GLAM/Newsletter/November 2025/Single
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Call for volunteers, Computer's Day and upcoming events
News from Wikimedia Belgium.
International Women's Day Edit-a-thons – Call for Volunteers
Heritage institutions across the country are eager to organise their own sessions, which is fantastic news. To make sure each event runs smoothly, we are looking for additional experienced Wikipedia editors to help guide new participants.
👉 Do you enjoy sharing your Wikipedia expertise and inspiring others?
Sign up by sending us an e-mail to support a day dedicated to knowledge sharing and improving the visibility of women on Wikipedia. Please indicate the region you live in so we can take it into account when assigning locations. More information about the programme will be added here soon.
Computers Meeting Day at the Industrie Museum in Ghent
The event is part of the preparations for a temporary exhibition opening in autumn 2026, which will explore the evolution of information technology in Belgium.
Since much early IT heritage has not survived physically, the museum is taking a different approach: collecting firsthand stories from people who experienced these developments themselves. The call attracted a wonderfully diverse group—software developers, computer scientists, illustrators, teachers, business leaders, and Wikimedia Belgium.
Through multiple discussion rounds, participants exchanged stories about early mainframes, the rise of the mini-computer, the impact of companies such as Apple, Agfa-Gevaert, Telindus and Proximus, and the ways digital tools transformed academic and graphic workflows.
Together, their contributions painted a vivid picture of how quickly and profoundly the sector has evolved. They also worked collaboratively on a timeline highlighting their first computer encounters and key technological milestones—making the leap from room-sized systems to today’s handheld devices especially tangible.
The meeting not only generated valuable material for the upcoming 2026 exhibition, but also fostered warm exchanges between different generations of IT professionals. The collected stories will help the museum spotlight an important piece of Belgium’s digital past.
Want to know more? Keep an eye on the Industriemuseum Ghent website for updates.
Agenda
🍻 Writing Sessions: The History of Beer in Denderland
No prior experience is needed — guidance, Wi-Fi, and light refreshments are provided.
📅 December 13, 2025
⏰ 13:30–17:00
📍 Grand Café des Arcades, Statieplein 8, 9300 Aalst
🏛️ Wikicafé Ypres: Buildings Under Construction
Participants explore the urban landscape of Ypres and dive into the stories behind both famous and lesser-known buildings.
Together, we will create new Wikipedia articles or expand existing ones using reliable sources and images—making Ypres’ architectural heritage more visible online.
Participants register in advance and select a building from the prepared list. All relevant source material will be available on the day itself.
📅 December 10, 2025
📍 Yper Museum (Ypres)
🌐 Register
📚 Public Domain Day 2026 & Wiki Loves Heritage Award Ceremony
On 15th of January 2026, the Royal Library of Belgium (KBR) in Brussels will host Public Domain Day 2026, followed by the Wiki Loves Heritage award ceremony.
Every year on 1 January, new works enter the public domain—yet many remain difficult to access. This event brings together experts, policymakers, practitioners, and advocates to share insights and best practices on how to open up this material to the public.
📅 January 15, 2026
📍 Royal Library of Belgium (KBR), Brussels
🌐 Register here
Do you want to read more news from Wikimedia Belgium? Read the full newsletter here.
Czech Radio and Wikimedia CZ launched cooperation
Sounds of Vanished Bells ringed through Czech Republic
The advocacy strategy approved by Wikimedia Czech Republic at the end of 2024 opened up opportunities for partnership with two public media outlets. Czech Television and Czech Radio play a key role in making information and content accessible, so their involvement in Wikimedia projects is indispensable. In cooperation with the Czech Radio archive (Dušan Radovanovič, Tomáš Dufka), the first project was created – Lost Bells. Czech Radio has access to and manages recordings of nearly ninety bells from across the Czech Republic that were requisitioned and melted down during World War II. These recordings, together with descriptions and information, will be uploaded to Wikimedia Commons on the basis of a memorandum and linked to entries for churches or municipalities on Wikipedia. This unique project is a pilot for further cooperation. The Lost Bells project will culminate on October 2, 2025, on International Bell Day. More information can be found on the Czech Radio project page.
