Cultural partnerships

Cultural partnerships
Content partnerships — Digital image restorations — Joint events

Wikimedia projects - including Wikipedia - constitute some of the largest reference websites on the internet. They have achieved that through the efforts of millions of volunteers from across the world, working under the premise that information should be freely available to all.

An entertainment in Vauxhall Gardens in c.1779 by Thomas Rowlandson. Digitally restored by Wikimedia volunteers.

Cultural partnerships are mutually beneficial links and interactions between the Wikimedia projects and repositories of cultural information, including museums, galleries, libraries and archives, known collectively as GLAMs. There are a wide range of possible interactions - from content donations to workshops to events such as Britain Loves Wikipedia.

Such partnerships have a multiplicity of benefits, including:-

• Increased visibility and availability of educational information about the cultural heritage you hold
• Increased engagement of the public, world-wide, with the materials held by your institution
• Volunteer-driven assistance for checking and translating information (e.g. image descriptions), linking it with metadata (e.g. author IDs), and providing context (e.g. the use of images in Wikipedia articles)

Current cultural institutions we are working with include:

• The British Library
• The British Museum
• Derby Museum and Art Gallery
• The National Maritime Museum
• The National Archives
• Herbert Art Gallery and Museum

Wikimedia UK's work with the GLAM sector complements its work with scholarly societies.

If you work for or with a museum (or any other type of GLAM), and are interested in working with Wikimedia UK, please contact Michael Peel by email at michael.peelwikimedia.org.uk or by telephone at +44 (0)7988 013 646.

See also

• GLAM-WIKI Recommendations - the recommendations from the "GLAM-WIKI: Finding the common ground" conference, Canberra, 6-7 August 2009.
• WMUK library - books owned by WMUK, available for use