GLAM/Newsletter/November 2025/Contents/New Zealand report
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ASBS 2025 Conference, a NZBSI Wikimedian in Residence update & Auckland Museum Summer Students
Outreach at the ASBS 2025 Conference
In November Ambrosia10 and Stitchbird2 undertook outreach at the Australasian Systemic Botany Society 2025 Conference as part of the Wikidata WikiProject ASBS 2025. The aim of this WikiProject was to organise and implement a wiki outreach programme of events at the ASBS Conference from 2-6 November, 2025 at the University of New England in Armidale, Australia.
The events included 1) holding a full-day wiki conference workshop, 2) holding two online sessions, one before and one after the conference, 3) presenting a conference talk on our wiki outreach, and 4) wikifying the 2025 ASBS conference by creating or enriching over 130 Australasian botanists in Wikidata.
The pre-conference introductory virtual webinar attracted 35 people during the live presentation, and the recording is available on Commons. Our in person workshop was very successful. Fifteen people signed up for the workshop but on the day 11 participants (7 of whom were female) attended. Unfortunately some of those who signed up were unable to attend due to last-minute flight delays. We covered editing Wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons, and Wikidata. For each section, we showed a set number of slides, did one or more live demos, and then had the attendees perform specific editing tasks. The emphasis on teaching participants specific editing skills ensured we were able to teach basic editing on all three platforms effectively.
Ambrosia10 also gave a conference presentation to the 80 conference attendees entitled, "Botanists in the Wikiverse - Planting the seeds of open data enrichment and reuse" which afterward led to additional informal outreach with several attendees. The in-person workshop slides and script, conference presentation slides, final report to Wikimedia Aotearoa New Zealand as well as other resources and images can all be found in the WikiProject ASBS 2025 Wikimedia Commons category.
As a result of further interest by participants as well as conference attendees Ambrosia10 and Stitchbird2 will be undertaking a follow-up webinar on the 9th of December. This webinar will cover additional topics that were brought up at the workshop, as well as serve as a check-in with these new editors.
Update on the Bioeconomy Science Institute Wikimedian in Residence
Since the announcement of this WiR position in September, Ambrosia10 has been working to improve the knowledge of staff at the Bioeconomy Science Institute about the Wikiverse and how to contribute their expertise.
Site visit
She has undertaken a site visit to the Manaaki Whenua - Landcare Research (MWLR) group in Auckland meeting the collection managers and curators of the New Zealand Arthropod Collection (which includes the National Nematode Collection of New Zealand), the New Zealand Fungarium and the International Collection of Microorganisms from Plants.
Natural history specimen data model
As part of this site visit, Ambrosia10 was able to meet with Dactylantha from the Auckland Museum. This resulted in a proposal for a new Wikidata property for Collector. This proposal was accepted and the property has been created. Ambrosia10 and Dactylantha are now in the process of collaborating with the wider Wiki community on creating a natural history specimen data model. This data model will assist with mapping of Wikidata properties and items to the Darwin Core biodiversity data standard. The aim of this work is to facilitate natural history specimen image uploads ensuring all images have consistently modelled structured data and also to ensure any Wikidata items created for type specimens are modelled appropriately.
Staff training
Ambrosia10 has also been conducting staff training in Wiki editing. Staff from the MWLR group were invited to an hour long webinar held as part of the ASBS 2025 Conference WikiProject. A member of staff was also able to attend that WikiProject's full day workshop at the ASBS 2025 Conference. Staff have also been invited to the upcoming follow up webinar being offered by the ASBS WikiProject. Two further workshops, to be held at the site locations of the MWLR group, are being planned in the first half of 2026.
Documentation
As well as site visits and training, Ambrosia10 has been trialing various workflows and creating documentation to guide staff (and Wiki editors) to make appropriate contributions to the Wikiverse. Currently three workflows have been published. They are:
- Wikimedia Commons uploads by an employee of the copyright holder
- Linking publications to collections - adding cites work, uses or acknowledged statements to Wikidata
- “Wikifying” a scholarly publication
All three pdfs have also been shared with the wider Wiki community in the New Zealand Bioeconomy Science Institute Commons category. Further workflow documentation related to the WiR is in the process of being produced.
Auckland Museum Summer Students 2025
Auckland Museum is excited to have welcomed the 2025/26 cohort of Wiki Summer Students to the Museum as part of the wider Sheldon Werner Summer Studentship Programme. This year we are partnering with three other Auckland GLAMs, MOTAT, New Zealand Maritime Museum and The Fletcher Archives. Follow along the 2025 Summer Student project page to find out more.
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