Guided tour in the Czech Radio for Wikimedians
Part of the programme and participation was also a guided tour provided by Head of Czech Radio Archive, Tomáš Dufka. Group of Wikimedians joined this tour, which led the group through offices, studios and rooftop view. Last stop was linked to inspiring talk with Miloš Turek, who presented historical formats used for recording of the sounds from 1930's to 1960's. He showed us also precious tapes with the bell sounds, which were digitalised and used for Wikimedia projects as part of the Vanished Bells project.
Partnership of Czech Radio and Wikimedia ČR is a unique type of partnership reaching out from the GLAM partners community. It is well based on initiative of specific representatives of both communities, leading to new plans for cooperation for 2026. All the plans will be presented at the WikiProject site.
Our Activities in November
Our Activities in November
In this month, we organized several activities, including Commons Meet-Up, Wikisource Meet- Ups, Commons Training and the announcement of Wikipustaka Competition winners.
There were two Wikisource meet- Ups conducted, one by Wikisource Indonesia Community on 15 November via Google meet. And the other by Banjarnegara community on 16 November. Both focused on proofreading and validation texts.
On 21 November Denpasar Community announced the Winners of Wikipustaka Competition. During this competition, participants proofread and validated Balinese texts on ban.wikisource.org with a total of 14 participants took part in the event.
We also collaborated with UNIC (United Nations Information Centre) Jakarta for a special meet-up on 22 November. On this special event, participants uploaded the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in various local languages available on the OHCHR website, including Acehnese, Papuan, Minang, Bataknese, Sundanese, Banjar, Madurese, Ambonese, and Buginese. Most of the participants were able to speak and write in these languages, which helped to checking the translation and uploading process.
Wrap up of the 2025 GLAM call
Last March, Wikimedia Italia announced the ten selected projects for the 2025 GLAM call — an initiative run in collaboration with ICOM Italia and Creative Commons Italia to promote the online reuse of public domain images and open access content.
Today we’re happy to share an update on the progress of these projects: what has been achieved so far, which concrete results are now available on Wikimedia platforms, and how institutions across Italy are actively contributing to free knowledge.
- Associazione Astrofili Spezzini (AAS), La Spezia
The amateur astronomy association AAS has shared a growing collection of astrophotography taken at the “Luciano Zannoni” observatory on Monte Viseggi. These high-quality scientific images are now enriching Wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons and Wikidata. More than 120 images have already been uploaded, with plans to release educational materials created from this content.
See all AAS images on Wikimedia Commons.
- Archivio Storico di Alatri
The Historical Archive of Alatri has digitised around 80 medieval and early modern parchments (1200–1700), including the monumental 300-page Statute of Alatri (1585–86), papal letters and other historical documents. All materials have been uploaded in high resolution, making a previously local documentary heritage openly available.
See all documents from the Alatri Historical Archive on Wikimedia Commons.
- Centro Studi Baresi (CSB), Bari
CSB, a long-standing centre dedicated to research on the dialect and traditions of Bari, has uploaded 17 dialect manuals and related publications: lyric poetry, folklore notes, children’s tales, popular literature and biographical texts on Apulian writers, as well as historical documents concerning the Basilica of Saint Nicholas.
Explore the CSB collection on Wikimedia Commons.
- Archivio Storico Rosignano Marittimo (LI)
- the Pietro Gori Collection
To mark the 160th anniversary of Pietro Gori’s birth (1865–1911), the Historical Archive of Rosignano Marittimo has digitised and released all 13 volumes of Criminalogia moderna, the influential criminology journal founded and directed by Gori in Buenos Aires (1898–1901).
Its editorial board included major figures of Argentine culture and numerous European collaborators such as Napoleone Colajanni, Cesare Lombroso and Antonio Labriola. This unique collection is now fully accessible online.
Read “Criminalogia moderna” on Wikimedia Commons.
- Museo Civico Alpino “Arnaldo Tazzetti”, Usseglio (TO)
The Tazzetti Alpine Museum has uploaded more than 500 high-resolution images documenting the flora and fauna of the Valli di Lanzo: a complete herbarium of local plants and an extensive butterfly collection representing nearly all diurnal Lepidoptera species of the valleys.
Many images are already in use on Wikidata items, increasing the visibility of this local biodiversity.
See all images from the Tazzetti Museum on Wikimedia Commons.
