The successful Wikisource Loves Manuscripts (WILMA) pilot project conducted last year in Indonesia is not the end of our engagement with the Indonesian public. By using the remaining funds from the pilot project, we continued our engagement with the Indonesian public. This time, we aim to bring the rescued manuscript into the educational system to support student learning. With the help of Pusat Pengkajian Islam dan Masyarakat (PPIM) at UIN Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta, we conducted the WILMA Proofread-A-Thon event, focusing on an Arabic manuscript rescued in West Sumatra province.
The manuscript, taken from the private collection of the descendants of Syekh Abdul Latif Syakur, a prominent progressive Islamic scholar from West Sumatra, is unique as it is written by Islamic scholars from Indonesia in the Arabic language. Students from the Department of Tarjamah (Arabic Translation Studies) Islamic State University of Jakarta and the Institute for Quranic Studies Jakarta, who studied Arabic literature, manually transliterated the Arabic manuscripts on Da’wa (Islamic preaching) and Fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence) onto the Wikisource platform using Arabic keyboards.
The event attracted 25 students from both universities who are interested in becoming new Wikisource contributors.
We hope that the students who participated in this event are also interested in continuing their work as a part of the Wikimedia Indonesia community
Hardiansyah, the representative from the Wikimedia Indonesia community who was also present at the event.
Throughout the one-day event, the students successfully transliterated 50 pages of Syekh Abdul Latif Syakur’s work.
The Proofread-A-Thon event is crucial for opening the door to learning valuable Indonesian manuscripts written in Arabic.
Abdullah Maulani, a lecturer at the Islamic State University of Jakarta and a PPIM staff member.
He also mentioned that the event would raise awareness among students about how open knowledge platforms, such as Wikisource, can be beneficial for the teaching and learning process in the classroom.
“By using Wikisource, we aim to show students that their work is beneficial not only for them but also for others who want to research manuscripts from around the world,”
said Ilham Nurwansah, WILMA project leader
Ilham also mentioned that this is not the end of student engagement, as he and PPIM plan to conduct the event in other cities in Indonesia.
This Proofread-A-Thon event was made even more special with the participation of Ms. Marije Plomp, subject librarian for Southeast Asia at the Leiden University Library. She acknowledged WILMA as an organic movement emerging from community initiatives to preserve Indonesia’s documented heritage. During her presentation, she also highlighted how the Leiden University Library has expanded access and improved the findability of Indonesian manuscripts, opening up numerous collaboration opportunities to bring more Indonesian manuscripts to Wikisource.
In line with the spirit of the WILMA Learning Partners Network, we hope the event demonstrates how Wikisource can be an excellent platform for enhancing the study of ancient manuscripts, not just for safeguarding them. If you are interested in being a part of the WILMA Learning Partners Network, sign up here to join the network and contribute.
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