforms together with their fashion thesaurus. This is because designers can’t simply (re-)use reproductions straight away; they need to have template patterns. The museum therefore organised a workshop to create these patterns together with members of their community of (re-)users. The participants then agreed that the patterns could be posted on Wikimedia platforms under a free licence so that they can be (re-)used. This was an experiment within the Citizen Heritage project on citizen science; they are investigating whether this format can also be set up elsewhere.
The panel discussed the following topics and questions:
- Restrictions imposed within the context of the coronavirus pandemic were a perfect test to see if the heritage sector is digitally mature. But was the Belgian heritage sector prepared? Was your organisation prepared? Had you already made any efforts previously which you then benefited from?
- How do you determine which audiences you want to focus on and how do you find them?
- People often speak about the explosion in creativity that providing free access to (public domain) collections will stimulate. Is it naïve to expect that this will happen simply by posting collections online to create a good impression, without actively facilitating it?
Wikimedian in Residence (WiR)
Wikimedia Belgium ended the day by announcing the winners of their annual Wiki Loves Heritage photo competition. This initiative – just like the globally organised Wiki Loves Monuments and Wiki Loves Art (which was organised together meemoo’s predecessor PACKED vzw in 2016) – is a way to increase the visibility of Belgian heritage. Photographers are requested to post their work on Wikimedia Commons under a free licence so it can be freely re-used both on Wikimedia platforms and elsewhere. The globally organised Wiki Loves Monuments will also be organised under this name in the future, following the example set by Wiki Loves Heritage. This will mean that movable, intangible and scenic heritage are also eligible in addition to immovable heritage.
Finally, Wikimedia Belgium presented the Wikimedian in Residence initiative. This involves the Wikimedia Foundation going in search of museums and heritage institutions that would like to employ a Wikipedian – with the help of donations from Friends of Wikimedia Belgium Fund – on one hand to upload content to Wikimedia platforms, and on the other to organise activities to improve the visibility of these digital collections and increase their re-use.
For a recording of the event, consult Youtube.
An examples of a visual storytelling – two virtual exhibitions
"Rising up to the freedom" virtual exhibition
"Rising up to the freedom" is among the newest additions in the realm of Wikimedia virtual exhibitions and it tells the story of how Estonia regained its independence. It is presented via sets of historical photos by Jaan Künnap, that depict notable events, locations, and people of that era. In gallery setting that exhibits nearly 400 images in ten pages combined with descriptions of what happened and how that related to the photographer. Text is presented in Estonian, English, and Russian.
Künnap has been chosen Wikiphotograper of the Year in both 2019 & 2020 in Estonia. Over the last years, he has added over 5000 images, most of which are from the 1970s & 1980s. To keep them only tucked away in Wikimedia Commons would greatly limit their visibility. A virtual exhibition presents itself as a great way of showcasing those historical sets and calls out for the other photographers of that era to bring their collections into to public domain as well.
"Diamonds for Merit" virtual exhibition
On the 14th of February WMEE opened one more virtual exhibition. It was done in collaboration with the Tallinn Museum of Orders of Knighthood, and it focuses on orders’ insignia decorated with diamonds, as well as emeralds, rubies etc. Small but extremely valuable historical items of which are displayed on current WMEE virtual exhibition "Diamonds for Merit". The museum is truly remarkable in its collections which are unique in Estonia as well as the entire region of the Baltic Sea.
Diamond-studded stars and badges of orders of knighthood were worn at special occasions by members of European royal dynasties and the upper class for centuries. In our newly made exhibition, it´s possible to see just a fraction of the entire collection. We´re hoping to attract many visitors from both Estonian and as well internationally. Our aim was also to demonstrate the possibilities of Wikimedia generally to the wider public and different Estonian museums, starting with the very cooperative Tallinn Museum of Orders of Knighthood.
