Education/News/October 2024/WiLMa PH establishes a Wiki Club
WiLMa PH establishes a Wiki Club
An extra-curricular club composed of BS Architecture students and faculty called the University of Nueva Caceres (UNC) Wiki Club was established during the Bikol Wikisource Training of Trainers organized by the Bikol Wikipedia Community, the Philippine Wikimedia Community User Group and the Nueva Caceres Heritage Movement Inc (NCHMI).
The Bikol Wikisource Training of Trainers Program which ran from July until August 2024, aimed to build a pool of competent trainers and facilitators, engage the staff of GLAM (galleries, libraries, archives and museums) institutions to strengthen their capacity, and collaborate with heritage, language and cultural organizations in building an open library using Wikisource as a platform. The activity was a response to the call-to-action of Wikisource Loves Manuscripts for the digitization of old publications.
The UNC Wiki Club is the first private university-based community of Wikimedians to be establishedin the Philippines. It is the second tertiary Wiki Club supported by the PhilWiki Community after CBSUA Wiki Club, a state-run agricultural university in the Bicol Region, was formed in October 2023.
Years prior to the establishment of the club, the Bikol Wikipedia Community, the PhilWiki Community, and the Commons Photographers User Group had been conducting activities at the university to establish collaborations with the second oldest university museum in the country.
The university has been a venue and partner of different Wikimedia-related activities in the past years including a couple of editing workshops pre-pandemic time, a satellite Wikimania event in 2022, and two symposia in 2023. The Bikol Wikipedia Community and the PhilWiki Community in partnership with the University of Nueva Caceres Museum organized a forum on Preservation of old publications through Bikol Wikisource attended by BS Library and Information Science, and BS History major students from Camarines Norte State College, Camarines Sur Polytechnic Colleges, and University of Nueva Caceres. Another symposium was attended by BS Engineering and Architecture students and the museum staff, wherein they learned about Wikisource and its edition in the Bikol language as well as how the project contributes in the quest for the greater Bicol identity and Filipino identity.
During the culminating program of the 15th Bikol Wikipedia anniversary celebration on 31 October 2023, the university was among the six institutional partners jointly recognized by Bikol Wikipedia Community and Philippine Wikimedia Community User Group for their significant contribution and outstanding support in the promotion of open knowledge.
Arch. Josenia Merencillo of the College of Architecture and Engineering, and university museum curator Juan Paulo Suzara serve as the club coordinators.
The PhilWiki Community User Group president Maffeth Opiana and Education program committee chair Marife Altabano have pledged support to efforts that will make rare publications be more accessible thru open sources like the Wikisource.