GLAM/Newsletter/January 2019/Contents/Serbia report

This Month in GLAM – Volume IX, Issue I, January 2019

Serbia report

GLAM Winter in Serbia

Edit-a-thon at Republic Institute for the protection of cultural heritage of Serbia

During the Wikipedian in Residence program at the Republic Institute for the protection of cultural heritage of Serbia, there was an edit-a-thon on writing articles about cultural monuments of Serbia. Volunteers of Wikimedia Serbia and Institute employees had written 26 new articles from the literature available at the Institute. Participants also illustrated the articles with images released during the Wikipedian in Residence program.

New museum in the WIR program

Theatre Museum of Vojvodina is a new cultural institution which joined GLAM program in Serbia. Wikipedian in residence is hired in this institution from the half of December 2018 until the end of January 2019. An expected outcomes are 20 new articles on Serbian Wikipedia, 2 digitized books and 500 released images.

Wikipedian in Residence at the Republic Institute for the Protection of Cultural Heritage of Serbia

Wikipedian in Residence at the Republic Institute for the protection of cultural heritage of Serbia, the first government institution that took part in GLAM program in Serbia, has ended with extraordinary results. More than 500 free licenced images of cultural monuments are uploaded, as well as 4 digitized books and 40 new articles in Serbian Wikipedia.

Promotion of the WIR project

Final event of Wikipedian in residence program - promotion of the project was held in december at the Serbian-Korean Information Access Centre. It was a closing event with an idea to sum all WIR results in 2018. President of Wikimedia Serbia, Filip Maljkovic presented the results:

Six GLAM institutions participated in the program:
Three programs were financed by the Ministry of Culture and Information of the Republic of Serbia
More than 2100 images are released
More than 370 new articles were written, 27 significantly improved
18 books and 5 photo-albums were digitized (2950 digitized pages)

Maljković pointed out the importance of this programs for improving the visibility of cultural heritage, but also for improving Wikipedia - the world’s largest encyclopedia, emphasizing the two-way cooperation and the need for such long term and stable partnerships. In addition, he thanked the institutions for opening their door for Wikipedia editors, as well as their archives to the entire world, as well as the Ministry of Culture that recognized this venture and gave it full support.

Estela Radonjić-Živkov, senior adviser at the Republic Institute for the Protection of Cultural Heritage of Serbia, said that this project has helped a lot not only in releasing materials, but also in the releasing institutions themselves - to make the documentation free and public. Radonjić pointed out that this cooperation has a common goal - protection of the cultural heritage of Serbia, and one of the conditions of protection is the availability of culture.
— In the world of new technologies, the easiest and fastest way to do this is through digital media, and one of the main sources for most people is Wikipedia - Radonjić concluded.

Maja Pujin, archivist of Historical Archive of Pančevo, thanked Wikimedia Serbia for given trust and participation in the residence program. She explained that for this residence is used literature about history of Pančevo that has been published by the Archive 10 years ago. Thus, now Serbian Wikipedia is covered with lacking articles about the notable citizens of Pančevo, the histories of various societies, the city itself… Many scenes and buildings from these images citizens of Pančevo don't remember, like the former synagogue, and now, thanks to the program, it is visible for a broad audience, Pujin emphasized.

Pavle Orbović, curator of City Museum of Vrbas, thanked Wikimedia and Ministry of Culture, but also the Museum of Vojvodina for cooperation and support. He explained that the Museum in Vrbas is small institution that has been operating since 2015. and that the help from the Wikipedian in residence is great in terms of presenting this town on the internet, or on Wikipedia.
— Reading written articles, people of Vrbas started to contact us, and we are especially pleased that in this way local history got attention - Orbović said. All partners expressed the will to contribute and cooperate more on this project in coming years, which will bring more free content on the world’s largest encyclopedia.

1lib1ref 2019

Librarians and Wikipedians from Serbia once again took part in the campaign #1lib1ref. The main participants are librarians from Belgrade City Library and University Library “Svetozar Marković”, where two workshops were held. Ivana Guslarević from Wikimedia Serbia presented this global project to attendees, and Aleksandra Popović, from University Library held a practical workshop of editing Wikipedia. During the first week of the campaign, Serbian Wikipedia joined the top 5 Wikipedias with the highest number of added references, and an editor from Serbia - Ванилица (Vanilica) is one of the highest contributors. Wikimedia Serbia will award the participants who add the highest number of references with book vouchers and goodie bags.