GLAM/Newsletter/January 2015/Contents/France report

This Month in GLAM – Volume V, Issue I, January 2015

France report

Celebrating public domain and more

A great "Festival du domaine public" !

3 editathons, 4 bookscanner demo sessions, 2 photo hunts, 2 partnerships, various conferences ...The Public Domain Festival was highly productive thanks to the involvment of Wikimedians, WMFR volunteers & staff. Celebrating new works entering public domain through many activities, it was also an opportunity to have art students design the whole visual identity of the event, and raise awareness about public domain as a great source of creation and inspiration.

Wikipedia illustration workshop at the Toulouse Municipal Archives

A workshop was run with the staff of the Toulouse Municipal Archives. They were trained to illustrate Wikipedia articles by a volunteer. The partner had done a lot of preparatory work prior to the workshop: institutional communication relayed by the city council, special Saturday opening, special installation of 10 terminals + overhead projector and creation of temporary accounts, guided tours of the reserves... the workshop went well and was attended by people from different backgrounds: archivists, librarians, etc. The workshop leader used a 4-stage methodology: photo insertion demonstration, exercice where you “simply” had to copy/paste the image from Commons to Wikipedia; second exercise where you had to search for or insert an image (from a selection of images chosen for their relevance) and write the caption yourself; autonomous use of the Commons category An aide-memoire had been organized to support this.

Outreach session with the staff of the Musée des Arts et Metiers

The Musée des Arts et Métiers, a partner to the 2014 Wiki Loves Monuments photography contest and host for the prize award ceremony, and Wikimédia France organized a half-day session for its different audiences to raise awareness of the work of Wikimedia France and the free dissemination of knowledge. Two of Wikimedia France’s current partners, the Musée National du Moyen-Âge and Sèvres-Cité de la Céramique, travelled to the event to share with their peers the actions they have carried out with the association. Other institutions also attended, including the Musée du Quai Branly, ICOM (International Council of Museums), and CLIC France (Club Innovation et Culture) with a view to discussing future collaboration. The session was led and prepared by volunteers and an employee from WMFR, working with the Museum’s Audiences and Communication department, to answer the questions put by representatives of the Museum’s different professions and encourage them to move towards a lasting global partnership. A questionnaire was handed out to those present – to assess the relevance of the session content, their level of knowledge and understanding of the work of the association, the most useful talks, etc.

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