- Fondazione Teatro Regio di Torino
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The Teatro Regio di Torino has digitised, catalogued and released more than 2,000 images of stage designs and costume sketches for operas and ballets. These works — many created by living artists — are typically protected by copyright and rarely available under an open licence.
Thanks to the collaboration with Wikimedia Italia, this exceptional contemporary art collection (1969–2019) is now accessible on Wikimedia Commons, accompanied by a wiki-story video guiding viewers through the theatre’s archives.
Browse all Teatro Regio images on Wikimedia Commons.
- Biblioteca Centrale del Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR), Rome
The CNR Central Library has completed a full digitalisation of the Atlas of isoseismal maps of Italian earthquakes, a cartographic collection previously available only on site and known only to specialists. The atlas covers earthquakes in Italy from the year 1000 to 1980.
Each map uploaded to Wikimedia Commons is accompanied by detailed metadata, allowing editors to use every single isoseismal map independently in Wikipedia articles and Wikidata items. The project makes 400 images available for reuse.
Additionally, the entire UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) has been translated into Italian Sign Language (LIS), supporting accessibility and inclusion.
See all CNR materials on Wikimedia Commons.
- Fondazione Giangiacomo Feltrinelli
- the Libero Cavalli Archive
Marking the 80th anniversary of the Liberation, the Feltrinelli Foundation has digitised 75 archival documents related to the Italian and French Resistance. These include internal reports of the Matteotti Brigades, correspondence and minutes from the Libero Cavalli papers, donated to the Foundation.
This release offers a valuable contribution to the documentation of partisan history and democratic memory.
See all documents from the Libero Cavalli Archive on Wikimedia Commons.
- Museo di Anatomia Comparata “G.B. Grassi”, Sapienza University of Rome
The Museum of Comparative Anatomy has uploaded more than 130 educational wall charts produced between the late 19th and early 20th century. They illustrate anatomical and zoological subjects such as egg morphology, internal structures of fish, avian respiratory systems and comparative circulatory systems in vertebrates and invertebrates.
As part of the project, a webinar titled “Between science and art: the parietal charts of the Museum of Comparative Anatomy ‘G.B. Grassi’” was held in May 2025. All images are now on Wikimedia Commons and fully integrated into Wikidata.
See all images from the Grassi Museum on Wikimedia Commons.
- Museo di Storia Naturale dell’Università di Pisa
Following the 3D models of cetaceans released in last year’s MAB edition, the Natural History Museum of Pisa has uploaded more than 200 high-definition images of skeletons, fossils and a substantial underwater photography collection of fish species — including a set dedicated to northern Italian species, a relatively rare resource due to the technical difficulty of producing high-quality underwater images.
These visuals are already widely used in Wikimedia projects and offer an important contribution to documenting marine biodiversity.
See all images from the Natural History Museum of Pisa on Wikimedia Commons.
- Why this matters
Across small local organisations and large academic institutions, the 2025 MAB projects show how sharing digital collections under open licences can make Italian cultural heritage more visible, reusable and accessible — strengthening the ecosystem of free knowledge for everyone.
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.
Wikimedia MKD and Cultural Institutions: A Year of Growth, Content, and Collaboration
Since February 2025, Wikimedia MKD has been collaborating with the Museum of Macedonia and the collaboration was very successful. One Wikipedian in Residence was appointed there, that resulted with large number of new articles, found materials and support for Wikipedia editors. Additional five Glam contents contributors and editors joined the forces and supported the project remotely. Together, they have been researching, documenting, and enriching Wikipedia with high-quality content related to traditional crafts, folk costumes, and material cultural heritage. So far, the team has created and improved more than 170 articles, significantly expanding the coverage of topics connected to the museum’s collections.
The Wikipedian in Residence has been working on site with curators and ethnologists, helping the museum identify materials suitable for open licensing, improving metadata, and preparing documentation for future contributions to Wikimedia Commons. The GLAM content contributors and editors support the project remotely by transforming curated materials into well-structured, sourced Wikipedia articles.
Meanwhile, our ongoing collaboration with the Institute of Macedonian Literature — launched in 2023 — continues to show excellent results. With one Wikipedian in Residence stationed at the Institute, the partnership has resulted in 30 newly written articles on Macedonian literary authors, works, and scholarly contributions. This collaboration helps bridge important content gaps and raises awareness among researchers and students about the value of Wikimedia platforms.
