Wikimedians of Bulgaria/2016 Report/Volunteers in Bulgarian museums

The National meeting "Volunteers in Bulgarian Museums" was organized on 7-8 April 2016 by the Ministry of Culture. Almost all of the lecturers and the audience comprised museum workers from around the country. The User Group was represented by Vassia Atanassova (Spiritia) and Plamen Mintchev (Ilikeliljon), with one presentation titled "Successful practices of collaboration between Wikipedia and cultural institutions".

Results

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  • A 30-minute presentation on "Successful practices for collaboration between Wikipedia and cultural institutions", delivered on 8 April 2016.
  • 50 CDs with PPT and PDF copies of the presentation, as well as number of PDF documents explaining the basics of Wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons, licensing, GLAM, as well as good practices from Wiki/GLAM collaborations implemented around the world.
  • 80 handouts with links to Bulgarian Wikipedia, the mailing list, the blog and the Facebook group and page, as well as emails of Vassia and Plamen
  • 80 copies of a survey, asking for feedback about the respondents' user experience with Wikipedia, readiness for collaboration, interest in implement any of the eight presented successful practices of collaboration, as well as preferred contact data.
  • 40 completed surveys returned, of which 7 anonymous and 33 with identified respondent, representing 28 individual institutions.
    • Of these 13 declared immediate interest in starting a collaboration, 9 declared interest for a joint project in the future, and 6 need more time and information in order to decide.
    • With respect to which forms of collaboration are considered most wanted: most of the respondents, 27, indicate "QR codes to Wikipedia", 20 - "Museum staff writes in Wikipedia", 19 - "Work with visitors, students and other volunteers", 14 - "Backstage tours", 13 - "Content donations", 11 - "Museum organises edit-a-thon/scan-a-thon/photo-ton", 10 - "Online article writing contest", 2 - "Wikimedian in Residence".
  • More than 10 personal discussions with different museum representatives, preceding or following the talk on 8 April.

An important result from the meeting is the access to a mailing list with more than 50 personal and institutional museums, whose representatives responded to our survey, or delivered talks about their experience with volunteers. This makes a well targeted list in accord with our what we as Wikipedian need and can offer.

Discussions

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  • National Polytechnic Museum, Sofia
  • Regional History Museum in Smolyan
  • Music centre and house-museum of Boris Christoff
  • History Museum in Targovishte
  • History Museum in Isperih
  • Regional History Museum in Lovech
  • National Anthropological Museum, Sofia
  • National Museum of Natural History, Sofia

CD contents (143 Mb)

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50 CDs were prepared for distribution among the audience, containing PPT and PDF versions of the presentation, plus two folders with some selected PDF documents from Wikimedia Commons, namely brochures related to basics of Wikipedia (editing, illustrating, licenses, etc.), and brochures related to Wikipedia/GLAM collaborations.

Report in the GLAM Newsletter

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