The document outlines two collaborative projects, 'Wikipedia Loves Art' in 2009 and 'Britain Loves Wikipedia' in 2010, both aimed at enhancing Wikipedia articles with images from museums. The Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) partnered in both initiatives, which involved multiple museums, but faced challenges such as unbalanced participation and image rights issues. Despite these hurdles, the projects resulted in a significant increase in the number of high-quality images used in Wikipedia articles, particularly from the V&A.

1. Wikipedia Loves Art 2009 Britain Loves Wikipedia 2010 Nadia Arbach Digital Programmes Manager Victoria and Albert Museum

2. Wikipedia Loves Art 2009 Lead partner: Brooklyn Museum 12 participating museums – V&A the only one from the UK Purpose: to update Wikipedia articles with new images User-generated, collaborative, open

3. Britain Loves Wikipedia 2010 V&A lead partner with 18 museums from around the UK Shorter list of themes Quality rather than quantity

4. Participating museums Marriage chest (cassone) by Valerie McGlinchey 18 museums and archives signed up to participate Only 8 museums had any photos submitted

5. Participant numbers Reliquary by Jenny O’Donnell The V&A had 50 participants on the day and a few more during February 2010 14 participants submitted V&A photos 40 participants in total contributed to the competition, but some were staff

6. Eligible photographs 530 eligible photographs 347 from the V&A and 183 from 7 other museums combined Unbalanced participation Need to limit number of photos from each participant Labours of the Months (July) by David Jackson

7. Uploading system Wikipedia Loves Art 2009: Flickr Britain Loves Wikipedia 2010: bespoke uploader Flickr allowed communication between participants; bespoke uploader made museums’ jobs easier Cupid and Psyche by Barry Green

9. Timing and deadlines No set deadlines for museums to finish checking photographs or for judges to pick winners Public communication fizzled out soon after the final submission date Judging took 7 months Spice Box by Pawel Ficinski

10. Image rights issues High-resolution, high-quality images of V&A objects being posted under CC share-alike licence Truth and Falsehood by Iza Bella

11. Use of images to illustrate Wikipedia articles April 2010: 12 uses of V&A photos October 2010: 61 uses of V&A photos across Wikipedia sites in 12 different languages 80 uses of photos taken at all participating museums Bone china chocolate cup by David Jackson

13. ‘ Apart from adding a lot of photos for use on Wikipedia and by the Museums, I found there were a lot of areas in the Museums (and a lot of objects too) which I had either forgotten or maybe never previously discovered.’ St Stephen Preaching by David Jackson

14. Nadia Arbach Digital Programmes Manager Learning & Interpretation Division Victoria and Albert Museum 020 7942 2194 [email_address] Medicine Bottles by Jenny O’Donnell