Wikimedian in Residence in Clermont Auvergne
Wikimedian in Residence in Clermont Auvergne
Since Vigneron began his residence with the metropolis, many activities have taken place. In February, he gave a Wikipedia training at the Maison des Sciences de l'Homme entitled : « What is a good notice ? » Many others will follow in the next months. More info : https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikip%C3%A9dia:GLAM/Clermont_Auvergne
News from Wiki Loves Monument Italy 2022
Italian Institute of Castles
On February 23, Wikimedia Italia signed an agreement with the Italian Institute of Castles, a non profit cultural organization. The goal is the joint organization of the italian edition of Wiki Loves Monuments for the year 2022 which will have as its main object "Castles and Fortifications". The aims of the Institute in fact are knowledge, preservation and enhancement of fortified architecture; they encourages, therefore, the historical, archaeological and architectural-artistic study of castles and fortified monuments, by means of: computerized catalogues and censuses of fortified architecture to be drawn up by province and category; analysis and research of historical sources; support of archaeological research and increased historical-architectural research to better define and update the aesthetic values that characterize individual monuments and fortified complexes.
As they say on their website, the Istitut carries out its activities essentially on four fronts: 1. The historical, archaeological and artistic study of castles and fortified monuments. 2. Their preservation and conservation. 3. The integration of fortified buildings into the active cycle of modern life. 4. Public awareness of science and tourism.
The agreement has been signed thanks to a common interest of the parties to work together to promote important opportunities for dissemination, comparison, development and deepening, and to involve society more closely in the issues of free knowledge and collaborative knowledge, and the promotion of free knowledge and initiatives to support it.
Traditional Food Photography
Traditional Food Photography
Wikimedians of Albanian Language User Group kicked off the 2022 activities agenda with the Traditional Albanian Food Photography Contest. The contest aimed to upload traditional food and beverages pictures to enrich Wikimedia Commons which will illustrate Wikipedia’s articles with images on upcoming campaigns. This campaign started on February 7 and lasted for 3 weeks. To promote it and gather many people to take part in this photography contest, our Group reached out to partners to share the social media posts. In addition, we wrote newsletters that were published on online portals and newspapers, and representatives from our Group appeared on TV and radio to talk about the contest, other running activities, and upcoming campaigns. We also approached different Photography and Cuisine Facebook Groups to post our campaign on their pages to attract as many people as we could.
We created the contest page on Wikimedia Commons and its own category to have the participants read the campaign's information, rules and upload their pictures. We also provided a video in Albanian created by our group on how to upload images on Wikimedia Commons. For more details, check out some information here.
Participants have uploaded 151 pictures on Wikimedia Commons. The pictures represent traditional Albanian food and beverages from different regions in Albania and Kosovo, highlighting the timing and period when people eat the food.
Social Media: wikimediashqip.org, @sqwikimediansug, FB/sqwikimediansUG, ig/sqwikimedians_ug YoutubechannelWikimedians of Albanian Language User Group
New photo collections of Alkmaar, Wiki goes Caribbean meeting, contemporary art Wikidata import and knowledge platform for GLAMS
Content donation Regionaal Archief Alkmaar - thousands of (historic) pictures of Alkmaar and surroundings available on Wikimedia Commons
Interested in the Dutch city of Alkmaar and the surrounding areas? The royalty-free image collections of the Regional Archives Alkmaar can now be found in their entirety on Wikimedia Commons. This concerns the Davidse photo collection from 2009 with urban photography, a collection of glass negatives of harbor life in Den Helder from the early 20th century and photos from before 1900. The files were made available by a volunteer and a python script based on Pattypan.
Wiki goes Caribbean: workshop and course Wikipedia for Papiamentu students University of Curaçao
The 9th of March, third-year students of the Knowledge of Land and People course at the University of Curaçao will be working on work on translating articles from any language of their choice into Papiamentu. With their translation, the students contribute to the quality and quantity of the Papiamento Wikipedia and thus indirectly to the quality and quantity of the digital availability of Papiamentu, and also the preservation of the language and local culture. The students also gain experience in writing for an encyclopedia in order to make their scientific knowledge available to a large audience. The workshop is a pilot and a collaboration between the Papiamento Wikipedia community, University of Curaçao and Wikimedia Nederland.