These initiatives demonstrate the growing recognition of Wikimedia projects as important tools for preserving and sharing Macedonia’s cultural and academic heritage. In the next year 2026, Wikimedia MKD plans to further strengthen and expand these GLAM partnerships.
GLAM Wiki 2025 conference, WiR Meeting and the First National Institute of Museums Training on GLAM–Wiki
Wikimedia Polska at the GLAM Wiki Conference 2025
From 30 October to 1 November 2025, Kamila Neuman (Open Culture Manager) and Jolanta Drzewakowska (Communications and PR Manager) represented Wikimedia Polska at the Wikimedia GLAM Wiki 2025 conference in Lisbon. The event was above all an opportunity for many meetings and conversations, which were especially valuable at a moment of summing up the past year (and recent years) and reflecting on future directions for GLAM–Wiki work.
Discussions during the conference helped us think about different models and approaches to GLAM–Wiki partnerships, including how to engage more institutions and expand the network of Wikimedians in Residence. Another important theme for us was connecting GLAM–Wiki with broader openness policies. In this context, initiatives such as GLAM e-Lab and TAROCH are particularly meaningful. Wikimedia Polska is already part of TAROCH and is very interested in the development of GLAM e-Lab, as such projects help cultural institutions – especially smaller ones – better understand their rights, open up their collections and overcome the initial entry barrier to working with open content.
Content Partnership Hub was also discussed with hope and interest, as a space that can support networking and specialist knowledge-sharing among people involved in GLAM–Wiki, especially in areas where there are still visible skill gaps.
Examples of projects presented at the conference – particularly those based on Wikidata, such as Media Art Archiving on Wikimedia Projects shown by Susanna Ånäs – clearly illustrated that we are still dealing with a significant knowledge gap across the movement. The complexity of such Wikidata-driven initiatives shows how diverse our levels of expertise remain. These case studies are inspiring reference points, but they also highlight the need to deepen our understanding and build our own competences so that we can implement similar projects in the future.
Overall, participating in Wikimedia GLAM Wiki conference was a highly valuable experience for Wikimedia Polska: it offered space for conversations and reflection, helped us summarise our current work and supported us in rethinking priorities and choosing new directions for GLAM–Wiki activities. The participation of Wikimedia Polska representatives was made possible thanks to funding financed by the National Institute of Freedom – Center for Civil Society Development as part of the government Programme for Civil Society Organisations Development for 2018–2030 CSODev.
Wikimedians in Residence meet in Piotrków Trybunalski
On 13–14 November 2024, Wikimedians in Residence in Poland met in Piotrków Trybunalski for an in-person working session organised by Wikimedia Polska. The meeting brought together Kamila Neuman (Open Culture Manager), Kasia Makowska (Open Science Manager), Wojciech Szczęsny (National Library of Poland), Grzegorz Gogacz (Mazovian Digital Library) and Agata Stadnicka (Czartoryski Library, National Museum in Kraków).
The gathering combined strategic reflection with hands-on collaboration. Kamila Neuman shared key insights from the GLAM Wiki 2024 conference in Lisbon, highlighting trends and inspirations shaping the future of the GLAM Wiki ecosystem. A significant part of the meeting focused on the work of Wojciech Szczęsny, who presented a set of automation tools and scripts he is developing to support the daily workflow of a Wikimedian in Residence. His tools help streamline editing, generate real-time summaries of contributions across Wikimedia projects, and simplify reporting processes — demonstrating how technical optimisation can meaningfully enhance WiR work. These solutions have strong potential for broader use within the international GLAM Wiki community.
Participants also engaged in a collaborative retrospective of the past year, discussing motivations, challenges, needs and personal perspectives for the future. This reflection allowed the group to articulate shared lessons learned and identify areas for growth.
As outcomes of the meeting, the group committed to implementing the many lessons drawn from 2025, planning improvements to strengthen and increase the visibility of WiR work in 2026, and preparing actions extending into 2026 to further support the programme’s development. One of the concrete plans is to resume regular online meetings focused on skill-building and knowledge exchange. We are also optimistic that the WiR group in Poland will continue to grow in the coming year and in the years ahead.
