GLAM/Newsletter/September 2025/Single
Wikipedia edit-a-thon at the Skampa Theater in Elbasan, Albania
Wikipedia edit-a-thon at the Skampa Theater in Elbasan, Albania
On September 22, 2025, the stage of the Skampa Theater in Elbasan became, for one day, the space for editing and sharing knowledge on Wikipedia.
In collaboration with the Skampa Theater, Wikimedians of Albanian Language User Group organized an edit-a-thon dedicated to documenting the culture, art, and artists of Skampa Theater since its opening and early performance shows.
Within a day the local community created 13 articles and edited 44 articles about actors, performances, and the theater’s history, making sure that this cultural legacy of Elbasan is represented on Wikipedia. Participants came from different backgrounds, including students, theater’s employers, librarians, and theater’s spectators, and had the chance to learn how Wikipedia works, gaining skills to continue learning on their own in the future.
Once again, the collaborations with cultural institutions tell us the importance of preserving the collective memory and remind us that this work will continue.
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Social media
- We have a public channel on WhatsApp of Albanian Language if you want to join and discuss Wikimedia projects.
If you want to see more about our activities, you can:
- Like our Facebook page, follow us on formerly Twitter or X or Instagram.
Wikipedia on Aruba Initiative: Building Knowledge and Visibility
Wikipedia on Aruba is a pilot project that began in January 2025. The initiative aims to enrich information about Aruba and Dutch-Caribbean culture and heritage on Wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons, and Wikidata.
Over the past few months, the Wikipedia on Aruba team has been working on developing frameworks and processes to deliver training and support for the local community, encouraging them to actively contribute to the Wikimedia platforms. As a first step, a survey was conducted to assess the needs of participants and collaborators. This provided valuable insights into potential challenges and barriers to participation. Using this data, the team organized Ban Wiki (edit-a-thon events) in collaboration with the National Library of Aruba, supported by facilitators, local guest speakers, NGO's and professionals with expertise in topics such as flora and fauna, monuments, and Aruban history. Most participants who joined these events had little or no prior experience with Wikimedia platforms. Therefore, the training sessions primarily focused on introducing the platforms and providing the basic skills needed to start editing.
Both in-person and online training opportunities were offered to accommodate different needs. The in-person events attracted a diverse audience, ranging from younger participants to elderly community members, each bringing their own interests in using Wikimedia platforms.
The Ban Wiki events also created space for dialogue, allowing participants to share their perspectives on the themes and topics presented. Looking ahead, the project aims to equip participants with the necessary tools to become active contributors to open knowledge sharing. Future editions will emphasize practical training across the three platforms: Wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons, and Wikidata.
Wikiloves monuments Aruba 2025
This year’s Wiki Loves Monuments campaign will once again highlight Aruba’s local monuments and encourage volunteers to help enrich the island’s heritage through photography.
The event has played a significant role in showcasing Aruba’s monuments to a global audience. In 2025, Wikipedia on Aruba will join forces with the Monuments Fund Aruba to organize the contest locally, starting in October.
Wiki Loves Monuments 2025 in Aruba
Project Activities
The Wikipedia on Aruba team has continuously worked on strengthening the project’s online presence while also contributing valuable visual materials, such as interviews with contributors. To date, the team has uploaded more than 1,000 images to Wikimedia Commons, which are available under the category Wikipedia on Aruba activities. In addition, the team has translated practical instructions from the Kennisplatform NL into the local language, Papiamento, making them accessible both in written form and as instructional videos on YouTube/ Wikipedia on Aruba
State Library Victoria WikiFest
WikiFest
Aimed at GLAM workers, the all-day workshop opened with a welcome from SLV LAB’s Innovation Lead, Sotirios Alpanis. Participants shared their motivations for attending, which included to gain hands-on experience with Wikidata, to break out of professional silos or to explore new possibilities for open access and cultural equity.
Five lightning talks from Wikimedians and GLAM folk set the scene for the day, and provided practical insights to ground the workshop in real-world applications:
- Tim Sherratt talked about his experiences using Wikidata in combination with GLAM data to enrich his historical research – helping to glue together different collections and their data. Presentation: Combining Wikidata and GLAM data
- Phizz Telford introduced State Library Victoria's copyright-free image pool, and their passion for making them available. Dataset: SLV copyright-free image collection
- Alex Lum gave an overview of what Wikidata is, with examples form GLAM institutions to help illustrate his talk. Presentation: What is Wikidata?
