State Library of Queensland
State Library of Queensland (SLQ) has partnered with Wikimedia Australia on a number of events since 2010. One of the first major collaborations in Wikimedia Australia's history was assisting the State Library of Queensland uploading thousands of images from their collection to Wikimedia Commons.
Thousands of Images Donated
The news of the first SLQ Wikimedia partnership made national news, and a large banner reading "Thank you, State Library of Queensland" was featured on the top of Wikipedia.
The donation consisted of 50,000 out of copyright images, which was one of the largest donations to Wikimedia Commons at the time, and the images have now been used over 5,000 times on articles across English Wikipedia. You can browse the images on Wikimedia Commons here.
Since then, we have found many ways to add content to Wikipedia, and run programs encouraging Queensland Public Libraries to do the same, with a common aim to get Queensland communities to share their places, people and stories with the world through the Wikimedia projects.
Wikipedian in Residence Projects
The First World War Wikipedian in Residence program was established in 2016 by the State Library of Queensland to tell the story of World War I in Queensland underpinned by the rich collections of the library and their affiliated GLAM organisations.
The program had three resident Wikipedians across 2016, who hosted events, created new pages and categories, assisted members of the public, and trained SLQ staff on editing.
Read more about this project on Wikipedia GLAM and you can also read the project case study here.
Other SLQ Wikimedia programs
State Library of Queensland have taken part in #1Lib1Ref since 2017 when they added an impressive 1,000 new citations to Wikipedia. That year they also started QWiki Club, a monthly Wikipedia editing club established to build on the success of the #1lib1ref campaign. They have also made contributions to Wikisource.
A list of all SLQ Wikimedia events can be found here.
Further Reading
- State Library content, loved by millions across the world! - SLW Blog - 17 Feb 2022
- Let’s get our regions on Wikipedia - SLW Blog 23 Jan 2017
- WMAU March/April 2011 newsletter detailing SLQ image donation
- Queensland content on Wikipedia...State Library trainers visit Miles - SLW Blog - 5 Jul 2011
- Wikipedia Category: Articles incorporating text from the State Library of Queensland