For the First Time in the National Institute of Museums’ Training Offer: A Workshop on GLAM–Wiki Collaboration
On 28 November, Wikimedia Polska, in cooperation with the National Institute of Museums, delivered an online training for museum professionals titled "Wikipedia and GLAM-Wiki Projects: How to Effectively Increase the Online Presence of Museum Collections". For the first time, the Institute’s annual training program included a session dedicated to cooperation between cultural institutions and the Wikimedia movement. The workshop was led by Kamila Neuman, Open Culture Manager at Wikimedia Polska.
The aim of the training was to introduce museums to the potential of Wikipedia and its sister projects for strengthening the online visibility of collections. Participants received an overview of how GLAM–Wiki collaboration works in practice and how institutions can meaningfully contribute to Wikimedia projects.
The session combined a short introductory part with a practical exercise. Each institution carried out a brief audit of its presence across Wikimedia projects — assessing how their museum is represented on Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikimedia Commons, and identifying areas for improvement. This helped participants understand both the current state of visibility and potential next steps.
Around 20 museums took part in the workshop, representing a wide range of institutions — regional museums, thematic museums, historical museums, as well as, for example, a theatre or a porcelain museum, as one of the examples. This diversity showed how GLAM–Wiki collaboration can support institutions of all sizes and profiles.
After the training, participants received a short checklist with links to essential introductory materials — including tutorials for creating an account, making first edits, and links related to GLAM-Wiki and Wikimedia Polska — to support their independent first steps.
Participants’ feedback was highly positive. As an additional bonus, Kamila offered each institution a one-hour online consultation to help plan concrete Wikimedia-related activities tailored to their needs.
IT Wikicon, Faces and Masks, Matrimoine @ Genève
IT WikiCon
The Italian WikiCon took place at the first weekend of November in Catania, Sicily. It was located in the middle of the cultural heritage from Sicily. There was a lot to explore in the city. Sicily has a quite diverse history of several cultures and is now a refugee hotspot. Whitewashing has been happening and is now subject of the city administration. Due to the strong sunlight lemons and fruits in general are great and cheap on the market. Besides the conference there was an intense tourist programme to explore the landscape around the ethna and the seaside. The programme reflects all the different topics from community health, open heritage and open education to Wikidata graphs.
Faces and Masks
Finally our African journalist received a visa and could come to work with us. We helped her getting around in Switzerland and providing future opportunities for doing a Master in Italy. Her presentation on the human aspect of African culture at the Kasko art space has been successfull. The workshop in Biel/Bienne was quite intense. Our plan on how to continue is clear but of course depending on partners. There are many different traditions using masks and communicate visually with another. It has been interesting to see how the traditions relate to another and how they influence everyday life. The project page will be continued.
Matrimoine @ Genève
Bibliothèque de Genève, Salle Musée Voltaire: The Atelier in Geneva was the last event of the UEFA women football series. As it was the first time for Switzerland hosting the games the topic women football received high attention. It is not only about football but also on team work and solidarity between women. In patriarch systems girls learn on how not to relate to each other but mainly to boys and men. As teamwork helps everyone we encourage women to be open to themselves and to be strong in diverse teams. The project page shows the programme and the context of the project.
Awards season- again!
Khalili Foundation
The Khalili Foundation won Wikimedia UK's Partnership of the Year award, recognising the institution's work to promote the cultural diversity of Wikipedia, and especially the ongoing work with UNESCO to raise awareness of the Memory of the World International Register.
Wikimedia UK posted the announcement on LinkedIn and the Khalili Foundation has posted a news item.
I had an online meeting with Farida El-Gueretly (Senior Partnerships Manager at the Wikimedia Foundation, with a focus on the Middle East and North Africa region) and Reda Kerbush about the Million Wiki Project, of which Reda is the Grant Committee Director. This funded, multi-year project aims to create a million pieces of information on Wikimedia platforms (Wikipedia articles, Wikidata items, files on Wikimedia Commons...) relating to the cultures of the MENA region. We discussed how both the UNESCO Memory of the World International Register and the Khalili Collections can help with this effort. The MoW register can help to target the most important examples of documentary heritage from the region. The Khalili Collections may be able to share additional images and catalogue data; this is something we will keep in touch about.
Most of the work this month has been on the Memory of the World project, for which there is a separate report.