- Julia Rodwell introduced the research that underpinned her PhD and the Beyond the Book online exhibition. She emphasised the importance of open linked data to support this, and how she'd had to overcome a sense of imposter syndrome to contribute to it (on Wikidata). Presentation: How linked open data helped build an exhibition
- Paul Duchesne gave an overview of his experiences as ACMI's Wikimedian-in-residence – including the benefits and some of the pitfalls he had to overcome. Presentation: Linking ACMI's collection data
From the WikiFest participants
- WikiFest 2025 unlocks open knowledge by Dilan Gunawardana
- WikiFest at the State Library of Victoria by Tim Sherratt
Radical Acts residency
The WikiFest followed on from the SLV's Radical Acts project undertaken by Wikimedians in Residence, Kerrie Burn and Ellie Watts. Read about the outcomes of Radical Acts
- From Archives to Wikipedia: Documenting Australian Feminism Through Radical Acts by Kerrie Burn and Ellie Watts
- Wikimedians-in-residence by Paul Dee
Make cultural heritage freely accessible, Hasselt's collections shine online & Let's give women a voice on Wikipedia!
News from Wikimedia Belgium.
Make cultural heritage freely accessible
From October 1 to December 31, 2025, we invite volunteers, heritage enthusiasts, and anyone with a passion for free knowledge to contribute to Wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons and Wikidata.
Why this challenge?
In 2026, the copyright on works by countless writers, artists, and photographers who died in 1955 will expire. By writing biographies and collecting data now, we are ensuring that their lives and work will be immediately visible as soon as they officially enter the public domain.
What can you do?
- 📝 Biografieën schrijven of uitbreiden van makers (overleden in 1955) wiens auteursrecht in 2026 afloopt
- 📷 Vrije media uploaden naar Wikimedia Commons (overleden in 1954)
- 🔎 Gestructureerde data toevoegen aan Wikidata voor wereldwijde vindbaarheid
Why participate?
- 📚 Cultural heritage is preserved and becomes freely accessible
- 🌍 Your contribution reaches millions of readers worldwide
- ✍️ Participating is easy: all you need is a free Wikimedia account
➡️ Join in!
Register today via the official event page.
Together, we ensure that valuable heritage is not only preserved, but can also be freely shared – for everyone, everywhere.
Hasselt's collections shine online
These new uploads are the result of ongoing collaboration between Wikimedia and the museums in Hasselt, with the aim of making heritage accessible to everyone.
- Jenever Museum: posters, postcards and porcelain cards – a colourful glimpse into the rich history of jenever. View the collection.
- Fashion Museum: elegant clothing accessories and several ensembles from the 18th and 19th centuries – fashion history to enjoy. View the collection.
But uploading is only the first step. To really make these images shine, we need your help.
Link the new photos to relevant Wikipedia articles and bring this unique Hasselt heritage to the attention of a global audience.
Together, we ensure that these gems are not only preserved, but also shared and admired.
Let's give women a voice on Wikipedia!
Across Flanders, heritage organisations are organising Wikipedia writing sessions to make stories of inspiring women visible to a wide audience.
Information session for heritage organisations
Would you like to participate as an archive, museum, library or heritage institution, or organise a session yourself? Then join the online information session organised by Bruges Public Library on 13 November, from 10 a.m. to 11.30 a.m., and listen to their inspiring testimony.
During this session, you will gain a clear overview of the following points:
- Why are these writing sessions so important?
- What do you need? From preliminary research to practical tips.
- How do you host a location? How do you join an existing session?
💡 Participation is free, but registration is required.
All information can be found here.
Hidden heritage unveiled: science, history and nature on Wikimedia
Edit-a-thon at the Museo Nazionale Scienza e Tecnologia Leonardo da Vinci
On October 1st, Wikimedia Italia and the Museo Nazionale Scienza e Tecnologia Leonardo da Vinci in Milan held an edit-a-thon focused on cultural heritage conservation, as part of their ongoing collaboration for the enrichment of Wikimedia projects and OpenStreetMap.
