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Ukraine report

GLAM news from Ukraine – events for libraries, #1Lib1Ref, launch of a larger GLAM product

By AntonProtsiuk

Early 2025 has been a busy period for Wikimedia Ukraine, from our annual Wikimarathon that brought hundreds of people across dozens of cities in Ukraine & abroad on the occasion of Ukrainian Wikipedia's birthday to a slate of other contests, campaigns & events.

In the GLAM field, three initiatives stand out in particular:

1. Events for libraries as part of the annual Wikimarathon in late January/early February

Wikimarathon is Wikimedia Ukraine's annual gateway for newcomers, an opportunity to use UkWiki's birthday as a way to drive new volunteers to Wikipedia via an online campaign and offline training events.

This year we supported 37 events in the span of a week, both in Ukraine and for Ukrainians abroad. Out of them, 16 events were organized by libraries and/or in libraries. Some events were designated specifically for librarians (for example, a webinar organized by the Khmelnytskyi Regional Universal Scientific Library gathered close to 100 people), but most were open to the general public (for example, a public event at the regional scientific library in Ivano-Frankivsk gathered around 50 people, both students and senior citizens).

Among other cities, three events took place in the libraries of Kyiv, Ukraine's capital city — including in the Yaroslav Mudryi National Library of Ukraine, one of Ukraine's biggest libraries & Wikimedia Ukraine's partner.

2. The latest edition of #1Lib1Ref in Ukraine

Wikimedia Ukraine has been organizing #1Lib1Ref on Ukrainian Wikipedia for four years now. The campaign engages librarians and others to add missing references to articles on Wikipedia.

We shifted dates of the campaign later than the international round so it doesn't overlap with Wikimarathon. The first 2025 edition in Ukraine takes place from February 19th to March 10th. We're organizing two instructional webinars, as well as a few offline events across Ukraine.

We'll share final results later in March, but as of early March the campaign has brought 60+ participants who improved almost 550 articles on Ukrainian Wikipedia.

3. The launch of “Open GLAM in Ukraine”, a potential large-scale project to open up and bring Ukraine's cultural heritage from GLAM institutions to the Wikimedia platforms

In late 2024 a consortium of partners that includes Wikimedia Ukraine, Wikimedia Sweden and the National Archives of Sweden received a grant from the Swedish Institute to support a pilot project that would help bring Ukraine's cultural heritage from GLAM institutions to the Wikimedia platforms.

The main goal of the pilot project is to conduct research and analysis of the state of GLAM institutions needs and interests. To that end, we have launched a wide survey for Ukrainian GLAM institutions and are expecting to get responses from hundreds of organizations across the country. (We'll share more about the analysis when it's wrapped up later in the spring).

Based on the pilot, we would apply for a larger project that could support on-the-ground digitization and uploads to Wikimedia platforms.


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