LEIDEN--In an effort to broaden the know-how about the history and culture of the Dutch Caribbean online, Wikimedia Netherlands and the Netherlands Committee of United Nations Scientific and Cultural Organisation UNESCO have initiated the project “Wiki Goes Caribbean.”
Everyone is invited to contribute and to write articles to broaden the selection of information that is available for common use on the online encyclopaedia Wikipedia, part of the Wikimedia non-profit organisation.
One does not have to be an academic or an expert to take part in this project, it became clear during a gathering of interested persons at the Leiden University Libraries in Leiden on Thursday, co-organised by Royal Netherlands Institute of South-East Asian and Caribbean Studies KITLV.
More input to update and extend the current Wikipedia articles is needed, as well as the addition of new articles about the Dutch Caribbean, its history, culture and heritage. Contributions to the Dutch Caribbean section on Wikipedia are limited compared to other parts of the world.
The online encyclopaedia depends on volunteers who mostly write about their special interests. Most of the volunteers are (white) men living in the United States and Europe. As a result, some areas and subjects are getting too little attention. That needs to change, according to Wikimedia. More diversity is needed, also considering creating a more balanced view of the world’s history.
Wikipedia has millions of articles in more than 275 languages, including 1.9 million articles in Dutch. Most articles, more than 5.5 million, are in English. However, there are currently just 114 articles about Dutch Caribbean history on Wikipedia, and 152 articles about persons from the islands. “This is very little, especially considering the special ties we have within the Kingdom,” said Wikimedia Netherlands Director Sandra Rientjes.
There is much knowledge in the Netherlands about the culture and history of the Dutch Caribbean and Suriname. That information can be found not only in libraries, museums and archives; much of it is available in digital format, but also in people’s heads. An increasing number of museums, libraries and archives in the Netherlands are making their collections available to Wikipedia.
To get people interested and actively involved, Wikimedia Netherlands and UNESCO are organising a tour in the Netherlands at the different heritage institutions, including KITLV, National Museum for World Cultures, National Archives and Rijksmuseum.
The May 3 gathering at Leiden was part of this tour and aimed to link the knowledge of people about the Dutch Caribbean and Suriname to the collections of museums, libraries and archives. The islands are also involved. An online course has started for heritage institutions in Aruba, Curaçao and Bonaire. The museums in St. Eustatius and Saba are also taking part.
In September, an online writing course will be offered about Dutch Caribbean and Suriname heritage. Also, in September, there will be a Wiki Loves Monuments photo contest that encourages people to send in photos of monuments and heritage in the Dutch Caribbean and Suriname.
Wikimedia and its partners are hoping that people will be inspired to become what they call a “Wikipedian” and actively contribute to Wikipedia. Wikimedia volunteer Daniëlle Jansen explained at Thursday’s gathering how this works. It is very simple: register with a user name and a password, and one can start working on Wikipedia. “I always tell people to just do it. It is actually a lot of fun,” said Jansen.
There are some rules on Wikipedia. Slander, personal opinions, shouting matches and bad words are not allowed. Writers need to provide sufficient reliable sources and the articles must be of sufficient quality. Wikipedia has no editorial staff, but the content of the articles is checked by the Wikipedian community and corrected if necessary.
The location of Thursday’s informative gathering, Leiden University Libraries, was no coincidence. The libraries host the largest Caribbean collection in the Netherlands, since KITLV and Royal Tropics Institute KIT transferred their collections of books and maps to Leiden University Libraries in 2015. Many of the documents are old with a large number dating back to colonial times.
The Netherlands UNESCO Committee and UNESCO’s Memory of the World share Wikimedia’s objective to make knowledge more accessible for everyone, said General Secretary of the Netherlands UNESCO Committee Marielies Schelhaas who attended Thursday’s event.
UNESCO, mostly known for its World Heritage List, also keeps documentary heritage in an extensive collection that includes books, films, and photos. The Memory of the World register includes the archives of West Indian Company WIC and East Indian Company VOC, Dutch companies established in colonial times that also engaged in the slave trade.
KITLV Director Gert Oostindie, one of the five speakers on Thursday, provided background information on KITLV, the oldest Caribbean institution in the Netherlands that is specialised in the (former) colonies, and the current Travelling Caribbean Heritage project that documents the cultural heritage of Aruba, Curaçao and Bonaire.
Oostindie encouraged prospective Wikipedia writers to make use of the available heritage collections, but not to limit themselves to those collections. “Colonial archives are one aspect, but don’t forget the oral history, which is important as well,” he said.
Subject Librarian Isabel Brouwer of Leiden University Libraries, specialised in the Caribbean and Latin American collections, explained there are no hard figures on the size of the Caribbean collection. The largest part of the Caribbean collection at Leiden University Libraries was contributed by KITLV in 2015.
KITLV’s collection consisted of more than one million books, maps, magazines, documents and photos. The Caribbean collection makes up 10 to 20 per cent of the total collection of Leiden University Libraries.
More than 3,200 items of the Caribbean collection have been digitalised as part of an extensive digitalisation programme. The digital collection now contains some 950 Caribbean books and 800 Caribbean maps. However, copyrights restrict the accessibility of a part of this digital collection. Some items can only be viewed inside the library itself.
