GLAM/Newsletter/July 2013/Contents/Italy report
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Libraries!
Wikimedia Italia meets the National Central Library of Florence
Wikimedia Italia board members Aubrey and CristianCantoro, together with librarian Susanna Giaccai, met in Florence the staff of the National Central Library of Florence. The discussion was about several ongoing projects and collaborations:
- the synchronization of links between Italian Wikipedia and BNCF Thesaurus, now 7554 Wikipedia pages link to corresponding entries in the New Italian Thesaurus. The Thesaurus entries have also a Wikipedia link in them and we are working with BNCF digital librarians to improve the coverage to the whole Thesaurus (40000+ entries).
- an authorization for Wiki Loves Monuments
- discussion about potential Wikipedian-in-Residence
- potential uploads of dataset within Wikidata
Wikimedia Italia will thus sign a partnership agreement with the National Central Library of Florence, for the following 3 years, to develop and support further projects. A full report is available here (in italian).
Wikimedia Italia meets ICCU
Wikimedia Italia member Sannita met in Rome the Director Rosa Caffo and several managers of the Central Institute for the Union Catalog of Italian libraries. The discussion was about establishing a link in order to set up several projects and collaborations:
- improve the number of authors' name record identifiers ingested in Wikidata and imported thorugh VIAF from the National union catalogue of Italian libraries: SBN
- the use of data from an official directory of Italian Libraries managed by the Central Institute for the Union Catalog of Italian libraries
- other potential uploads of contents within Wikimedia projects
- other potential projects, such as training courses about Wikimedia projects (what they are, how to edit them...)
- discussion about potential Wikipedian-in-Residence
There is a discussion ongoing between Wikimedia Italia and ICCU about a draft agreement about all the points stated above.
Salaborsa Library, Bologna
On 8 June an introductory workshop on Wikipedia for library patrons is held in Salaborsa Library, the main public library in Bologna. It is the last of a series of three events held from April, aiming to give a general presentation of Wikipedia to increase patrons information literacy skills. The series is composed by two introductory workshops and an editathon on women’s biographies. A Wikimedia Italian Chapter public presentation will take place in the library in October.
Cassero LGBT Center
On 28 June, the international Gay Pride day, a presentation on Wikimedia movement and LGBT portals on Wikipedia is given at the Cassero LGBT Center Library in Bologna. This library is the main documentation center in Italy for LGBT issues and can be considered the core of a lively local and national LGBT community.
Wikipedia workshops in libraries of Tuscany
Susanna Giaccai is holding some Wikipedia workshops in Tuscan libraries:
- 3-06-13. Scandicci (FI): Introductory workshop on Wikipedia articles editing
- 3-06-13 Bagno a Ripoli (FI) Meeting with library patrons
- 5/12-06-13 Borgo San Lorenzo (FI) Introductory workshop on Wikipedia articles editing for librarians
Revamping the National Library Service (SBN)
Since more than 30 years, Italy has SBN (Servizio Bibliotecario Nazionale, i.e. National Library Service), a network of libraries promoted by the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities in cooperation with Regions and Universities. SBN is coordinated by the ICCU (Istituto Centrale per il Catalogo Unico, i.e. Central Institute for the United Catalog).
Following a public announcement by ICCU regarding budget cuts, the participants in the discussion list of librarians and wikipedians took action to create awareness on the issue and to discuss about the future of the institution and the catalog (open data, relationship with wikidata, etc.).
The participants subscribed a joint statement, published on several blogs, and actively participated in the meeting organized by the AIB (Associazione Italiana Biblioteche, i.e. National Libraries Association) on June 20th, called "Revamping the National Library Service (SBN)".
71,860 entries in the Italian version of Wikipedia have been enriched with authors' name record identifiers from the international authority file VIAF
Thanks to the invaluable help of Max Klein, Wikipedian in Residence at OCLC, 71,860 entries in the Italian version of Wikipedia have been enriched with authors' name record identifiers from the international authority file VIAF (on 10 July the total number of VIAF identifiers imported in Wikidata is: 388,759). Besides, about 1,400 items in Wikidata and the same number of entries in the Italian version of Wikipedia have been enriched with authors' name records identifiers from the national union catalogue SBN. The latter have been imported in Wikidata and in the Italian version of Wikipedia from a subset of about 45,000 Italian authority records delivered to VIAF by ICCU: Istituto Centrale per il Catalogo Unico, a department of MiBAC, Italy's Ministry of Cultural Heritage's which manages the National union catalogue of Italian libraries: SBN. Both VIAF and SBN authors' name record identifiers are displayed in the top right hand corner of Wikipedia entries, where they are introduced by the tag Controllo di autorità. Record identifiers also work as hyperlinks which enable readers to navigate to the relative record in the VIAF database interface or to the relative record in the SBN catalogue interface. From the authority record in the SBN catalogue they can also navigate to bibliographic records of their works. See for example the Wikipedia entry of Alessandro Manzoni.