The event opened with a guided tour through some of the museum’s less accessible collections, which became the subject of new documentation. Participants worked on specialist content related to conservation, but also on hidden treasures from the museum’s storerooms: the historic bicycle collection, a set of model boats, and—most notably—the Red Tent that allowed survivors of Umberto Nobile’s 1928 Arctic expedition to endure after the crash of the airship Italia. No longer displayed for conservation reasons, the tent is now again visible, preserved in a climate-controlled container.
Fifteen editors took part, creating and improving articles on conservation techniques, museum collections, and related topics. Several Wikidata items were created or enhanced and mapped on OpenStreetMap, while new images have been uploaded to Wikimedia Commons
Fondazione Feltrinelli and Alps Museum
As part of a GLAM partnership supported through Wikimedia Italia’s Musei Archivi Biblioteche 2025 program, Fondazione Giangiacomo Feltrinelli has shared original documents from the Italian Resistance during World War II.
The materials, preserved in the Libero Cavalli collection, include records from the Brigate Garibaldi, one of the most significant partisan formations active during the conflict. By making these documents available, the Foundation enriches Wikimedia projects with unique primary sources that testify to the history of anti-fascist resistance and the fight for liberation in Italy.
In the same framework, the Museo Civico Alpino Arnaldo Tazzetti in Usseglio (Turin) has shared two important natural history collections: its herbarium and its collection of butterflies from the Western Alps. The butterfly collection includes around 1,300 specimens covering nearly all species of diurnal Lepidoptera found in the Lanzo valleys, as well as numerous species from other Italian mountain areas. Both collections are being digitized in very high quality, with the resulting images made available on Wikimedia Commons to support taxonomic and conservation research while overcoming the geographic limitations of the museum’s high-mountain location.
Wikimedia Commons birthday content donation
On 7 September 2025, the image repository Wikimedia Commons celebrated its 21st anniversary. In those 21 years, more than 126 million files have been added, of which many are used to enrich Wikipedia and on many other places. A large number already, but there are still many subjects without images.
The Maastricht University Library is celebrating this anniversary with a donation of scans of books from the library's Special Collections that are not, or hardly, accessible to the public.
The first series of books that have been digitalised are books from the golden age of illustration which have been illustrated by Edmund Dulac. Books from the golden age of illustration are:
- First series of books: Golden age of illustration
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The second series of books from the Special Collections that have been digitalised have been chosen by students during the course Historical Book Review. The chosen books are:
- Second series of books: student's choice
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A random selection of images are:
See for a full overview of the content donation the page Commons:Birthday/21st birthday/Content donation Universiteitsbibliotheek Maastricht at Wikimedia Commons.
Wikimedian in Residence at the Bioeconomy Science Institute & Wikiproject NZ Women in Architecture
Supported by Wikimedia Aotearoa New Zealand, the Manaaki Whenua Landcare Research group of the Bioeconomy Science Institute has appointed Siobhan Leachman (Ambrosia10) as their Wikimedian in Residence.
The Manaaki Whenua Landcare Research group holds five nationally significant biological collections. These collections play a critical role in furthering the understanding and protection of Aotearoa New Zealand's unique biodiversity as well as supporting sustainable land use. The aims of this WiR are to:
- Develop a strategy for MWLR group engagement with Wiki platforms.
- Develop long-term workflows by identifying ways to integrate Wiki content creation into the process of mobilising specimen data.
- Engage and educate MWLR group staff including facilitating discussions with staff to provide targeted education on the Wikimedia ecosystem, the impact of data reuse, and Wikimedia’s outreach potential.
- Organise or facilitate uploads of appropriate MWLR sourced data into Wikidata
- Organise or facilitate uploads and enrichment of openly licensed MWLR sourced images and documents and create or improve associated structured data in Wikimedia Commons.
This role will commence on the 8th of September and will finish on the 30th of June 2026. More information on this WiR can seen on its project page.
A Trip into the Archives with A+W
As part of the New Zealand Women in Architecture Wikiproject, A+W partnered with Auckland Museum's Wikimedian in Residence, the University of Auckland Cultural Collections team and AUT's School of Future Environments, to host Women in Architecture: A Trip into the Archives & Edit-a-thon.
