FindingGLAMs/delegation letter

Wikimedia Sverige and the Wikimedia communities across the world are creating a worldwide map of cultural heritage institutions on Wikipedia through our project FindingGLAMs. We have collated a significant amount of data, increasing the number of cultural heritage institutions recorded on Wikipedia from 50,000 to 85,000. We are now seeking help to identify institutions in your respective country that can provide additional datasets of cultural heritage institutions. The database will be available for free in over 300 languages to a worldwide audience under an open license. As such the information can reach the widest possible audience. Making this information visible and explorable will let more people learn about cultural heritage from many different cultures.

We have created a prototype interactive map using this data. Each dot is a link to Wikipedia’s database Wikidata page for that institution, containing facts about the institutions in 300 languages and links to Wikipedia and external databases.

Blue dots are cultural heritage institutions that were already in Wikipedia in June 2019, yellow are new institutions added between June 2019 and February 2020, of which most have been added as part of the project. As you can see many areas of the world lack coverage. Therefore, we need your help.

You can explore the interactive map here where each dot links to Wikidata, Wikipedia's database.

How you can contribute

Get involved in the project by:

  • Sharing what data exists in your country. The datasets are often held by different ministries, regional and local governments in different countries and also by universities and NGOs. Not always publicly accessible or online. We may have some of the datasets from your country, but missing others. Please let us know all of the existing data. It is also very relevant for us to know if you do not have any existing datasets.
  • Providing us with introductions to people with access and understanding of the data in the government.
  • Introducing us to other organizations to work with that holds data.
  • Sharing the information about the project through your communication channels.

Contact

For questions or to share information from your country please contact John Andersson, Executive Director at Wikimedia Sweden: john.andersson wikimedia.se