The first quarter of 2026 has been a remarkable one for the GLAM (Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museums) sector within the Wikimedia movement. Building on the momentum of the GLAM Wiki Conference held in Lisbon at the end of 2025, communities around the world have been delivering on Strategic Pillars for culture, heritage, and open knowledge. And of course, the quarter was lit up by a major milestone: Wikipedia turned 25 — a monumental achievement in the internet age.
The GLAM Community is receiving support from both the Content Partnerships Hub and the Wikimedia Foundation directly during 2026, to support ongoing activities such as the Global GLAM Calls. These are regular community calls that cover a broad range of topics each month, which anyone is welcome to join and learn from or contribute to. The recordings, topics covered, and presenters are now neatly organised in Metabase where you can easily browse the history and find information.
This year we’ve already learned about the Wikidata Requests for Comments (see below as well), the Global Resource Distribution Committee, Metabase, a News Archiving Working Group, Wikimedia Enterprise, the Content Partnerships Hub Helpdesk, Sum of All Manuscripts Bali, Malay-Arabic Manuscripts, PattyPan 26.02, IGO Partnerships with the Content Partnerships Hub, and new Wikimedia Metrics for the GLAM Sector.
Here’s a roundup of things that have been happening, but of course there is a lot more to see in the This Month in GLAM Archives as well!
🔧 Robust Technical Infrastructure
The technical backbone of GLAM-Wikimedia collaboration continues to grow stronger, with new tools, data models, and policy discussions shaping the landscape.
Two key Wikidata Requests for Comments (RfCs) are open and need your input. Two fundamental policy and scope changes are under discussion right now that directly affect GLAM communities:
These were discussed at the January 27, 2026 Global GLAM Call — check the call notes for context and summaries. If your community’s work on Wikidata or Wikibase could be affected, please contribute your feedback.
Meeting about Wikidata at the National Library of Colombia — On April 24, 2026, a meeting will be held in Bogotá (with videoconference option) about the project Highlighting the Colombian Public Domain in Wikidata and the contributions of the National Library of Colombia. Free to attend with prior registration —register here.
NZ Bioeconomy Science Institute Wikimedian in Residence (WiR) — In March, Ambrosia10 published detailed data models for type specimen Wikidata items and structured data for Wikimedia Commons specimen image files. This work was done through theWikidata:WikiProject Natural History Specimen Data Model, in collaboration with Dactylantha from Auckland Museum, and documents are published in a Zenodo community for broad access.
FILE NOT FOUND Retreat — Wikimedia Portugal took part in this retreat in Lisbon, an initiative by the Goethe-Institut and GERADOR, bringing together cultural practitioners, artists, and archival experts to reflect on the role of archives in contemporary society.
CommonsDB — Wikimedia Sverige is participating as a content partner (alongside Europeana) in this EU-funded project, which aims to create a registry of public domain and openly licensed images. It uses the International Standard Content Code (ISCC) to detect similar images even when slightly distorted. Read the introductory blog post on Diff.
CILIP Metadata and Discovery Group Conference — In March 2026, the periodic conference met at Engineers House in Bristol, UK. Wikidata and OpenRefine featured prominently in discussions around advances in library catalogue metadata work.Full programme details here.
LD4 Arts Affinity Group Community Call — On April 22, 2026, Dorothy Howard (Pratt LOD Fellow in the MoMA Archives) and Jonathan Lill (Head of Metadata and Systems at MoMA Archives and Library) discussed their work publishing MoMA’s international touring exhibition data in Wikidata. See Wikidata:WikiProject Museum of Modern Art.
WikiProject Natural History Specimen Data Model — Siobhan and Brodie created this project to document the type specimen data model collaboration, proposing Wikidata properties and creating documentation for both item and Wikimedia Commons structured data models.
WQ42 — A natural-language interface to Wikidata that can answer questions about individual Wikidata items, including heritage inscriptions. A small but powerful illustration of what the Wikidata dataset enables.
🏛️ Small GLAMs
Activity at the local and regional level has been extraordinary this quarter, spanning every continent.
WikiProject Museums of Colombia — A new WikiProject to identify and update data about Colombia’s museums in Wikidata, joining a growing family of Colombia WikiProjects.
Lyon Municipal Archives Edit-a-thon — On January 15th, the Lyon Municipal Archives organized an edit-a-thon on architecture. Nearly 300 images were added to Wikimedia Commons, 6 Wikipedia articles were created, and around 60 were edited. A birthday celebration for Wikipedia!
Wikipedia 25th Birthday — Wikimedia Germany & Austria Gifts — Wikimedia Germany and Wikimedia Austria invited long-time partner institutions to celebrate Wikipedia’s 25th anniversary by contributing to Wikimedia projects. The full — and still growing — list of participants, messages, and contributions can be found at Wikipedia:25 Jahre Wikipedia/Geschenke.