Wiki goes Caribbean meeting Windward Islands
Saturday februari 12, the first Wiki goes Caribbean meeting of the new year was held The theme was the Windward Islands. Little has been written on Wikipedia about Saba, Sint Eustatius and Sint Maarten, while there is enough to be found in the collections of, for example, the Dutch National Archives, but also in the Danish State Archives. The participants were given an online tour of these resources.
Historical photos about life on the islands from, among others, the collection of the National Archives are already on Wikimedia Commons, but because of brief descriptions they are difficult to find. That's why we started tagging these photos so they're easier to find in the future. Want to help too? Get started right away with the ISA tool.
The next meeting will be held on Saturday 23 April, and we will work on biographies of Caribbean women.
Collection data contemporary art Museum Bommel van Dam available on Wikidata
Since the inception of the partnerships between heritage organizations (GLAMs) and Wikimedia, there have been success stories about the millions of views images get when they are shared via Wikimedia Commons. But what if you can't share your images because you are a contemporary art museum and the images are copyrighted? Museum Bommel van Dam in Venlo posed this question after a Commons upload workshop.
Fortunately, the answer was not long in coming. Wikimedia all-rounder Hay Kranen, whose family comes from Venlo, to a look at the new museum website and decided to transfer all data about the 13,656 works of art in the collection to Wikidata. Because this data has been converted into linked open data on Wikidata, it is also possible to visualize everything about the collection without images. Such as a map with the birthplaces of the artists, the male-female ratio within the collection or what works are in the public domain. As a follow-up, we are currently working on adding these works to Wikimedia Commons.
Knowledge platform for cultural heritage organisation online
On the new Wikimedia Knowledge Platform Wikimedia Nederland launched, employees of heritage organizations can find information about sharing knowledge and collections via Wikimedia projects such as Wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons and Wikidata. The platform is under development and is continuously being supplemented. This month the knowledge platform has been expanded with the following articles (in Dutch):
- How do I translate an article from another language with the translation tool? (reading time: 8 min)
- Tagging images via crowdsourcing on Wikimedia Commons: the ISA Tool (read time: 5 min)
- What are the criteria for data on Wikidata? (reading time 4 min)
- Depictor: quickly tag photos on Wikimedia with your mobile phone (reading time: 5 min)
Do you have a question about something you want to know about Wikipedia or a suggestion for an article for the knowledge platform? Please contact Michelle van Lanschot.
National Digital Forum and Editing in a Time of COVID
COVID-19 community transmission has finally begun in New Zealand, and we're currently navigating a surge of Omicron with for the first time thousands of cases a day. Until the middle of 2021 face-to-face meetups and conferences, without masks, were still happening regularly. But we're now encountering the same restrictions as the rest of the rest of the world.
National Digital Forum
The largest national meeting of representatives from GLAM organisations in New Zealand focuses on digital tools and projects, and runs at Te Papa in November every year. In the past NDF has hosted Wikipedia and Wikidata presentations and workshops, including a Whose Knowledge? keynote in 2019. The November 2021 conference was postponed to 22–23 February this year, and three weeks before it was due to start was moved online. An attempt was made to preserve some of the discussion and networking that would normally be thr highlight of NDF, but the presentation programme was moved essentially unchanged to a virtual platform, with many talks prerecorded and no real chance for questions or follow-up. Such is life in a new age, where expectations of a what a conference is lags behind the ways we suddenly now meet and talk.
Given the constraints, there was still some Wikimedia content at NDF. James Taylor of Auckland War Memorial Museum spoke about their WMF-funded project to incorporate Wikipedia into the new Aotearoa New Zealand History school curriculum. Harley Couper and Elisha Rolleston of Tauranga City Libraries presented their new community repository, Pae Korokī, which uses both Creative Commons licences and their own categories for the reuse of images with cultural/ethical significance to Māori, as well as recording tribal/ancestry affiliation of objects (see for example this painting). This was very exciting to most attendees: Māori cultural items in museums and archives often have restrictions on use, but there's been no labelling system to clearly set out what can and can't be done with different classes of image, so Tauranga City Libraries' initiative is a great first step. And in one of the last sessions I presented a lightning talk on Wikimedia and GLAM in New Zealand, an overview of some of the different collaborations and projects that have happened over the last few years.
