GLAM/Newsletter/November 2024/Contents/Portugal report

This Month in GLAM – Volume XIV, Issue XI, November 2024

Portugal report

Summary of Wikidata Days 2024: Librarians don’t need hammers, they need Wikidata

70 professionals and open-knowledge enthusiasts join Wikidata Days 2024 at the National Library of Portugal.

Wikidata Days 2024, the major national conference about open-data management, occurred in Lisbon between November 14 and 16. This year’s slogan was “Data that transform: the role of collaboration in an interconnected world”. The conference brought together people from Europe, Asia, Africa and America and several Wikimedia chapters and user-groups, such as Wikimedia Spain, Brazil, Germany, Italy and Sicily, Wiki Editoras Lx and Wiki Esfera, along with 22 institutions ranging from museums, to libraries and research centers.

During three days, the participants had the opportunity to attend to 12 plenary sessions with use-case of Wikidata and Wikibase at international renowned institutions like the National library of Wales, represented by Jason Evans, and the National library of Germany, represented by Barbara Fischer. For those who wanted to improve their technical skills, there were 4 tutorials introducing Wikidata, Wiki Commons, Wikipedia and Open Refine. These activities were conducted by Ana Cravo, Éder Porto and Jorge Gomes. Additionally, Carlos Silva moderated a panel named “Intersections between GLAM, Academia and Wikimedia projects, with contributions by Vera Moitinho, Luís Ramos Pinto, Éder Porto and Miguel Correia.

At the end of the day, we celebrated the 12th anniversary of Wikidata with a delicious cake! With a star-rating of 4.2 assigned by the participants, Wikidata days 2024 built bridges between cultural heritage, scientific research and FAIR data. The feedback testifies the knowledge acquisition and satisfaction of the participants:

“What I enjoyed the most was the opportunity to create networks and get better acquainted with Wikimedia activities”

“I liked networking with colleagues from other countries concerning topics such as the use of Wikidata in research”

“Feeling as part of the Wikimedia community and meeting new people was important for me. I was also able to develop technical skills with more experienced people at Wikidata, really cool!”