Barindelli Collection on Wikimedia Commons — As of January 28, 2026, 965 digitized images from the Barindelli collection are available on Commons. 570 files (59%) are already in use across Wikimedia projects, appearing 1,942 times on 1,853 Wikipedia pages in 55 languages, generating over 230,000 monthly views.
Teatro Regio — MAB Grant Digitization — Through a MAB grant, over 2,000 resources — including sketches, figurines, and costume designs from productions since the 1960s — were digitized and released on Wikimedia projects, often before being available in the theatre’s own systems.
Beeldbank Nederlandse Boekgeschiedenis — On behalf of the KB National Library of the Netherlands, nearly 1,000 images related to Dutch book history have been added to Wikimedia Commons.
“We Did Do It” Edit-a-thon — Auckland Museum — Held January 31 at the Auckland Museum research library, this event celebrated working wāhine (women) in Aotearoa across Arts, STEM, and Law & Politics. 30 participants edited over 50 articles and added 120 references.
Kaikōura Wikiproject — Funded jointly by Wikimedia Aotearoa New Zealand and the Kaikōura District Council, a team of editors are working on articles about the history, biodiversity, geography, and people of this small New Zealand seaside town. The project culminated in a Wiki Weekend on 7–8 March where Wikipedians visited to document the town together.
Wikimedia MKD — Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics & Institute of Macedonian Literature — In 2026, Wikimedia MKD continues its cooperation with both institutions. Work focuses on botanical research, herbarium collections, and enriching Wikimedia projects with scholarly and literary content.
Museum of Photography in Kraków — Wikimedia Polska — In January, Wikimedia Polska supported the museum in its first steps in the GLAM-Wiki ecosystem. Over 60 historical photographs from 19th- and early 20th-century studios were uploaded to Wikimedia Commons, followed by an online training for museum staff.
Wikimedia Serbia — Independent Art Scene Edit-a-thon, Novi Sad — In collaboration with What Could Should Curating Do, a workshop and edit-a-thon was held on January 24 to improve content about the contemporary art scene on Serbian Wikipedia, promoting local artists and strengthening digital literacy.
Alpine Museum, Bern — Community Space — Around 12 Wikimedians gathered at the Alpine Museum in Bern to write on alpine topics. New articles were developed, including Dania Allenbach and the Alpine Museum building, as well as a list on cultural heritage in Bern. More info on the project page.
Bolivia — “Culture at a Click” Project — In partnership with the Flavio Machivado Viscarra Foundation, a registration model for GLAM institutions across Bolivia’s nine departments is being developed — a replicable framework for cultural institutions to collaborate on Wikimedia projects.
Brazil — Wiki Loves Folklore — The 4th edition of the Wiki Loves Folklore contest, held February 9 – March 9, documented traditions, festivals, cuisine, and cultural expressions from across Brazil, mobilizing audiovisual professionals for the digital preservation of Brazilian cultural heritage.
Czech Republic — Wikipedie:Wikiporadna — Lukáš Nekolný works as a wiki-resident for Wikimedia Czech Republic, serving as a Wikimedian in Residence at the East Bohemian Museum in Hradec Králové, and supporting beginners through an online support call service.
Art History Loves Wiki 2026 — Museum Schnütgen, Cologne — A meeting organized by kuwiki in collaboration with Museum Schnütgen and Wikimedia Germany took place March 27–29, 2026.
British Library & Bangla Wikisource — TCIP Collaboration Resumes — After five years, the collaboration between the British Library’s Two Centuries of Indian Print (TCIP) project and the West Bengal Wikimedians User Group has resumed, bringing high-quality scanned Bangla language books back to Bangla Wikisource.
Macedonia GLAM Program 2026 — “Botany of Macedonia” — This year’s GLAM Program in Macedonia is centered around the theme of Botany, with workshops and digitization aimed at documenting and promoting Macedonia’s cultural and natural heritage.
PTT-Archive CoCreation Workshop — On March 27, the second cocreation workshop at the PTT-archive in Switzerland explored the fascinating history of telephone books — and the now-forgotten profession of the “telephinist,” who once served as the Google of their day.
Lambeth Libraries Meetup — Brixton Library, London — The monthly meetup at Brixton Library on March 30 brought together 7 attendees to write articles on local libraries, local history archives, and more. The next meetup is Monday April 27, 6–8pm — all are welcome.
#1Lib1Ref — Ukrainian Wikipedia — Running February 19 – March 11, 2026, 37 contributors made 389 edits and improved 335 articles with references to reliable sources, on topics ranging from the return of Crimean Tatars from deportation to botanical and mycological subjects.