Barrytown Wikiblitz
A Wikiblitz is a sort of focussed edit-a-thon centred on just one or two articles, pairing up subject experts with Wikipedians. As part of my job as a digital librarian at Westland District Library, we had planned a wikiblitz in the tiny West Coast settlement of Barrytown, to work on the article about the town and its nearby Westland petrel colony. The all-day event was to be held in the historic Barrytown Settler's Hall. In the end, everything had to be moved online, with a series of meetings in Whereby to coordinate volunteer editors around New Zealand. We were still able to work with the Barrytown community, who donated personal stories, news clippings, and old photographs for Commons. A new article about the Barrytown Flats was created, and others improved or had photographs added. The participants resolved to have a follow-up meeting to keep working with Barrytown locals in a month. The West Coast Technology Education Trust, using Lottery Grants Board funding, agreed to sponsor this event and cover the costs of a second one later in the year on endangered species of the West Coast.
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Barrytown Flats 1930s -
Barrytown Flats -
Barrytown in early 1930s -
Taxis outside All Nations Hotel, 1920s
1Lib1Ref 2022 Kwara
1Lib1Ref 2022 Kwara
For the past six years, the Wikipedia Library Team and Wikimedia Affiliates around the world have been carefully and proactively working to actualize the vision of "Imagining a World where Every Librarian Added One More Reference to Wikipedia" and the #1Lib1Ref2022Kwara is part of the global #1Lib1Ref editing campaign organized for librarians, archivists, information managers, information scientists, Bibliophiles and researchers to make Wikipedia more credible and reliable, by adding one citation at a time! "Verifiability" is one of the core content policies of Wikipedia and that’s what the 1Lib1Ref campaign focuses on. It helps direct the world to free, yet verifiable and reliable information, which clearly aligns with the skills and values of information professionals (librarians, archivists, information managers, information scientists, and researchers) to promote open access and open knowledge with billions of readers across the globe.
Relevance of the campaign to GLAM institution and professionals in Kwara Sate
1Lib1Ref 2022 Kwara serves as an opportunity for librarians and Library students to add citation to articles about people, places and organisation in Nigeria that lack references. It also provided each new and existing editors with guide on how to make use of citation hunt tool etc.
Outcome of the 1lib1ref2022Kwara Campaign
The campaign which started on the 31st January 2022, ended on the 28th of Febraury with series of two (2) online trainings which had 59 editors with 21 new editors recruited on the dashboard. They all added at least one reference to Wikipedia using the hashtag #1lib1ref #1lib1ref2022Kwara.At the end of the campaign a total of 609 references were added to Wikipedia articles as against the intial target of 100 references that was proposed. More pictures about the final training can be found on WikiCommons
New GLAM-Wiki partnerships and cooperations
New partnership with The National Museum in Cracow
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Leonardo da Vinci, Lady with an Ermine -
Anna Bilińska-Bohdanowiczowa, Black girl -
Building of the National Museum (the main branch) in Kraków -
Józef_Mehoffer, Main Market Square in Kraków
There is no better day to meet and get to know each other than Valentine's Day :). On the 14th of January 2022 Wikimedia Poland experts met with museum professionals from The National Museum in Cracow. It was a great opportunity to introduce museum staff to the Wikimedia world, and present the possibilities standing behind the Wiki-Glam partnership. In the next few months WMPL and MNK plan to expand cooperation by engaging Wikimedian-in-Residence in the museum and uploading a unique collection of art that belongs to MNK.
The MNK is the largest museum in Poland, and the main branch of Poland's National Museum, which has several independent branches with permanent collections around the country. Established in 1879, it holds around 780,000 art objects, spanning from classical archeology to modern art, with special focus on Polish painting. It is also a national leader in the process of digitization of the art collection.
