GLAM/Newsletter/June 2025/Contents/Italy report

This Month in GLAM – Volume XV, Issue VI, June 2025

Italy report

Isoseismals & Icons

Mapping Knowledge, Sharing Science

The digitisation of Italy’s scientific and cultural heritage continues under the 2025 GLAM programme, funded by Wikimedia Italia in collaboration with ICOM Italia and Creative Commons Italia. This year, the Central Library of the National Research Council (CNR) began the digital preservation of its vast cartographic collection, using advanced tools from its in-house DigiLab. The project focuses on themes such as historic Italian earthquakes and the reuse of abandoned railway routes in Southern Italy — with maps covering geomorphology, hydrology, seismology, and more. These resources, previously only available in physical form,are being uploaded on Wikimedia Commons, supporting open research and collaboration through crowdsourcing and educational outreach. The maps are available in commons:Category:Media from Biblioteca Centrale del Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche

Meanwhile, on 27 June, the “Giovanni Battista Grassi” Museum of Comparative Anatomy at Sapienza University of Rome hosted a public edit-a-thon as part of its own GLAM project. This event invited students, staff, and citizens to contribute new content to Wikimedia platforms, focusing on the museum’s unique hand-painted educational wall charts from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. After a practical workshop and collaborative editing session, participants got a guided tour of the museum’s fascinating collections — a perfect example of how open access and local GLAMs can work together to preserve and share scientific knowledge with the world. The charts are available in commons:Category:Media from Museo di Anatomia comparata (Roma)

Concrete knowledge

From March to May, students from the University of Rome Tor Vergata joined forces with Wikimedia Italia and Federbeton Confindustria to strengthen Wikipedia content on concrete and its role in architecture and engineering. The course introduced students to editing on Wikipedia, contributing to Wikidata, and sharing media on Wikimedia Commons — focusing on how to add well-sourced, neutral content to the encyclopedia.

The project culminated in a final edit-a-thon hosted on June 7 at the MAXXI Museum in Rome. Together with experienced Wikipedians, students created and improved 37 articles, covering major works and designers like Fondazione Prada, the Hassan II Bridge, Pier Luigi Nervi’s Palazzetto dello Sport, Jean Nouvel, Santiago Calatrava, and more.

This collaboration didn’t just produce new content — it also helped new editors gain confidence, understand our community principles, and see first-hand how open knowledge connects the academic and professional world with Wikipedia.

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