GLAM/Newsletter/September 2016/Contents/Czech Republic report
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Edit-a-thon in the Research Library in Olomouc
ByThe Edit-a-thon in the Research Library in Olomouc was held on Saturday 10 September 2016 on the occasion of the European Heritage Days and at the same time the 450th anniversary of the Research Library in Olomouc. Its main aim was to create or expand Wikipedia articles on the topics recommended by the library. The event was supported by the association Wikimedia Czech Republic.
Ten Wikipedians took part in the edit-a-thon, nine of which were from various parts of the Czech Republic and one from Slovakia. The Wikipedians were shown round the library buildings and its departments, especially the Study Room of Historical Collections. After this they started writing encyclopaedic articles. They were allowed to use all the necessary library resources and several librarians were helping them with their expertal knowledge and provided them with useful illustrations for the encyclopaedia articles, which were uploaded to Commons. Some other Wikipedians also supported the event with their contributions although they were not able to arrive in person. Two librarians, Anna Vitásková and Jitka Sládková, who took care of the participants, were at the same time also registered Wikipedians.
The Research Library had recommended 32 topics to work on, which included the library itself, its resources and also people connected either with the history of the library or with book publishing in Olomouc. New or expanded Czech Wikipedia articles included for example Gradual of Louka, Missale of Olomouc, Portolan atlas, Jan Olivetský z Olivetu, Mauric Remeš or Jaume Olives, and also many related illustrations. Approximately 60 thousand bytes of text were added to the Czech Wikipedia. The event was also reported by local press in Olomouc, specifically by the newspaper Olomoucký deník, online newspaper Metropole and the web pages of the Regional Authority of the Olomouc Region.
The representatives of both the Wikimedia Czech Republic and the Research Library agreed on the usefulness of mutual cooperation and decided to continue in future. Another step is a 6-hour workshop Píšeme Wikipedii ("We Write Wikipedia"), presented in three parts, for people interested in learning how to contribute to Wikipedia. The workshop is going to take place in the library in October 2016.