We look forward to the next steps strengthening our partnership. The first one will be a selection of the highlights from the art collection for the upload to the Wikimedia Commons. We expect it will be a challenging process as it is a huge collection of artworks. If you would like to share your experience in this kind of selection, and explain what are the main factors that you take into account, I am very open to hear that.
Summing up the edit-a-thon The Only Ones in The History Meeting House in Warsaw
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The Only Ones Untold Stories of Polish female photographers -
The Only Ones edit-a-thon -
The Only Ones edit-a-thon
In February there was a time to sum up the results of the edit-a-thon The Only Ones that took place in The History Meeting House on 22nd of January 2022. The edit-a-thon was an accompanying event to the exhibition of the same title The Only Ones. Untold Stories of Polish Female Photographers. It had a hybrid formula - online and on site. There were 13 people that took part in the event and as a result 7 new biographies enriched Wikipedia and 4 more were developed.
The exhibition The Only Ones. Untold Stories of Polish Female Photographers curated by Monika Szewczyk-Wittek accompanied the book of the same title and included almost 150 photos taken by thirteen photographers, among them the protagonists of the book. In the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, these Polish photographers were often the only women in male-dominated teams or worked independently. Their works were published in acclaimed Polish and foreign newspapers, magazines and albums, and shown at exhibitions. For many of them, photography was a way of life.
As Wikimedia Poland we were very pleased and honored to cooperate with The History Meeting House, its coordinator Agata Krajewska and the curator - Monika Szewczyk-Wittek, who came up with the idea of creating articles about female photographers on Polish Wikipedia and initiated our cooperation.
A month in the sign of 1Lib1Ref
Great results of the #1Lib1Ref campaign
For the second time, the Serbian Wikipedia is the best in the world in the #1Lib1Ref Campaign! Behind Serbian Wikipedia, in which 10,080 references were added, there is Catalan Wikipedia with 1915 references and Polish Wikipedia with 1355 references. The editor of Serbian Wikipedia, Nikolina Šepić, was the best editor of the Campaign, and the second place was taken by the editor Žana Gnjatović. As far as 6 Wikipedias from the CEE region participated and added more than 13.500 references!
Wikipedian in residence at Ilija M. Kolarac Endowment
During the first month of Wikipedian in residence at the Ilija M. Kolarac Endowment, 47 articles were illustrated, 2 articles were written. On Wikimedia Commons 264 files were posted, among which are numerous programs of the Kolarac Endowment, with which we can trace the 9 decades of their existence.
Gallery
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Program of the Alfred Kort Concert, held at the Ilija M. Kolarac Endowment on December 8, 1935. -
The program the concert of Aleksandar Borowski was held at the Ilija M. Kolarac Endowment on April 26, 1936. -
The program of the second public lesson of the University Chamber Music Association Collegium Musicum, which is dedicated to the works of Handel, was held at the Ilija M. Kolarac Endowment on February 24, 1936. -
Program of the literary-musical evening of the Union of Russian Writers and Journalists, on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the death of Ivan S. Turgenev. The evening was held at the Ilija M. Kolarac Endowment on September 19, 1933. -
The program of the concert of Nadežda Plevicka was held at the Ilija M. Kolarac Endowment on February 10, 1935. -
Vidovdan Academy of the Regional Committee of National Defense Belgrade, which was held at the Ilija M. Kolarac Endowment on June 28, 1933. -
Concert of baritone Giuseppe De Luca, held at the Ilija M. Kolarac Endowment on October 15, 1935.
Additional photos from Swedish missionairies; Historical maps of Ukraine
Additional photos from Swedish missionairies
In February The National Museums of World Culture continued uploading newly digitized photographs taken by Swedish missionaries in China. We are now close to the end of the Xinjiang part of this collection. Swedish missionaries were forced out of Xinjiang at the end of the 1930s and they moved their mission to India. This is reflected in the newly digitized material as the collection contains several photos from India. Another part of the Swedish missionaries collection includes photos from Lower Congo. As a result of this, some of the newly written Wikipedia articles this month have focused on various subgroups of the Kongo people. Apart from those we have also written articles on Wilfred Barbrooke Grubb, Ticuna and David Theodor Andersson.
