GLAM/Newsletter/March 2025/Contents/Italy report
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Ten winners of Wikimedia Italia 2025 GLAM call
The ten selected projects stand out for their diversity and their significant contribution to the preservation and sharing of culture through digital resources. Among them are initiatives focused on digitizing scientific materials, historical archives, period documents, theatrical heritage, astronomical content, and promoting local history.
- The historical educational charts of Sapienza
The Museum of Comparative Anatomy “G.B. Grassi” at Sapienza University of Rome will digitalize and upload to Wikimedia Commons one hundred scientific educational charts from its collection. Hand-drawn between the late 19th and early 20th centuries, these charts were essential teaching tools for natural sciences. This project represents a key step in preserving and enhancing the accessibility of this documentary heritage.
- Natural History Museum of the University of Pisa
The Natural History Museum of the University of Pisa holds over one million specimens across zoology, mineralogy, and paleontology collections, many stored in areas not open to the public. The project aims to enhance this heritage by making images with captions of selected specimens available under open access licenses. A professional photographic campaign will support the initiative. In 2024, Wikimedia Italia had already funded a project by the same museum, which enabled the 3D scanning of more than 50 models of modern and fossil cetacean skeletons, displayed in the Whale Gallery and other zoological and paleontological exhibits. These digitized files now receive over 2 million views per month.
- The entomological treasures of the Lanzo Valleys
Another scientific project comes from the “Arnaldo Tazzetti” Alpine Civic Museum in Usseglio (TO), which will digitize a large butterfly collection from the Lanzo Valleys and other mountain areas. Comprising around 1,300 specimens, the collection is of great value for biodiversity studies. The images will be published on Wikimedia Commons and integrated into relevant Wikipedia articles. In 2024, the museum also began a local flora study campaign, creating a herbarium of notable botanical and conservation interest, which will likewise be digitized and shared online.
- The cartographic heritage of the CNR Library
The Central Library of the National Research Council (CNR) houses a significant cartographic collection, including geomorphological, bathymetric, magnetometric, and hydrogeological maps, as well as maps on seismic activity, precipitation, and biodiversity. The project aims to digitize these materials and make them available under a Creative Commons BY-SA license.
- Open Astronomy in La Spezia
The Astrofili Spezzini Association (AAS), owner of Osservatorio astronomico Monte Viseggi proposed “Open Astronomy: Free Knowledge for All,” a project dedicated to creating and distributing astronomical content under free licenses. The initiative will enrich Wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons, and Wikidata with high-quality scientific materials produced by the “Luciano Zannoni” Astronomical Observatory, located on Mount Viseggi.
- The Memory of the Resistance – Feltrinelli Archive
On the occasion of the 80th Anniversary of the Liberation, the Giangiacomo Feltrinelli Foundation has launched a project to promote the consultation and reading of sources on the Resistance via the Foundation’s website. The initiative includes the full digitization of the Libero Cavalli Archive, which contains over two thousand documents related to the Matteotti Brigades during World War II.
- The historical treasure of Alatri
The municipality of Alatri is launching a project to digitize 81 parchments dating from the 13th to 17th centuries, including key documents of local history. Among them is a copy of the parchment statute from 1585–1586. Once digitized, the materials will be uploaded to Wikimedia Commons, Wikisource, and Wikidata, contributing to the growth of freely accessible historical sources.
- The opera heritage of Teatro Regio in Turin
Another key focus of the call is theatrical heritage. The Teatro Regio Foundation of Turin is digitizing its collection of set and costume design sketches. This collection documents the history of Italian opera from 1969 to the present day and will be shared online, providing theatre historians, enthusiasts, and researchers with new insights. A “Wiki-Story,” a documentary-style virtual tour of the Theatre’s archives, will also be created to invite audiences to explore the newly published content.
- The culture and traditions of Bari
Since 1995, the Centro Studi Baresi (CSB) has incorporated the Alfredo Giovine Study Center, the Archive of Barese Folk Traditions (A.T.P.B.), and the Section of Apulian Musical Culture, becoming a major hub for collecting and preserving documents and oral/written records on the history, language, and traditions of Bari and Apulia. Since 2018, CSB has collaborated with Wikimedia Italia to publish materials related to Barese history and language online. With its current project, the center plans to acquire the necessary equipment to speed up the digitization and publication process on Wikipedia and Wikimedia platforms, ensuring the preservation and public access to this material.
- The legacy of Pietro Gori in Rosignano Marittimo
The Civic Archaeological Museum of Rosignano Marittimo houses the Pietro Gori Archive, containing 832 volumes, including books, drawings, paintings, photographs, memorabilia, magazines, and documents related to the anarchist. On the occasion of the 160th anniversary of his birth (1865–1911), which will be celebrated in Rosignano Marittimo from August 11 to 14, 2025, the municipality aims to promote and enhance this heritage. One of the archive’s most valuable items is the rare journal Criminalogia moderna, published by Gori in Buenos Aires (1898–1901), which addressed topics such as law, sociology, anthropology, and forensic medicine. The Gori Archive is likely the only one in the world with a complete collection of this journal, while online references appear only in Argentina’s National Library “Mariano Moreno” in Buenos Aires, which lacks some of the issues preserved in Rosignano. The project will digitize all 20 issues of the journal to ensure their preservation and online dissemination.
- Albania report
- Argentina report
- Belgium report
- Brazil report
- Czech Republic report
- France report
- Italy report
- Netherlands report
- New Zealand report
- Nigeria report
- Poland report
- Switzerland report
- UK report
- USA report
- Biodiversity Heritage Library report
- Memory of the World report
- Structured Data on Wikimedia Commons report
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