Japanese Wikipedia has a new article on Gold Dinar, whose lead image is from the Khalili Collections. There are no new articles or translations directly about the Khalili Collections this month.
The stats tools reports 4,116,874 image views this month.
The Cairo Genizah
Wikidata can combine data from multiple collections to answer questions about a historical person or place. There are established guidelines for representing medieval manuscripts in Wikidata, which I had a part in developing. There are presently 189,000 manuscripts known to Wikidata.
I have spent some time adding manuscripts from the Cambridge University Library collections. The book "The Illustrated Cairo Genizah" and the Cambridge Digital Library have both been very useful in identifying important manuscripts and getting authoritative data about them. These records now show up in response to a variety of questions that we can ask Wikidata.
- This image gallery shows manuscripts in the Taylor-Schechter collection. Some images already exist on Wikimedia Commons, but where they don't exist, clicking on the name of the manuscript will bring up an interactive viewer using the IIIF image format. This means we are getting the images directly from the Cambridge University Library rather than from Wikimedia.
- A similar display shows manuscripts in the hand of Moses Maimonides. Again, click on the manuscript name rather than the image.
- When we ask for an image gallery of manuscripts depicting a menorah, we get one of the Taylor-Schechter manuscripts, with a link to its catalogue record in Cambridge Digital Library.
- Asking Wikidata for Yiddish manuscripts, it now returns the Cambridge Yiddish Codex.
November edit-a-thons & meetings
Lunch and Learn in San Francisco
The Bay Area Wikipedians User Group hosted their first lunch and learn for Bay Area GLAM organizations, in collaboration with the San Francisco Historical Society.
Key highlights:
- The lunch brought together 40 attendees, from two dozens organizations, primarily historical organizations but also libraries
- Invites and learning materials were sent to representatives from over 50 organizations
- We have so far started three collaborations
- Only one of the organization present had previous engagement with Wiki Projects
- Slide deck
Supported by Rapid Fund grant G-RF-2508-20087
Kelly Street Garden Edit-A-Thon
Wikimedia New York City held an edit-a-thon, Kelly Street Garden Edit-A-Thon.
City Tech Edit-a-thon
City Tech library and Wikimedia New York City held an edit-a-thon, NYC 400 City Tech Edit-a-thon.
DAR Civil Rights
Daughters of the American Revolution and Wikipedia DC held a meetup, DAR WMDC Edit-a-thon.
Chicago
Wikimedians of Chicago held a meetup, Chicago/22 November 2025.
Philadelphia/WikiSalon
Philadelphia Wikimedians held a wikisalon, Philadelphia/WikiSalon 2025-11-08.
Updates on work by BHLWiki Working Group members
Wikidata property proposals relevant to the BHL-Wiki working group
Brodie Hoare from the Auckland War Memorial Museum and Siobhan Leachman have been collaborating on drafting a data model for type specimen Wikidata items and also a data model for Structured Data on Commons used on specimen images. The WikiProject formed for this collaboration can be viewed at this link. This work progresses previous work undertaken by the BHL-Wiki working group documented here.
As part of this collaboration Brodie has been proposing Wikidata properties to empower the development of these data models. This month the Wikidata property proposal for “Collector” (P13914) has been accepted and the property created.
Two further properties have been proposed. The first relates to a determiner of a specimen, currently proposed as the “specimen determiner” property. The second relates to the collection date of a specimen, currently proposed as the “collection date” property. Please add your support, comments, or suggestions for improvement to these property proposals.
GLAMWiki Conference 30 Oct - 1 Nov
Several members of the BHL-Wiki working group attended this conference. BHL related highlights included Tiago Lubiana presenting on BHL and his work as BHL’s Wikimedian in Residence. A recording of his presentation can be seen above.
JJ Dearborn also presented at the GLAMWiki conference in a session on Uncertain Futures, Shared Challenges. Slides from this session can be found at this link.
Error report from the BHL harvest of Author and Title identifiers from Wikidata
Work continues both by Wikidata editors and BHL cataloguers to rectify the errors raised in this report and to ensure the round tripping of identifiers both to and from the BHL catalog and Wikidata is as error free as possible.