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India. Picture from the archive of Mission Covenant Church of Sweden -
India. Picture from the archive of Mission Covenant Church of Sweden. -
India. Picture from the archive of Mission Covenant Church of Sweden. -
Xinjiang. Picture from the archive of Mission Covenant Church of Sweden.
Historical maps of Ukraine
In February the Swedish National Archives started uploading more historical maps of Ukraine (a first selection was uploaded in November 2021). With more maps added a sub-category for maps of Ukraine has been added. Uploads of maps of Ukraine will continue throughout March.
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Map of the Dniepr from Kiev to the Black Sea, late 17th century. -
Map of the city of Kherson c.1800. -
Map of the Crimea, 1854. -
Map of the Oka, Don, and Dniepr river systems, c. 1700.
Khalili Collections
Khalili Collections
The 33rd article created by this partnership has gone online: an English Wikipedia article about the Dar al-Kiswa workshop which produced textiles for Islam's holy sites.
There are two new publications about the partnership. One is a case study on the Outreach wiki which explains how we reached 50 million image views in a year. The other is a blog post using Wikidata queries to show how objects in the Khalili Collections connect to other objects via their links with historical people.
Categorisation and description of the Khalili Collections images continues. This month 24 more images have been properly categorised and various small changes have been made to the Wikidata set.
Stand with Ukraine!
#1Lib1Ref
This year for the second time Wikimedia Ukraine engaged in the international initiative #1Lib1Ref. We invited Ukrainian librarians and the wiki community to join librarians across the world and add missing references to articles, helping make the encyclopedia more reliable and valuable. From January 15th to February 5th, more than 50 users made over 1000 improvements to 700 articles using the #1Lib1Ref hashtag! We are proud that our result can compete with other CEE countries.
Over 15 volunteers and two managers were involved in the project. Together, we communicated the initiative to the librarians and wiki community, increasing awareness about the importance of references in Wikipedia articles, organizing events, and helping new users. We held a webinar on January 18th, more than 80 librarians registered to attend it. Also, Wikimedia Ukraine volunteers organized a workshop for the employees of Korolenko Library in Kharkiv on January 27th, less than a month before the Russian army began bombing the city.
- 1Lib1Ref workshop at Korolenko Library in Kharkiv
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Ukraine's Cultural Diplomacy Month 2022
This is an annual public writing contest which aims to create and improve articles about the culture and people of Ukraine in as many language editions of Wikipedia as possible. The most active participants will receive prizes from Ukraine with love <3.
Organizers prepared a list of topics that are important for this contest. It is essential, especially today, to educate the world on Ukrainian culture and legendary people whose wit, courage, and dedication amaze everyone across the world. Do your part as Wikipedian and Wikimedia, translate an article or two into your language. Stand with Ukraine!
Ukraine's Cultural Diplomacy Month 2022 page on Meta
Women's History Month activities
Smithsonian Women in Food History
On February 1, 2022, the Smithsonian Institution hosted the Black Women in Food History edit-a-thon, in conjunction with the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, and the Smithsonian American Women's History Initiative, a multiyear undertaking to document, research, collect, display, and share the history of women in the United States.
The event had contributions from more than 20 editors adding more than 5,000 words and creating six new articles, according to dashboard statistics.
The opening talk was from historian Ashley Rose Young from the Smithsonian National Museum of American History [1], and had a Q&A with Joanne Hyppolite [2] and Angela Tate [3], curators at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC). Kelly Doyle and Andrew Lih led the editing session by showing how to add infoboxes and improving articles on Paola Velez, Cleora Butler and Toni Tipton-Martin.
