GLAM/Newsletter/May 2018/Contents/Belgium report

This Month in GLAM – Volume VIII, Issue V, May 2018

Belgium report

Public domain month celebration; Edit-a-thon Amnesty International Vlaanderen; Upcoming photo contest: Wiki Loves Heritage

Public domain month celebration

Edit-a-thon in the Royal Library of Belgium on 19 May

Each year, at 1 January, new works of authors that died 70 years ago enter the public domain. To celebrate this happening we organised together with a long list of partners a public domain month, also to create awareness of public domain and what it means. Our partners in the project are Constant vzw, PACKED vzw, Royal Library of Belgium, Mundaneum, Muntpunt, Nova Cinema, Rosa vzw and PTTL.

During the month all together about 25 activities were organised spread over the month and spread over various locations. The activities included expositions, vernissages, lectures, ateliers, wiki edit-a-thons and a closing event. (full program of the public domain day month)

Two of the activities that took place were related to Wikipedia/Wikimedia:

19 May - Edit-a-thon in the Royal Library of Belgium in Brussels to write and improve Wikipedia articles about authors and their works that became public domain in 2018.
26 May - Lecture: An afternoon about the potential and practices of the Public Domain in Muntpunt in Brussels where a series of speakers expressed their perspective and value of the public domain.

Edit-a-thon Amnesty International Vlaanderen

On 20 May 2018 Amnesty International Vlaanderen organised together with Wikimedia Belgium an edit-a-thon to describe together women and/or activists from minority groups and to give them a face on Wikipedia. Because women and/or activists from minority groups often work under the radar, they enjoy even less visibility and recognition than their male co-activists. Amnesty International wants to do something about this through their wiki edit-a-thon.

(Dutch) Invitation to the Amnesty's wiki-edit-a-thon in May 2018

Office Amnesty International in Brussels
Lecture from activist
Editing Wikipedia
Editing Wikipedia

Upcoming photo contest: Wiki Loves Heritage

2018 is the European Year of Cultural Heritage. In line with this international thematic year we organise together with multiple partners a photo contest to make heritage more visible for the public. This photo contest is called Wiki Loves Heritage and in this photo contest are all four types of heritage eligible.

Immovable heritage are archaeological sites, monuments, cultural-historical landscapes, war relics and city and villagescapes.
Movable heritage are the collections of art objects, utensils, decorative objects, archival documents, visual material, historic tools and vehicles, etc., which are stored in museums, archives and heritage libraries.
Immaterial heritage are the non-tangible habits or customs of the past that one cherishes and still practices today. For example, parties, stories, songs, traditions, social customs, rituals, crafts ...
Maritime heritage is the nautical heritage that can sail or float. This concerns both seagoing vessels and vessels for inland waters with various propulsion types, or without their own propulsion, which were used for pleasure or for professional purposes.

The photo contest will start later this month and will run until halfway November 2018. See for a preview at: Commons:Wiki Loves Heritage 2018 in Belgium.

During the photo contest we encourage all kinds of heritage organisations to organise activities around their heritage collections.