The day started with a visit to the Cultural Collections of the University of Auckland where attendees viewed archival material relating to the first six women who graduated from the School of Architecture in the 1930s and 1940s. The collections host a variety of materials, including large scale drawings, newspaper clippings from the Sheppard Collection and transcriptions of captivating speeches.
Participants then gathered at AUT's School of Future Environments to take part in an Edit-a-thon to enrich Wikipedia and Wikidata content available about the first six women to graduate from the School of Architecture. Pages for Mary Clemens de Lisle and Dorothy Wills were vastly improved, a page was created for Mary Dorothy Edwards as well as a number of Wikidata items.
Read more here about The Women Who Paved the Way.
Expanding Access to Culture and Knowledge through Key Partnerships
As part of its ongoing efforts to promote free and open access to knowledge, Wikimedia MKD continues to strengthen collaborations with cultural and educational institutions. Through its GLAM programs, two recent initiatives highlight this mission in action: a partnership with the “Manaki Brothers” International Film Festival as part of the Wiki Loves Film initiative, and the signing of a Memorandum of Cooperation with the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics in Skopje.
Wiki Loves Film – Collaboration with "Manaki brothers" Film Festival
As part of the GLAM program of Wikimedia MKD, and within the framework of the international Wiki Loves Film initiative, Orce Nineski, Coordinator for Cooperation with Cultural Institutions, participated in the “Manaki Brothers” International Film Festival, held in Bitola from September 20 to 26, 2025.
The purpose of this activity was to document one of the most important cultural events in Macedonia and to contribute to the Wikimedia projects with freely licensed visual content related to film and cinematography. The "Manaki Brothers" festival, as the oldest and most renowned film festival in the country, attracts filmmakers, artists, and media from across the region and beyond.
Throughout the festival, Mr. Nineski photographed various aspects of the event, including:
- Opening and closing ceremonies
- Red carpet arrivals
- Special guests and award winners
- Screenings, public programs, and cultural performances
A total of 242 photographs were taken and uploaded to Wikimedia Commons under a free license, making them available for use across Wikipedia, Wikidata, and other Wikimedia platforms, as well as for the general public. These images enrich the documentation of the event and increase the visibility of Macedonian film culture within the global Wikimedia system.
This activity supports the goals of both the GLAM program and the Wiki Loves Film initiative by promoting open access to cultural heritage and strengthening collaboration between Wikimedia communities and cultural institutions in the field of cinema and the arts.
Memorandum for collaboration with the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics in Skopje
On October 7, Wikimedia MKD and the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics at Ss. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje formally signed a Memorandum for collaboration, establishing a strategic partnership aimed at fostering the development of education, scientific research, and the promotion of free and open access to knowledge.
This agreement outlines a framework for long-term collaboration, where both institutions will work closely to integrate digital tools, open educational resources, and innovative approaches within the academic environment. The partnership is founded on a shared commitment to enhance the quality, accessibility, and reliability of educational content available to students, researchers, and the wider public.
The signing ceremony was attended by representatives from both organizations. Wikimedia MKD was represented by Executive Director Snežana Štrkovska, Coordinator for Cooperation with Cultural Institutions Orce Nineski, and Educational Program Manager Bosa Filipović. From the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, Dean Prof. Dr. Davorin Trpeski highlighted the significance of this collaboration as a vital opportunity to bridge the academic community with the global open knowledge movement. He emphasized the potential for this partnership to stimulate research and educational activities grounded in openness, transparency, and accessibility.
The Memorandum of collaboration paves the way for future joint initiatives, including the development of educational programs, digital projects, and research collaborations. Both parties expressed optimism that these efforts will contribute positively not only to the academic community and students but also to society at large by fostering a culture of open and shared knowledge.
This partnership reflects the mutual values and vision of Wikimedia MKD and the Faculty, aiming to support an inclusive learning environment where knowledge is freely accessible and collaboratively developed.
WikiChełmoński: the Special Guided Tour at the National Museum in Krakow
A Look Back at the Special Guided Tour of the Chełmoński Exhibition at the National Museum in Krakow
On September 6, 2025, the Main Building of the National Museum in Krakow hosted a special event dedicated to Wikipedians – including those who took part in the WikiChełmoński editing campaign. The initiative was organized by Wikimedia Polska in cooperation with the National Museum in Krakow and the National Museum in Poznań, combining online editing efforts with in-person museum experiences.