Metropolitan Museum of Art Afrofuturism Edit-a-thon
On February 5, 2022, The Met Museum had an online edit-a-thon and meetup to improve content around Before Yesterday We Could Fly: An Afrofuturist Period Room, which debuted in November 2021. As part of Black History Month, the event featured Met staffers Ian Alteveer, Aaron I. Fleischman Curator, Department of Modern and Contemporary Art, and Ana Matisse Donefer-Hickie, Research Associate, European Sculpture and Decorative Arts, along with wiki community members Sherry Antoine, executive director of AfroCROWD, and Eliza Myrie, Wikimedia Director of Black Lunch Table. Editing was led by Jennie Choi, Andrew Lih, and Richard Knipel.
The two-hour virtual meetup had between 50 and 100 live participants, with the video streamed to the Met's Facebook and YouTube channels, registering around 9,000 total viewers.
- February 5, 2022
- https://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2021/afrofuturist-period-room
- https://www.metmuseum.org/events/programs/met-celebrates/afrofuturism-wikipedia-editathon
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Meetup/NYC/MetAfrofuturist
- The Met x Wikipedia Afrofuturist Period Room Virtual Edit Meetup - Youtube video, Facebook video
Focus was on building out topics related to Afrofuturism and Seneca Village, as well as improving various artist and cultural articles. Following the live event, mutual support was provided on a dedicated Discord channel for the remainder of the month.
New articles started:
- Before Yesterday We Could Fly
- Yinka Ilori (from previous Articles for Creation)
- Zizipho Poswa
- Thomas Commeraw
- Flying Africans
- Period room
- Letter 47 (Seneca)
Future work will engage with the Afrofuturist Teen Advisory Council over the course of 2022.
Wikimedia Foundation CEO Maryana Iskander visits Washington D.C.
- February 25, 2022
February in AvoinGLAM
AvoinGLAM activities
GLAM Together at Mozfest
7 March 12.00 UTC We are hosting GLAM Together, an extended workshop at Mozfest. GLAM traditionally stands for Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museums, but we'd like to see it transform into Global Languages, Art & Memory.
The session starts with three ignite talks that unearth different approaches to safeguard underrepresented, endangered and vulnerable cultural heritage.
Minne Atairu will talk about her ongoing research into 17-year [1897-1914] artistic absence in Benin Kingdom by using Artificial Intelligence, Augmented Reality and 3D Printing to reimagine unknown objects – bronze heads, vessels, altars, texts or poems.
Mariana Ziku will present the activities she coordinates in the Biennale of Western Balkans and their annual community science programme Art Pluriverse. The programme uplifts intangible and natural heritage in the Balkans, empowering communities of practice by documenting traditional knowledge in open, educative and participatory ways together with artists and researchers.
Kristen Tcherneshoff concludes by discussing the language documentation and revitalization projects she coordinates as Programs Director at Wikitongues. Each year Wikitongues supports technical training and strategic guidance to start or grow a community language project.
After the talks, the participants will draft scenarios for collaborative work across different GLAM communities.
The presentations will be recorded
AvoinGLAM Newsletter
We started publishing a newsletter as a means to reach the Finnish GLAM community that do not follow AvoinGLAM Facebook group, or have not deliberately signed up on our Slack. The newsletters were first published in Finnish and in English, but soon it was clear that we must focus on one language. The newsletter is now published in Finnish, but we welcome English-speaking readers as well!
The initial idea has been to publish a "grim" newsletter where we focus on linking to interesting happenings around GLAM with basic information, not focusing on the visual impression. What we have learned while we go forward is that only few readers click links. Therefore, we should make some highlights in each newsletter to maximally expose people to GLAM projects. Maybe we should also bring in more images!
→ Subscribe to the newsletter (In Finnish)
Valentine's day school: Get to know Wikidata!
AvoinGLAM February meetup was a learning event: We made a basic introduction to Wikidata from creating a user account to making statements and giving sources to them. We tested Streamyard for doing this: Although it is lonely talking to the computer, it is such a delight to be able to immediately publish the video on YouTube! Our two other alternatives are Zoom and OBS, which we may still explore further in the future.
→ View the recording in AvoinGLAM YouTube channel.
