GLAM/Newsletter/December 2014/Contents/Norway report

This Month in GLAM – Volume IV, Issue XII, December 2014

Norway report

Seminar at the NTNU University Museum: uploading images to Wikimedia Commons

Seminar at the NTNU University Museum

In December 2014 Wikimedia Norge and the NTNU University Museum invited museums, libraries and archives in the region of Trondheim to a seminar about how and why to share images on Wikimedia Commons. A representative from the Arts Counsil Norway opened the seminar. The NTNU University Museum is one of six university museums in Norway and is a part of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, NTNU. The collection includes everything from southern Sami artefacts to medieval coins to living plant collections in botanical gardens.

-The NTNU University Museum is determined to increase the public’s opportunity to see and share our photos. For almost 250 years we’ve been showing people cool stuff from all over, but they’ve had to come to the museum. Now we want to bring the museum to them, says Head of communication at NTNU University Museum, Tove Eivindsen. -We see Wikimedia Commons as a great fit for what we’re hoping to do. We want to share our knowledge, our photos and our excitement about the wonderful worlds of biology and archaeology. What better place to do that than the Commons?

The NTNU University Museum, in the city of Trondheim
One of the two specimens of giant squid found at Hemne i 1896. Photo: NTNU Museum of Natural history and Archaology

The Norwegian National Museum of Justice

One of the participants at the seminar mentioned above was the Norwegian National Museum of Justice. Their exhibitions are related to the Norwegian criminal justice system and the history of law and order from the 17th century until today. The museum also has a collection from the occupation period, 1940–45. The museum have few employees, so they were very interested in the possibility of getting some help in sharing their collection on Wikipedia. A request for help were posted on Wikimedia Norges facebook page. The result? 3 community members have contacted the museum and hopefully they can help the museum staff with writing articles about objects from their collection and uploading images to Wikimedia Commons.