GLAM/Newsletter/January 2016/Contents/Italy report
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BEIC Library Project goes on, and Wikipedia for Press and Media Freedom in Europe
BEIC digital library
Since January 2016, a new Wikipedian in residence - Marco Chemello - has been active at BEIC Foundation. The Biblioteca Europea di Informazione e Cultura (BEIC) is a not for profit organisation based in Milan with a sizable digital library (BeicDL) consisting of semantic collections and virtual exhibitions.
The GLAM/BEIC project first agreement was signed 2 years ago, in January 2014. The project is one of the most lost-lasting and successful result of Wikimedia Italia GLAM-wiki projects' launching in the country, showing to Italian libraries what actually can be done using open and wiki tools to spread information about their own collections. BEIC library, moreover, is an expandig collection of digitalized materials from Lombardy and Italy, resulting in being the perfect case for an ongoing wiki project.
In December 2015, Wikipedia pageviews of BEIC objects were 6,4 million (more than 2 million in the English Wikipedia), and 45 million from October 2014 to February 1st 2016. The uploaded images are 1800 until now: 909 are in 6,603 articles in 207 different wikis. The first printed edition of the Divine Comedy is present in 71 different Wikipedia, with an overall access of 200.000 a month.
From February 2016 new books, images and data will be uploaded.
Osservatorio Balcani e Caucaso project
A historical journalist's press card, as illustrative of freedom of the press and freedom of information
Since October 2015, a Wikipedian in Residence is at work at the think tank Osservatorio Balcani e Caucaso, tasked with improving Wikipedia in English and Italian on the topic of press and media freedom in East and South East Europe.
Thanks to the project, the articles on the media system and the media freedom in the Balkan countries (Serbia, Serbia (media freedom), Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Albania; Kosovo; Macedonia; Romania; Bulgaria, Greece), Turkey and Belarus have already been created, while other articles on the Caucasus and Eastern European countries are being prepared for the month of February. Many other minor articles in English and Italian have been created and updated in the course of the project too.
Wikipedia 15
On January 15 many events were organized in Italian libraries with the support of Wikimedia Italia, to celebrate the 15th anniversary of Wikipedia. In Florence, Palermo, Salerno and Venice, librarians have held discussions on the issues of free access to cultural heritage and on the educational use of the wiki platforms. Then celebrations concluded with wiki birthday cakes.
Ciao, ho dato una lettura veloce e vi ringrazio molto. Ho fatto qlc correzione veloce alla forma inglese, nulla di sostanziale e con probabile inserimento di errori, sentitevi liberi di rimodificare tutto. Chiara Consonni (BEIC)