Global Cine Club
The Global Cine club will launch before the next This Month in GLAM, but it's not print ready. It will be an opportunity to screen films and arrange cool little side events, such as presentations, music performances, discussions or a small editathon. Follow GLAM-Wiki Global Facebook group and the GLAM-Wiki Global Telegram group for announcements!
What's happening around GLAM
Yle and EBU arrange a Wikidata workshop
10 March 10:00–18:00 CET The Finnish Broadcasting Company Yle and European Broadcasting Union EBU are arranging a Wikidata workshop together with presentations from Yle, RAI, France TV, IPTC, Gruppo RES, Media Press, Perfect Memory, New York Times, NTB, and Imatrics. The event is open to the public.
The workshop explores how broadcasters and media organizations use Wikidata to tag, enrich and enhance their content. It includes a joint session on using Wikidata with IPTC media topics, and concludes with a roundtable discussion of the issues and business perspectives around the usage of Wikidata for media.
Copyright bill turns upside down in Finland
The European DSM Directive, that was scheduled to be implemented in EU member countries by June last year, has experienced a surprise turn in Finland. The draft presented last autumn has been largely rewritten by a new team and with considerable balance shift from the reuse perspective towards the collecting societies' benefit. AvoinGLAM will arrange a discussion event for sense-making within the GLAM sector.
Shared resources
The Creative Commons Open GLAM working groups have started tackling issues around GLAM. At AvoinGLAM, we are especially interested in working with shared resources: a multilingual glossary that uses Wikidata and translation tools and an Open GLAM bibliography that takes advantage of the structures that are used in Wikimedia projects for creating bibliographic references. This work would benefit from the input of people familiar with Lua modules, Content Translation, MediaWiki templates and Citoid, if we wish to take advantage of the Wikimedia platforms. If you feel it's you, please join the work!
Encyclopaedia of Life release their 2 million species descriptions under CC0
Encyclopaedia of Life release their 2 million species descriptions under CC0
Encyclopaedia of Life have released their 2 million species descriptions under CC0 and are working with us to import them into Wikipedia and Wikidata. We are building tools and prototypes to make use of this content, to date we have created:
- A working prototype of creating a complete article from data from Encyclopaedia of Life including infoboxes, and automatic image lookup from Wikidata.
- An article for every plant species in Malta, over 300 articles have been created using data and descriptions from Encyclopedia of Life including infoboxes with images.
- Working prototypes of an interactive map to visualise species distribution data from any source, currently taken from Plants of the World Online. Example 1, example 2
Editing SDC with OpenRefine; Monthly OpenRefine and Wikimedia office hours
Editing structured data with OpenRefine is now possible
On February 22, 2022, the OpenRefine team held a community meetup to present the current status of Structured Data on Commons development in OpenRefine.
This meetup was fully recorded; the recording can be found on the event page. The slides and an Etherpad with links and notes are also available for review.
In this meetup, the OpenRefine team demonstrated how it's already possible to edit structured data on existing Wikimedia Commons files, using a version 3.6 snapshot release of OpenRefine (it's not possible with the 3.5.x versions or earlier). An explanation of this process can be watched in the meetup's video recording.
The start of this process is also explained in this short video:
Monthly OpenRefine / Wikimedia office hours
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In the upcoming months, the OpenRefine team will host monthly office hours for OpenRefine users from the Wikimedia community. You can meet and ask questions to other OpenRefine users here, and talk to members of the development team. These office hours are informal, have no set agenda, and are not recorded.
For now, we have scheduled office hours until end June 2022. Time of the day alternates to accommodate participants from diverse time zones. If these office hours prove to be popular, we will plan more of these later!
- Tuesday, March 22, 2022 at 9AM UTC (how late is this in my timezone?)
- Tuesday, April 19, 2022 at 4PM UTC (how late is this in my timezone?)
- Tuesday, May 24, 2022 at 8AM UTC (how late is this in my timezone?)
- Tuesday, June 21, 2022 at 4PM UTC (how late is this in my timezone?)
These office hours are also listed on OpenRefine's info page on Wikimedia Commons. Zoom links will be provided there.
March's GLAM events
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