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UNESCO Memory of the World project

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Seungjeongwon Ilgi, the Diaries of the Royal Secretariat Wikidata Q483160

During 2024 and 2025, the Khalili Foundation and UNESCO are collaborating to improve the visibility of the Memory of the World International Register. This is part of the ongoing partnership between the Khalili Foundation and Wikimedia UK and is fully funded by the Khalili Foundation. The on-wiki activity is led by Dr. Martin Poulter, Wikimedian In Residence at the Foundation.

As of 2026, the Memory of the World International Register describes 570 pieces of globally important documentary heritage, from many different cultures and time periods. These inscriptions may be as small as a single document, or as large as an entire library. Many of them are relevant to human rights, such as the Human Rights Archive of Chile (Wikidata Q56317310) or Book for the Baptism of Slaves (1636-1670) (Wikidata Q28028133).

At the outset of the project, the representation of the register on Wikimedia projects was incomplete and filled with errors. About 40% of the inscriptions on the register were still unknown to Wikimedia. Memory of the World inscriptions located in Europe were much better represented than those in Africa and other areas of the Global South. As a result of our work, a complete dataset of all inscriptions is available on Wikidata and there has been a rush of new articles in many language versions of Wikipedia. The list articles about the register on English Wikipedia have been brought up to date, and hundreds of dead links (to old versions of the register) have been replaced.

With a better structured dataset, we can now get better quantitative views of the reach of content about the MoW International Register. The Massviews tool tells us that English Wikipedia articles linking to the register get millions of views each month, and images relating to the register get (as a rough estimate) nearly a hundred million views each month.

Activities

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Hannah Drummen at UNESCO has written a guide for Wikimedians on navigating the online MoW International Register and using it to improve Wikipedia.

Ordination document of the Japanese monk Enchin
Update the Wikidata representation of the International Register

It ought to be possible to use Wikidata to generate a complete list of inscriptions, as a basis for Wikipedia articles in multiple languages. This is not yet possible because of omissions, duplicates, and confusions between the international register and national registers. As part of this project, we will create guidelines that help with future cataloguing.

Turn facts from nomination forms into structured data

The nomination documents on the UNESCO web site contain many interesting facts about the inscriptions. These include collection sizes, languages of a text, and dates of creation. We made these more useful by converting them into a structured form. Using the documents as the basis for Wikidata statements is a way to get more structured data for both Wikipedia and the UNESCO sites.

The Book of Healing from internal and external diseases affecting the body, a 17th-century magico-medical manuscript in Timbuktu, Mali. Wikidata Q133264812
Update links

There were hundreds of links from Wikimedia projects to the old versions of the UNESCO Memory of the World online database. These broken links need to be replaced by the new database, https://www.unesco.org/en/memory-world/ (English) https://www.unesco.org/fr/memory-world (French), https://www.unesco.org/es/memory-world (Spanish), or https://www.unesco.org/zh/memory-world/ (Chinese).

Old links that should be replaced include those starting with http://www.unesco.org/new/en/communication-and-information/flagship-project-activities/memory-of-the-world/, http://www.unesco.org/new/en/communication-and-information/memory-of-the-world/, https://www.unesco.org/new/en/communication-and-information/memory-of-the-world/, and https://www.unesco.org/new/fr/communication-and-information/memory-of-the-world/. These can be searched for with the Special:LinkSearch feature of each wiki.

Categorise files on Wikimedia Commons

There are scans and photographs of some Memory of the World inscriptions on Commons. It is not yet possible to precisely record how many image views these files are getting, because categorisation has many errors. We would like cultural institutions to share additional images under free licences so they can be used in illustrating Wikipedia articles.

Create new Wikipedia articles

At the start of the project, there were a total of 1660 articles about individual inscriptions in 164 languages, including 76 in English, 66 in German and 60 in French.

Updates

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Updates are posted each month in the This Month in GLAM newsletter in a dedicated Memory of the World report. This include lists of new articles about Memory of the World inscriptions in any language version of Wikipedia. If you improve the representation of the Memory of the World register(s) on any of the Wikimedia platforms, feel free to report your work in that newsletter.

Did You Know?

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As a result of our work, these statements and links have appeared on the front page of English Wikipedia where they have been seen by potentially millions of readers.

Did You Know... Image Date
that An African Song or Chant from Barbados (manuscript pictured) was nominated for inscription on UNESCO's Memory of the World International Register by someone who saw it in an online exhibition? 3 February 2025
that the Colección de Lenguas Indígenas includes the only written records of three languages that have since died out? - 12 March 2026
that Docip provided a computer room for indigenous peoples' representatives in international negotiations? - 15 April 2026
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