The tour was led by Magdalena Bujak, the author of the exhibition’s design. Thanks to her engaging story, participants could see how profoundly the museum space influences the way we experience art. Although the exhibitions in Warsaw, Poznań, and Krakow present the same or very similar collections of Chełmoński’s works, each one tells a different story. In Poznań, the narrative followed a chronological path, while in Krakow it focuses on selected themes, gaining new dynamics through spatial design that guides visitors in unexpected ways. Even if you’ve already seen the exhibition elsewhere, it’s worth visiting it in Krakow to discover Chełmoński’s art from a fresh perspective.
We warmly thank all Wikipedians who joined the tour — especially those who contributed to the WikiChełmoński campaign — and the National Museum in Krakow, particularly Agata Jabłońska and Joanna Szytuła, for their cooperation and hospitality.
If you haven’t seen the exhibition yet, you can still catch it at the National Museum in Krakow until November 30, 2025. While exploring, look out for QRpedia codes placed next to selected artworks—by scanning them, you’ll be taken directly to Wikipedia articles about the paintings and their fascinating stories.
GLAM Wiki 2025: Join the Conference Online and Explore Lisbon’s Culture
Join GLAM Wiki 2025 online
Can’t make it to Lisbon? You can still be part of GLAM Wiki 2025! All sessions taking place in the Auditorium will be livestreamed and include simultaneous interpretation between Portuguese and English, allowing participants around the world to join in real time.
Check out below the sessions that will be broadcast live from the Auditorium (all times in UTC+0):
October 30 (Thursday)
- 09:00: Welcome to GLAM Wiki 2025 – Andre Barbosa, Flavia Doria
- 09:15: Building the Future of Cultural Heritage – Carlos Silva, Dalia Guerreiro, Giovanna Fontenelle, Laércia Valeriana Insali, Teresa Nobre, Tiago Lubiana
- 10:45: Decolonization Lightning Talks – Carla Ariadna Salazar Benavides, Filipa de Belém, Irvin Sto. Tomas, Joaquim Santos, Lukas Fuchsgruber
- 13:45: Data is Everything: Why Knowledge Institutions are the Future of AI – Greg Leppert
- 14:30: Technology Lightning Talks – Angela Cervellera, Hisyam Athaya, Marco Chemello, Marta Arosio, Ursula Oberst
- 16:15: Heritage at Risk Lightning Talks – Caroline Nankinga, Edurne Agirre, Martin Poulter, Tiago Lubiana, Viacheslav Mamon
October 31 (Friday)
- 09:00: Welcome to Day 2 – Vanessa Sanches
- 09:15: Digital Resilience – Beatrice Murch, Doug McCarthy, Irvin St. Tomas, Jael Serwaa Boateng, Nat Baca
- 10:45: Human Rights Lightning Talks – Barakat Adegboye, Fatima Sao Simao, Johana Botero, Lucy Moore, Sandra Becker
- 13:45: Resilience as a Tool – Filipa Oliveira
- 14:30: Gender Lightning Talks – Camelia Boban, Flavia Doria, Isabel Zapico, Olena Vinsent, Patricia Horrillo
- 16:15: Advocacy Lightning Talks – Dee Harris, Evelin Heidel, John Andersson, Jos Damen, Mike Dickison
- 17:45: GLAM Hack Presentation – Susanna Ånäs
November 1 (Saturday)
- 09:00: Welcome to Day 3 – Vanessa Sanches
- 09:15: Community Resilience – Alice Kibombo, Dee Harris, Eric Luth, Farida El-Gueretly, Fiona Romeo, Flavia Doria
- 10:45: Reuse of Public Sector Information: Saying Please or Saying Now – Mathias Schindler
- 11:30: Meet the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees – Natalia Szafran
- 13:45: Keynote: Openness, still in? Building a Public Policy for Digital Heritage in Uncertain Times – Daniela Serra
- 14:30: Digital Documenting Cultural Heritage in Wartime: Ukrainian Experience – Olena Vinsent
- 15:15: Nominating Wikipedia for UNESCO Memory of the World: The Never-Before-Told Story – Liam Wyatt
- 16:00: Digitising Knowledge: Unlocking Kenya’s, Nigeria’s, and Ghana’s Library Treasures Through Wikisource – Esther Wanjiku
- 17:30: Closing – Connor Benedict
How to join? You can watch online by registerig on Zoom here!.
