ALIA West Conference 2026
In September 2026, Wikimedia Australia staff member Alice Woods and two Perth-based community members, Gnangarra and Sam Wilson, attended the ALIA West conference, which was hosted by the State Library of Western Australia in Perth. ALIA West are the Western Australian group of the Australian Library and Information Association, and this was their first two-day conference and their first chance to hold a conference in several years. The conference schedule was jam-packed with professionals from across Western Australia, and additional speakers from across Australia and the Maldives were present.
Wikimedia Australia presented about GLAM partnerships and opportunities available with us, including our partnership projects and highlights from these over the last few years. In our presentation, we were also able to feature amazing projects that have already taken place in the region, many of which were led by WikiClubWest. These include Noongarpedia (a Noongar language instance of Wikipedia) and WikiTowns (such as Freopedia and Toodyaypedia).
Over the two days, Alice, Gnangarra and Sam were also able to meet and talk to various people from institutions around the region about projects they may want to take on or take part in, and we hope that there will be many outcomes from these.
Additionally, with the help of Tamsin Braisher and Mike Dickison’s ‘Wikifying a Conference: a guide for Wikimedians’, we were able to learn and improve how we documented the conference, which included the creation of several new Wikidata items and other ‘on-Wiki’ activities.
Thank you to ALIA West and the State Library of Western Australia for hosting, and to everyone who came along to our session. If your organisation is interested in working with Wikimedia Australia, find out more about our partnership projects or get in touch.