Here to Help: The Next Stage of the Content Partnerships Hub
The Content Partnerships Hub is entering an exciting new phase. Thanks to renewed global funding through the Hub grant, we are now strengthening our capacity, expanding our reach, and refining our long-term mission to better support Wikimedia affiliates and communities working with content partnerships worldwide, in particular with the Helpdesk.
Our current steps
The Helpdesk is the Hub’s hands-on support service. It connects affiliates with tailored assistance for content partnerships.
As part of this new cycle, we are reopening the Helpdesk with clearer goals, refreshed processes, and a more collaborative structure. This includes a careful reorganization of both the Helpdesk and the broader Hub, ensuring that our services become more responsive, multilingual, and easier to access for affiliates of all sizes and contexts.
We are currently working on improving workflows, expanding areas of expertise, and establishing new mechanisms that allow us to take on more diverse and complex requests. As always, our focus is to create a space for hands-on help that makes partnerships easier, smoother, and more sustainable across the movement.
Do you need help? We’re here for you
The Helpdesk is now ready to receive new proposals. If your affiliate is planning a partnership, needs technical support, or wants to explore new opportunities, please reach out. We look forward to collaborating with you and building this next chapter together, whether you need help with data cleaning, uploads to Commons or Wikidata, GLAM workflows, tools like OpenRefine or ISA, or guidance on partnership planning. The Helpdesk focuses on practical, movement-wide support.
Also, if you want to share your expertise and put your knowledge at the service of the wider movement, now is the perfect moment to join us. By contributing to the upcoming working groups, supporting peers, or helping refine our tools and processes, you can play an active role in strengthening how we build and sustain content partnerships across Wikimedia.
What is the Content Partnerships Hub?
The Content Partnerships Hub is a Wikimedia movement initiative that supports affiliates and communities in building, expanding, and maintaining partnerships with cultural, educational, scientific, and intergovernmental institutions. Working alongside affiliates such as AvoinGLAM, Wiki in Africa, Wikimedia Indonesia, Wikimedia Serbia, Wikimedia Sverige, Wikimedia UK, and the Wikimedians of Singapore User Group, the Hub aims to strengthen collective capacity across the movement. Our goal is to help affiliates access expertise, tools, and coordinated support so that more high-quality, open knowledge can reach the Wikimedia projects.
Want to participate?, to present a request for help?, more info? Contact us at helpdesk
wikimedia.se or schedule a meeting with us here!
Enriching the data set
This is the fourteenth monthly report of the ongoing work to improve the representation of the UNESCO Memory of the World international register on Wikimedia projects. This is supported and fully funded by the Khalili Foundation, with the involvement of UNESCO and Wikimedia UK.
Progress on data set
Martin and Clara have been working on adding more languages to the Memory of the World inscriptions on Wikidata. For a summary of language data for MoW inscriptions, see this Wikidata-generated bubble chart. Mouse over to see the full name of the language as well as the number of inscriptions.
Some locations are not yet in the data set because the institutions where inscriptions are located are not yet known to Wikidata. These are being added gradually. For the institutions that hold the greatest number of MoW inscriptions, see this Wikidata-generated image gallery.
Clara continued improving the Memory of the World International Register by uploading missing nomination forms and contacting memory institutions to obtain missing images. She also addressed several technical issues, including incorrect map locations on the website, tagging errors, and problems with postal addresses and collection locations.
Publicity
The slides from Martin's talk at the GLAM-Wiki conference have been uploaded to Commons. The video of the session is still being edited by the conference organisers.
UNESCO’s Memory of the World team published an article on the 2025 International Archives Congress in Barcelona and how it can strengthen global capacity to safeguard and promote documentary heritage. The Khalili Foundation also published a news item about the event.
Clara coordinated the mailing of special UNESCO packages to the winners of the September challenge.
Documentation
As the pilot phase comes to an end, Clara has compiled a brochure presenting the project’s core information, including its key objectives, activities, achievements, and milestones.
New articles
- Portuguese: Huangdi Neijing
- Urdu: Aceh Annals
- Toki Pona: Phoenician script
Page and image views
The image views are reported by the GLAMorgan tool as 140 million this month; as with previous reports, this is likely an overestimate. Articles about the Memory of the World International Register itself had 18,883 views across all versions of Wikipedia: a 16% increase over the previous month.
December's GLAM events
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