Attendees can also check the complete program of the conference here.
Cultural visits in Lisbon
In-person participants are invited to explore Lisbon through a series of guided visits to museums, archives, libraries, artist studios, and heritage sites.
These tours are free for registered conference participants, but pre-registration is required by 17 October and places are limited (first come, first served). Use the registration form linked from the conference page on Meta.
Registration is open until 17 October! Click here to select your favorite tours.
Some gems of the cultural program:
- Júlio Pomar Atelier-Museum — Visit Neorrealismos ou a politização da arte em Júlio Pomar, exploring the intersections of art and politics in Portugal.
- MAAT – Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology — Guided tour of Lisbon’s historic thermoelectric power station and the evolution of energy.
- Torre do Tombo National Archive — Insight into one of Portugal’s most important archives and its documentary heritage.
- Cemetery of Prazeres — Architecture and symbolism among some of Portugal’s most notable mausoleums.
- National Library of Portugal — Behind the scenes of conservation and digitization of Portugal’s literary memory.
- Palácio Nacional da Ajuda — An exclusive private visit to Lisbon’s former royal residence and national museum.
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Torre do Tombo National Archive -
Cemetery of Prazeres -
National Library of Portugal -
Ajuda National Palace
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Screenings at the Cinemateca Portuguesa During the week of 27 October, the Cinemateca Portuguesa will host a selection of film screenings (including events for the World Day for Audiovisual Heritage). Registered participants may sign up to attend for free using the same pre-registration form referenced above!
For the most up-to-date information on livestream links, tour schedules, capacity, and languages, please check the Meta program page
LibreABC, Feminist Voices, Grade Conference
LibreABC
The conference LibreABC took place in Geneva at the ethnographic museum. The GLAM programme gave a presentation on oral storytelling and had a stand with informations on the wiki movement. From the GLAM community the project Wikineocomensia was presented. Open Education Resources, Open Data and open infrastructures played a key role. The history was outlined from the dream of a free internet with libre hardware to controlled technology and open source tools today. Several projects using Wikidata and wiki source were presented. The conference was attended by scientists, librarians and archivists.
Feminist Voices
The symposium Feminist Voices was organized by the German Artist Association Deutscher Künstlerbund. With the exhibition Our Voices the 75th birthday of the association has been celebrated. As women artists had not been exposed in the history of the association the decision was to show women artists only in the museum's exhibition. Female artists could apply for doing research on women artists of the association. The work that developed out of the research was exhibitted. When working on feminist posters in July the idea came up to continue writing on women artists by participating at the symposium in the museum. The feminist gallery Glaab from Berne gave an input on prices of artworks in collections. As in Switzerland women could only open their bank account as late as in the year 1988 there is still a financial gap in the value of art works made by women. The association FATart presented their projects.
Grade Conference
The abbreviation Grade stands for Grassroots of Digital Europe. The programme is funded and organized by the European Union. As the wiki movement is one of the biggest grassroot movements we were invited to join. This time the meetup took place at the art academy in Vienna. For the conference we cooperated between the programmes Innovation and GLAM. We presented the wiki sister projects and gave advice on how to publisg scientific work under a CC-license. There are many creative computer pioneers that are not known yet (for Example Nicola Pellow), especially when they come from Eastern Europe and when they are female.
Awards season
Khalili Foundation
There are four new awards to announce. I uploaded a new, higher-resolution, scan of the painting The Giant 'Uj and the Prophets Moses, Jesus and Muhammad (also known as Musa va 'Uj) to Wikimedia Commons. After a unanimous vote of ten reviewers, it was made a Featured Picture and added to the gallery of religious art. This is the sixth image from the Khalili Collections to be made Featured Picture on Commons.
The English Wikipedia article about the painting, Musa va 'Uj, already has Good Article status. This month the translation into Persian was reviewed by the Persian Wikipedia community and given its own Good Article status. Out of 1,057,648 articles in Persian Wikipedia, only 498 have this honour.
