GLAM/Newsletter/May 2026/Contents/New Zealand report

This Month in GLAM – Volume XVI, Issue V, May 2026

New Zealand report

ESEAP Conference 2026 and the NZBSI WiR update

Auckland Museum at ESEAP Conference 2026

Wikimedian in Residence, Anjuli Selvadurai (Winnieswikiworld) and Collection Information Technician, Sophie Elborough (Thewickerwoman) attended the ESEAP Conference 2026 in Kaohsiung, Taiwan from 15-17 May. The conference brought together contributors from across the regions of East, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific to share their work and connect.

The Auckland Museum team presented, Women in Wartime: Collaboration, open access & addressing gender bias. The Women in Red inspired project, Women in Wartime, is a collaboration between Auckland Museum’s Online Cenotaph team and Wikimedia platforms to increase content available about New Zealand women during wartime. They shared how Women in Wartime started as a content project then developed into an event series focusing on GLAM outreach and community building.

Auckland Museum at the Wikimedia Hackathon 2026

Dactylantha attended the Wikimedia Hackathon in Milan, where she worked on the GLAM Tool Hospital, a Phabricator ticket-generation platform designed to support GLAM professionals involved in Wikimedia programmes.

The tool is intended for GLAM contributors who would like to request a new feature or report a bug in Wikimedia-related tooling, but who may not feel confident creating Phabricator tasks themselves or using technical contributors’ task management systems. The GLAM Tool Hospital uses a bot to post tickets on behalf of users, meaning that GLAM contributors are not required to create Phabricator accounts in order to participate in the maintenance pipeline as end users of Wikimedia tools.

In addition to the ticket-creation form, the platform also includes a live tracking board. This allows GLAM users to filter tickets by tool, follow the progress of their own reports in real time and see recurring issues reported by others.

The tool was deployed during the hackathon, but is an early working prototype and feedback at this stage is welcome - particularly if you are a GLAM professional reliant on Tooling. Please feel free to read more about the development of this tool here.

Bioeconomy of Science Wikimedian in Residence update

The month of May was all about presentations and workshops for the Wikimedian in Residence at the New Zealand Bioeconomy Science Institute (BSI).

Aotearoa New Zealand WikiCon presentation in Wellington

Leanne Elder, who coordinates BSI to work with Siobhan Leachman (the NZBSI Wikimedian in Residence), gave a presentation on the WiR collaboration to the wider New Zealand Wiki community at the Aotearoa New Zealand WikiCon held in Wellington on 2-3 May. The presentation slides can be seen below.

Two workshops to BSI staff

In May Siobhan also gave two workshops to BSI staff. These workshops were a key part of the BSI WiR. The first workshop, held on the 15th of May, was at the BSI Auckland site and focused on Wikidata. See the Auckland workshop page for links to the slides and workshop resources.

The second workshop, held on the 20th of May, was at the BSI Lincoln site and focused on the interrelationship between Wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons and Wikidata. See the Lincoln workshop page for links to the slides and workshop resources.

Both workshops commenced with a presentation about the relevant platform/s and considerations that should be born in mind when editing. The participants were then taught a number of editing tasks and were given practical examples on how to enrich various Wikimedia platforms with expert information and data sourced from BSI.

Both workshops were successful with new and existing editors improving their understanding of the Wikiverse and learning skills in enriching biodiversity content on various Wikimedia platforms.

Plans for June

The NZBSI Wikimedian in Residence will be complete at the end of June. As a result Siobhan is in the process of drafting and seeking feedback from BSI staff on a draft BSI Wiki engagement strategy. Siobhan will also be drafting a final report on the Wikimedian in Residence to be submitted to both BSI and Wikimedia Aotearoa New Zealand. The aim of this final report is to give a summary of the impact of the residency.

Successful 1Lib1Ref campaign with WMAU

Wikimedia Australia (WMAU) and Wikimedia Aotearoa New Zealand (WANZ) ran #1Lib1Ref Australasia from 15 May to 5 June 2026, the Southern Hemisphere window of the global "One Librarian, One Reference" campaign. The two chapters partnered for a second year, pooling staff resources, training, sharing workshops and inviting library and information professionals across both countries to add citations to Wikipedia.

Organisers in both countries drew on their partnerships within the GLAM sector to promote the campaign, with a particular focus on libraries. Both the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) and the Library and Information Association of New Zealand Aotearoa (LIANZA) helped get the word out. Targeted messaging called on Librarians and Information Professionals as the perfect people to get involved and help ‘improve the internet’ while contributing to free and accessible knowledge for all.

The recent rise in the use of AI models to access information online supported our call to action. The need for verified, trustworthy information has never been greater, and Wikipedia relies on volunteer editors to keep content relevant and reliable. The campaign included a mix of online and in-person sessions:

Intro to Wiki Referencing online workshop, 21 May, co-led by Pru Mitchell (WMAU) and Tamsin Braisher (WANZ).

Pru is a librarian and educator from Australia, and Tamsin is a researcher and Wikimedian in Residence in New Zealand. Together they guided participants on the best ways to enhance Wikipedia’s references, covered the basics for beginners, and also explored using some of Wikipedia's automatic citation tools to streamline editing.

Cite Right drop-in editing workshops online on 22 May, 29 May and 5 June.

WMAU held three hands-on drop-in editing sessions for new editors to drop in, chat, learn and edit together! In small groups, new editors were guided on how to add references and citations to Wikipedia. Editors were encouraged to share their edits and screens during the calls to receive feedback.

Five in-person events across Australia and New Zealand, including Melbourne, Canberra, Dunedin, Ōtautahi Christchurch, and Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland were held in Libraries, led by local wikimedians for their colleagues.

A video was made of the Introduction to Wiki References session and is available on YouTube and Wikimedia Commons.

Across the three weeks, the Outreach Dashboard recorded 37 editors, 210 articles created, 4,540 articles edited, 11,700 edits, 4,170 references added, 485 Commons uploads, 1.32 million words added, and 2.91 million article views!

This year saw impressive growth compared to 2025, with increases in all areas. The number of articles edited, number of total edits, and number of words added all more than doubled.

	2024	2025	2026
Articles created	9	112	210
Articles edited	299	908	4.54K
Total edits	853	4.82K	11.7K
Words added	61.4K	500K	1.32M
References added	945	2.61K	4.17K

Both WMAU and WANZ are thrilled with how #1Lib1Ref Australasia grew in its second year, and we want to thank every librarian, information professional and new editor who gave their time to add references and strengthen Wikipedia.

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