GLAM/Newsletter/April 2023/Contents/WMF GLAM report
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Biodiversity Heritage Library whitepaper and the #1Lib1Ref campaign
Biodiversity Heritage Library and whitepaper about the Wikimedia projects
The Biodiversity Heritage Library is the world’s most extensive open-access digital library for biodiversity literature and archives. On the Wikimedia projects, they have hundreds of thousands of images and metadata available, as well as a network of dedicated Wikimedians who treasure biodiversity or the institution's collections and add or edit their contents.
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In April, BHL released a draft whitepaper titled Unifying Biodiversity Knowledge to Support Life on a Sustainable Planet to provide concrete use cases and recommendations for a strategic investment in Wikimedia projects, especially considering the institution's goals of combating the impacts of climate change, biodiversity loss, as well as securing a sustainable future for the planet. The document by JJ Dearborn, BHL's Data Manager, is the result of several interviews and recurring meetings performed by her between long-time Wikimedia volunteers, partners, and members of the Culture and Heritage team at the Wikimedia Foundation.
The paper analyzes Wikidata, Wikibase, Wikimedia Commons, Wikisource, and Wikipedia and offers for each of them use cases and a future outlook. In the appendix, there are also several recommendations and even priority levels.
This whitepaper is one of the most comprehensive analyses of the Wikimedia projects from a GLAM or cultural heritage perspective. It's also one of several smaller, but mighty publications BHL has done in the past about Wikimedia.
Don't forget to read the whitepaper and the other blog posts, as well as to check the Biodiversity Heritage Library WikiProject page on Wikidata or their page on Wikimedia Commons.
1Lib1Ref/1Bib1Ref
The annual #1Lib1Ref campaign, hast two runs each year, and the January 2023, saw thousands of librarians and other knowledge enthusiasts from over 50 different language-regions adding references to Wikipedia articles. The campaign aims to improve the accuracy and reliability of Wikipedia, and is a great opportunity for librarians, archivists, and other information professionals to contribute to reliable open knowledge for all. In terms of number of edits, the 2023 campaign was particularly successful in the CEE region, but we celebrated each and every language editor on this Diff post (also available in German and Spanish). Hope in on that ride and travel from Serbia to Australia, flying through Catalonia, Australia, Spain, Malaysia and more!
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If you missed the January campaign, don't worry! There are still opportunities to get involved and make a difference. In May, different affiliates are hosting a series of online events focused on improving Wikipedia's coverage of underrepresented topics and supporting new editors. Below you'll find some options in different regions!
Africa
As in other years, the African Library and Information Associations and Institutions (AfLIA) is back with the Africans Librarians Week (#AfLibWk) from the 14th to the 26th of May – if you want to join this wonderful initiative to add “African Knowledge to the World”, do check out their 7 steps under “How do I participate” – they’ll give out prizes to top contributors!
Unsure how to join AfLIA's Dashboard campaign? Here’s a one-pager with 5 steps to join the campaign:
Latin America
Latin America is also back in the game, with the #1Bib1Ref hashtag! If you want to join the campaign, you can learn all about it in this Wikipedia Project Page Make sure you check out the wonderful resources they have prepared for us as well.
Argentina, Mexico, and Uruguay have their dashboards up, so be sure to sign up to them if you want to enter a friendly competition on the number and quality of the references you’re contributing with (links in each countries’ name).
Other regions
If your region is not represented, or you want to start a new campaign within the global statistics, register to the #1Lib1Ref global dashboard! Just log in with your Wikimedia account and click here, and then select “Create New Program”->“Basic program”. Fill out the required information, and make sure you select which language Wikipedias you want to track for edits during the campaign, and also if you would like to track Wikidata edits! And that's it! You can send any questions you want to 1lib1ref@lists.wikimedia.org