Arabic Wikipedia gave "Panel from the Sitarah of the Door of the Ka'bah" its Featured Picture award and put it on the front page as Picture of the Day on 23 August. This is the 11th image from the Khalili Collections to be recognised as a Featured Picture by Arabic Wikipedia. Persian Wikipedia gave Featured Picture status to "Instrument Case with Shuttered Mirror" and scheduled it for Picture Of The day on 21 October. This is the fifth such award from Persian Wikipedia.
The Wikimedia UK strategic report makes a lot of use of Khalili Collections images - with attribution, of course - and uses a Muhammad Sadiq photograph of the Kaaba to illustrate how the charity partners "with cultural and educational institutions to open up collections and narratives that have been overlooked or marginalised."
There have been problems in recent months with getting a reliable number of image views from the stats server; this has delayed the last few monthly reports. I raised this with the team at the Wikimedia Foundation who acted quickly to get a fix. A different technical problem has come up which has delayed the calculation of image views for last month, but that is being worked on. Hopefully once this is resolved, image view data will be available regularly on the 3rd or 4th of the month.
There were no new articles or translations this month related to the Khalili Collections. Most of the work this month has been on the Memory of the World wiki challenge, which has a separate report.
Post-publication addition: the stats server reports 3,970,365 image views for September.
September edit-a-thons & meetings
GLAM Camp
National Gallery of Art, supported by Craig Newmark Philanthropies, and Wikimedia DC held a training conference, Wikimedia DC GLAM Camp 2025.
DC Preservation League
DC Preservation League and Wikimedia DC held a workshop, DC Preservation League Art Deco Edit-a-thon.
Quantum edit-a-thon
University of Maryland Libraries and Wikimedia DC held a workshop, Quantum edit-a-thon.
Wiki Week Edit-a-thon
University of Illinois Chicago and Chicago Wikimedians, held workshops, Wiki Week Edit-a-thon 2025.
San Diego/September 2025
San Diego Public Library, and San Diego Wikimedians User Group held a meetup. San Diego/September 2025.
Wikimedia NYC and The NYU Latinx Project
New York University, and Wikimedia NYC held a workshop, NYC 400 Wikipedia NuevaYol Edit-a-thon.
Updates on work by BHLWiki Working Group members
LivingData 2025
With the LivingData 2025 conference fast approaching Tiago Lubiana has created a Meta-Wiki page for the session Wikimedia and Biodiversity Data: A Mutualistic Relationship in the Open Knowledge Ecosystem that he and Anabela Plos have organised. Many of the presentations in this session have a BHL focus or contain BHL content. More information can be found on the Meta-Wiki page.
Siobhan Leachman has shared her pre-recorded LivingData 2025 presentation on Integrating research expedition data from the Biodiversity Heritage Library into the Wikiverse as well as her slides and documentation on the workflow. See The Living Data 2025 category in Wikimedia Commons for links to these.
Harvesting of Author and Title identifiers from Wikidata
Siobhan has also finished going through the portion of the recently produced BHL ingestion error report resolving issues in Wikidata where the same BHL creator id has been added to more than one Wikidata QID. Progress on Wikidata work undertaken as a result of this error report can be seen in this document. Unfortunately, as a result of Siobhan recently being appointed Wikimedian in Residence at the New Zealand Bioeconomy Science Institute, her capacity to work on this error report is now reduced.
Wikimedia Commons SPARQL query
Siobhan has created this basic SPARQL query of Wikimedia Commons https://w.wiki/FVMn that returns all BHL images in Wikimedia Commons which have both a BHL page id and depicts statements in their structured data.
The Memory of the World wiki challenge
This is the twelfth 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.
Wiki challenge
The Memory of the World wiki challenge concluded at the end of September. Eight prize-winners are going to be contacted for their postal addresses so they can receive prizes. The challenge resulted in many new articles, listed in the section below. The most drastic changes were to Spanish Wikipedia and Dagbani Wikipedia.
There were edits in the following 43 languages of Wikipedia or Wikidata: Arabic, Akan, Armenian, Asturian, Azerbaijani, Basque, Belarusian, Bulgarian, Catalan, Chinese, Croatian, Czech, Dagbani, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, Frafra, German, Greek, Hausa, Indonesian, Irish, Kazakh, Latvian, Low German, Macedonian, Malay, Norwegian, Occitan, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Tatar, Turkish, Twi, Ukrainian, Vietnamese, Welsh.
