GLAM/Newsletter/October 2020/Contents/Serbia report

This Month in GLAM – Volume X, Issue X, October 2020

Serbia report

Many activities are in our way

We are pleased that even in these difficult times, we manage to maintain a number of activities and improve the accessibility of the cultural heritage of Serbia in various ways.

Wikipedian in residence at the Association of Fine Artists of Serbia

We signed with the Association of Fine Artists of Serbia a Memorandum of Cooperation in August and we already accomplished great results. The Wikipedian in residence project was implemented during September and October and during which we realized digitized collections of 98 catalogs of Spring and Autumn exhibitions of the Association from 1945 to 1999, which is why adequately presented the artistic scene of Serbia after the World War II. This is just the beginning of the activities and big plans are ahead of us.

The Association of Fine Artists of Serbia (ULUS) was founded in 1919 and is the largest art association in Serbia, with about 2,000 members. The goal of the Association is to promote artistic creativity and it is a free and voluntary association of artists. Throughout history, the association has been joined by numerous artists who have left a deep mark on the art and culture of the world like Uroš Predić, Đoka Jovanović, Simeon Roksandić, Milan Milovanović, and numerous others.

Catalog of the 1st exhibition of the Association of Fine Artists of Serbia (1945)
Catalog of the 59th exhibition of the Association of Fine Artists of Serbia (1977)
Catalog of the Autumn Exhibition of the Association of Fine Artists of Serbia (1997)
Catalog of the Spring exhibition of the Association of Fine Artists of Serbia (1992)

Our first six-month Wikipedian in residence project is at Belgrade City Library

A six-month Wikipedian in residence at Belgrade City Library project has begun. So far, 30 have been written articles, while 405 files was uploaded to Wikimedia Commons. This is the first six-month internship project Wikimedia Serbia will cooperate with this cooperation as well to further strengthen the perennial cooperation with Belgrade City Library. Cooperation with Belgrade City Library has been at a high level for several years due to the Wiki Librarian project and the #1Lib1Ref editing campaign. Due to the very good cooperation and the multitude of content they have, to the satisfaction of both parties, the internship was set at six months.

Aleksa Šantić
Ilija Kolarac
Jovan Jovanović Zmaj
Katarina Ivanović

Great results in Wiki editathons within the Wiki Librarian project

The first editathon took place from 9th to 18th September on the topic of Serbian humorous-satirical periodicals of the 19th and 20th centuries. This activity achieved great results and 15 Wikipedians participated, 71 new articles are written, 5 articles are supplemented significantly and 430 files are uploaded.

The second editathon took place from 19th to 26th October and the topic was My street. Librarians were extremely diligent during this period and wrote as many as 64 articles, uploaded 250 files to Wikimedia Commons, while 12 of them participated.

The front page of Iskra magazine
Recycling bicycle for cans in Belgrade
The street of Stepa Stepanović

Participation in the CEE Online Meeting 2020

This year we were active at the CEE online conference and enjoyed the lectures of our colleagues from the region.

The first session was Opportunities for 1Lib1Ref in CEE where the strategy for improving the #1Lib1Ref campaign with Felix Nartey from The Wikimedia Foundation was presented. This session announced activities to increase the number of branches participating in this campaign, presented the results of the May campaign in Africa, but also learned lessons on how to lead this campaign and achieve great results. Through his experience, Felix presented how the activities related to this campaign in Africa have significantly improved during this year, and we have pointed out tips&tricks through examples from previous years, with which we have been at the very top of Wiki communities so far.

In the second session, we presented the ways in which GLAM fights during the COVID-19 crisis. Through our examples, we have tried to present that activities, despite very challenging times, are possible and that now, when we are forced to stay at home, online activities are more important than ever. We presented the results of our online activities, the ways we organized it, the advantages and disadvantages of such events.