About Thing 7
Purpose: Many libraries have found Wikidata a valuable place to start creating and editing information about their collections. Let’s explore even more library-created projects that are using Wikidata!
Learning Outcomes:Users will explore a range of library projects within Wikidata and consider how similar projects might work for their institution or consortium.
Intended Audience: Beginner
Author: Violet Fox, Northwestern University
Expected Duration: 45-60 minutes
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License.
Getting Started
Getting an overview of past and current projects that use Wikidata in libraries will help you imagine possibilities for the future!
Activities
Readings
- Read the short article "Boston Rock City: Explore Wikidata and Learn about Local Music" from the Boston Public Library about an edit-a-thon they held to add items to Wikidata.
- Read the blog post "Smithsonian Libraries and Archives & Wikidata: Chinese Ancestor Portrait Project" describing the Smithsonian Libraries and Archives project to add photos and metadata about those photos to Wikidata and Wikimedia Commons.
- Read the blog post "Treasured Manuscript Collection gets the Wikidata Treatment" from the National Library of Wales, describing their Wikidata project about a collection of important Welsh manuscripts.
Videos
- Finally, watch the 15-minute video "Wiki Tuesday Western: Building a Wikidata Community At the Library," where Metadata Management Librarian Erin Johnson discusses the building of a Wikidata community of practice at Western Libraries in Ontario. We hope it will inspire you to create a similar group at your institution or within your local library association!
Reflection
How could a Wikidata project be implemented at your own institution? What sorts of questions would you want to explore as you develop your project? Consider sharing your thoughts in the Comments section at the bottom of the page.
Claim Credit
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In our case, by following a method similar to that used by Western Universities: beginning with one fairly small collection as a pilot effort; selecting a core group to start up and oversee the project; setting up a Wikidata project page; defining key terms; doing group learning; and hosting open editing sessions involving other staff after a bit of training. The questions we would explore would involve things like local historical connections, what images can we access, how can we make our MARC based catalog incorporate and/or make available this information, how would we present this information to patrons/the general public, what data can we glean that would be useful in other efforts.
How could a Wikidata project be implemented at your own institution? What sorts of questions would you want to explore as you develop your project?