163 articles had external links added or updated to the Memory of the World international register.
A special shout-out goes to Susanna Ånäs of AvoinGLAM who exempted herself from the challenge and yet still did a great amount of work representing the Memory of the World international register in Finnish Wikipedia.
Clara published an article on the UNESCO website to promote the Wikimedia Challenge, highlighting the rules and conditions of participation. Additionally, she coordinated the production of MoW-branded tote bags, which will serve as prizes for challenge winners.
Progress on the data set
Clara gathered and compiled detailed data on the 2025 inscriptions to the Memory of the World (MoW) Register, including collection size, original language, copyright status, inception date, region, and holding institution for a future upload to Wikidata. Besides, Clara reached out to several nominators and custodians of MoW inscriptions where images or rights authorisations for UNESCO’s use are still missing. This effort not only improves the documentation of new inscriptions but also enhances existing ones, helping to increase their visibility and recognition.
In addition, Clara contributed to several technical improvements of the online MoW Register, resolving issues such as disappearing images, inaccessible nomination files, missing IDs for the 2017 and 2023 Committees, and inconsistencies in the Committee page dates. She also fixed smaller issues in existing registrations.
Susanna Ånäs created a multilingual view of the whole register, using custom templates to render the data set from Wikidata. This uses images, links to Wikipedia articles or Wikimedia Commons categories when they exist, and includes each inscription's link to its entry in the official register. Since this view of the register is Wikidata-driven, it will automatically update as more information and more inscriptions are added. Susanna has already done something similar with registers of intangible cultural heritage, so this work could be adapted into country profiles that showcase intangible as well as documentary heritage.
New articles
- List articles
- Spanish: Memory of the World Register: Latin American and the Caribbean
- Spanish: Memory of the World Register: International Organizations
- Spanish: Memory of the World Register: Europe and North America
- Spanish: Memory of the World Register: Africa
- Spanish: Memory of the World Register: Asia and the Pacific
- Spanish: Memory of the World Register: Arab States
- Spanish: Memory of the World International Register
- Dagbani: Memory of the World Register – Latin America and the Caribbean
- Dagbani: Memory of the World Register – International Organizations
- Dagbani: Memory of the World Register – Asia and the Pacific
- Dagbani: Memory of the World Register – Europe and North America
- Dagbani: Memory of the World Aotearoa New Zealand Ngā Mahara o te Ao
- Dagbani: Memory of the World Register – Arab States
- Dagbani: Memory of the World Register – Africa
- Dagbani: Memory of the World Programme
- Dagbani: List of Memory of the World Register in Iran
- Tatar: Memory of the World (including a list of the full register, generated from Wikidata)
- Articles about inscriptions
- Arabic: Aceh Annals
- Dagbani: Khitrovo Gospels
- Egyptian Arabic: A Doll's House
- English: Endeavour journal of James Cook
- Finnish: Book of Healing from internal and external diseases affecting the body
- Haitian Creole: Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen
- Italian: Baysonghor Shahnameh
- Malay: Huang Di Nei Jing
- Malay: Compendium of Materia Medica
- Persian: Aleppo Codex
- Persian: Biblioteca Malatestiana
- Serbian: Codex Beratinus
- Slovenian: Ram Khamhaeng inscription
- Spanish: Mappa mundi d'Albi
- Spanish: Hikayat Hang Tuah
- Swedish: Karl Tirén's collection of sami yoik
- Welsh: A Doll's House
- Yue Chinese: Treaty of Tordesillas
- Related articles
- Dagbani: Bernard Deacon mentioning Arthur Bernard Deacon (1903-27) collection MS 90-98.
- Dagbani: Polish Library in Paris mentioning Collections of the 19th century of the Polish Historical and Literary Society / Polish Library in Paris / Adam Mickiewicz Museum
- Dagbani: National Archives of Benin mentioning the Colonial Archives
- Slovenian: Wat Pho mentioning the Epigraphic Archives of Wat Pho
Page and image views
The GLAMorgan stats tools says that images related to the MoW International Register had 152.6 million views this month.
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