GLAM/Newsletter/August 2019/Contents/Special story
|
Wikimania GLAM
Wikimania Related Edit-a-thons
The Swedish Library Association, Nationalmuseum, the Nordic Museum, the Stockholm Museum of Women’s History & the Swedish Performing Arts Agency all organized edit-a-thons during the days before Wikimania. Check out some of the results!
GLAMwiki coordinators meeting
.jpg)
During the pre-conference days of Wikimania Liam Wyatt, in his Europeana capacity, organized the third European GLAMwiki Coordinators meeting. Around 20 participants from various chapters, affiliates and other organizations shared experiences through lightning talks, demos and presentations of projects and ongoing activities, and discussed ways to move forward when it comes to common questions.
GLAM focus area at the Wikimania 2019 Hackathon
GLAM was a focus area at the Wikimania 2019 hackathon. A group of people worked together on GLAM-related projects there, and learned from each other, including about approaches to metadata roundtripping by the Metropolitan Museum of Art. One of the projects initiated and developed at the hackathon is Maps! Maps! Maps!, which aims to make historical maps more discoverable with the help of (structured) metadata.
Small GLAMs Wikidata Workshop
Using Wikimania and the fact that several Wikidata experts were in Stockholm Europeana (through Liam Wyatt), the National Heritage Board and Wikimedia Sverige invited staff from GLAM institutions to a Wikidata training day. Aiming for the smaller GLAMs, where metadata and structured data work is done by curators and staff that doesn't normally build big databases this was a beginners level introduction to what Wikidata is, how it can be used and what good it can do for GLAMs. 20 participants from all over Sweden learned how to add statements and ask sparql queries from experts such as David Haskiya and Jan Ainali, and were given demos of Pattypan and Wikibase by Paweł Marynowski and Jens Ohlig.
Discussing the future of Wikidata and Wikibase for libraries
Discussions about GLAM collaborations did not finish after Wikimania. The day after, those of us interested in how Wikidata and Wikibase can be used in national libraries gathered at the National Library of Sweden to attend an all-day event dedicated to this particular theme. The first ever Wikidata & Wikibase for National Libraries meeting was initiated by Europeana with the support of Wikimedia Sverige, Wikimedia Deutschland, and of course the National Library of Sweden, which is actively working with Wikidata as part of its open data strategy.
The day was divided into presentations and discussions, which allowed the participants to exchange experiences and learn from each other. With participants from the USA, Sweden, Denmark, Russia, Germany, Poland and other countries we learned a variety of perspectives. What we had in common was curiosity and enthusiasm about what these new tools can bring to our work. Among the topics brought up were: Structured Data on Commons, federated Wikibase (and what exactly are our needs there in library context), roles and permissions in Wikibase (again focusing on the specific needs in libraries and archives), modelling of various types of resources (a perennial topic) and of course how to collaborate in a more organized and meaningful ways across national borders.
You can find detailed notes from the meeting in this public Google Doc document.