Oulu Löyly — Open Culture Think & Do Fest — Taking place June 8–10, 2026 in Oulu, Finland as part of the Oulu2026 European Capital of Culture program, this event brings together advocates of open culture, policymakers, technologists, and researchers to discuss heritage at risk and digital survival strategies for under-resourced archives and endangered languages. Applications are open!
Wikimedia Italia GLAM Call 2026 Winners — Nine projects have been selected, spanning theatrical collections, scientific archives, LGBTQ+ movement archives, children’s comics, and local urban and museum heritage. The GLAM call is promoted in collaboration with ICOM Italy and Creative Commons Italy.
Nikola Tesla Museum & Wikimedia Serbia — A memorandum of understanding has been signed with the Nikola Tesla Museum and Wikimedia Serbia, with the first internship program planned for 2026, lasting one month.
🌐 Language Minorities
Pap-Wikipedia — 20th Anniversary — The Papiamento/u edition of Wikipedia celebrated its 20th anniversary in March 2026. A shared platform for the two variants of the creole language spoken across Aruba, Curaçao, and Bonaire, this milestone marks two decades of regional, multilingual knowledge-sharing. Wikipedia on Aruba organized a week of activities to celebrate, including a Ban Wiki! edit-a-thon on March 23 in collaboration with Fundacion Lanta Papiamento.
Wikimedia Indonesia — West Nusa Tenggara Outreach — In December 2025, the Culture Team of Wikimedia Indonesia held meetings and site visits in West Nusa Tenggara. They are now partnering with Bale Agung Ajar Wali to digitize the legend of Princess Mandalika from its original Lontar manuscript, written in the Sasak language — a project combining digital preservation with transliteration and translation.
Memory of the World — Wikidata Data Set Improvements — Ongoing work includes improving data for inscriptions with few properties (all now have at least seven statements, totalling 8,213 statements), replacing broken links in English Wikipedia, and writing a paper about the open data set and its research and visualization possibilities.
New Arabic Wikipedia Articles — New articles have been created in Arabic for the Nāgarakrĕtāgama (1365 AD) and Panji Tales Manuscripts.
Ukraine’s Cultural Diplomacy Month 2026 — The sixth edition launched on April 1, co-organized by Wikimedia Ukraine, the Ukrainian Institute, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine. Wikimedians worldwide are invited to create and translate articles about Ukrainian culture throughout April.
Docip Article — English Wikipedia Did You Know — The Docip article passed Did You Know review and is scheduled for the front page of English Wikipedia on April 15th, with images contributed by Docip themselves.
Colección de Lenguas Indígenas — Did You Know — Featured on the English Wikipedia front page on March 12, the article was seen by potentially 3.4 million people on a day when the front page received 6.8 million views, driving over 7,000 readers directly to the article.
💚 Community Health
Example activities related to women’s representation and gender focus from March!
Albania — Wikidata & Women’s Representation — In March 2026, an event focused on Wikidata brought together 14 participants to work on Albanian and Swedish women’s representation in free knowledge. The group made 221 Wikidata revisions, created 4 new Wikipedia articles, and improved 50 existing ones.
Architecture + Women NZ Walking Tour & Edit-a-thon — Auckland — On March 22, a walking tour led by architect Julie Stout — through the historic Lopdell House and Te Uru Waitākere Contemporary Gallery — was followed by an edit-a-thon celebrating women in architecture, design, and art with links to West Auckland.
Women Botanists Edit-a-thon — Wikimedia MKD — On March 6, timed with International Women’s Day, Wikimedia MKD organized an edit-a-thon with 9 students from Gymnasium “Josip Broz Tito” in Skopje, focusing on women botanists and their contributions to the natural sciences.
Women in Academia in Portugal Edit-a-thon — Participants created and improved content about Portuguese women academics on Wikimedia projects. A highlight was a presentation by ISEG librarian Lurdes Tavares, who shared her experience writing her first Wikipedia article — dedicated to economist Manuela Silva.
Women in Science Edit-a-thon — Wikimedia Portugal & Ciência Viva — In March 2026, over 550 images of Portuguese women in science and technology were uploaded to Wikimedia Commons before the event, which celebrated International Women’s Day and focused on improving the representation of women in science and technology.
🏆 Recognition
The Global GLAM Calls are now organized on Metabase, where you can find a record of all calls, speakers, presenters, topics, and recordings. These calls are open to everyone — you can participate by proposing topics, requesting discussion subjects, or asking for simultaneous interpretation.
What a quarter! The breadth and depth of GLAM Wiki activities continues to grow, from the mountains of Switzerland to those of Bogotá and to Indonesia, from digitizing ancient manuscripts to celebrating Wikipedia’s 25th birthday. If your institution or community isn’t yet part of this movement, there has never been a better time to get involved.
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