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Germany report

Gifted by our friends: Loads of presents for Wikipedia25 by German and Austrian GLAMs

By Wuselig

25 years Wikipedia – 25 Gifts

(A birthday gift for the world)

Kustodie der Universität Greifswald: Hand drawing Head of the Capitoline Aphrodite
Natural History Museum in Berlin: Icebear Knut, finishing touches

Of course this month was focused on Wikipedia25. The media coverage was overwhelming. And this author made sure that our GLAM activities were also properly highlighted: 25 Jahre Wikipedia: Wikipedian Rainer Halama in our local museum (skip to minute 5:50)

We have made an incredible progress in these last 25 years when it comes to cooperation with GLAM-Institutions. Forgotten are the times of lawsuits against Commons-photographers in museums. Discussions about freedom of panorama in castle gardens.

We volunteers profited greatly from the lobby work done by our chapters. Yes, we provide the content, we have the ideas for projects, but as individuals, with funny user-names we often lack the reputation or respect from the curators and managers in institutions. And as our projects and its scopes widened in these last 25 years so did our demand for open access. Gone are the days of scans from catalogues and own photography in museums is still necessary, but the institutions are fastly opening up. Bigger ones leading the way, taking the national and international associations along. And that is where it helps to negotiate as Wikipedia and not as an individual Wikipedian.

So when Wikimedia Germany and Wikimedia Austria invited the institutions we have been working with in these last 25 years to join our birthday party, they enticed them to contribute this wonderful diverse package of presents. And all of these presents came with wonderful greetings and congratulatory messages highlighting what we have achieved together so far and where we want to continue in the future.

You can see the complete list of participants, their messages (in German only, unfortunately) and their contributions in this list: Wikipedia:25 Jahre Wikipedia/Geschenke. The list is still growing.


GLAM on Tour - KulTour - GLAM digital

Woman with Unicorn in sculpture and painting
Visitor in the exhibition before Annunciation with the allegory of the Hunt of the Unicorn

On the 19th of January we had a GLAM digital event with the Museum Barberini followed by an on-site KulTour on site the following weekend. A high-profile exhibition on the Unicorn

These two events are a good example of fruitful and sustainable cooperations with GLAM institutions in the the German speaking community (DACH). They date back to 2013. A GLAM on Tour is a weekend - total immersion -event, with curated tours, edit-a thon and photo session. A KulTour, is a smaller, half to one day event with curated tours. GLAM-digital started out in the pandemic, when on site events weren't possible. They have now become a regular, almost monthly feature that allow for a very efficient way to get institutions in touch with our GLAM-community.

We had a first Zoom meeting with the Barberini in May 2021. They introduced us to their impressionist collection and our volunteers got hooked and produced results. Enough to get both the institution and the volunteers enthused enough to follow up with a GLAM on Tour weekend. We even streamed part of it. What helped,is that in the preparatory phase we already collected what was available in our Wikiverse (including other language versions of Wikipedia, Wikidata and Commons) This page initially looked way more red-linked and tabels empty. This Page and the Documentation page were still edited more than two years later.

One difficulty in keeping up sustainable relationships with institutions is that we as volunteers cooperate with trainees in the institutions. We know how difficult it is in the Wikiverse to stick with a theme with all the distractions and rabbit-holes there are. But also the trainees are mostly on temporary employment, so well established contacts often just dissolve. Here again the contacts between our Chapters and the management level of the institutions help to insure continuity.

So this time we had a well visited on-line event, and the half day event for the local Berlin/Potsdam community.

Again, we have some good covering in Commons and Wikidata, perhaps our GLAM colleagues from France can built on this when the exhibition comes to Paris in March: Licornes ! in the Musée de Cluny (March 13 -July 12, 2026)


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