Grants:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/Rapid Fund/Wikidata-ArchivesSpace GLAM plugin (ID: 23096591)/Final Report
Application type: Standard application
Part 1: Project and impact
1. Describe the implemented activities and results achieved. Additionally, share which approaches were most effective in supporting you to achieve the results. (required)
Our team successfully developed the Wikidata-ArchivesSpace GLAM plugin, which is now available on github (https://github.com/archivesspace-plugins/wikidata). The tool’s purpose is to verify and establish authority control for personal names in archival collections online, helping to bring a wide range of GLAM professionals and their daily work into the Wikimedia ecosystem. Building on an earlier SNAC effort, the plugin connects the popular ArchivesSpace platform with Wikidata such that Wikidata content appears in ArchivesSpace, as an authority listed alongside Library of Congress name authorities. The most effective aspect of the project was the collaboration amongst contributors from across the United States with expertise as ArchivesSpace and Wikidata users as well as expertise in software development, name authorities work, and descriptive metadata for archival collections. Together, the team developed requirements to guide the contracted developer of the plugin, fielded questions from the developer, and tested successive iterations of the plugin to ensure its functionality. This same group is now executing a dissemination plan to introduce the finished plugin to appropriate audiences for adoption.
2. Documentation of your impact. Please use space below to share links that help tell your story, impact, and evaluation. (required)
Share links to:
- Project page on Meta-Wiki or any other Wikimedia project
- Dashboards and tools that you used to track contributions
- Some photos or videos from your event. Remember to share access.
You can also share links to:
- Important social media posts
- Surveys and their results
- Infographics and sound files
- Examples of content edited on Wikimedia projects
We have set up Wikidata:WikiProject ArchivesSpace - Wikidata (https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:WikiProject_ArchivesSpace) to document the plugin and the relevant application of the archives data model. It will also in future provide a dashboard of ArchivesSpace identifier use on Wikidata across different institutions, and work to advance further citations to ArchivesSpace instances more generally. This project has already contributed to a GLAM provision in the Wikidata notability policy reform (https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:Requests_for_comment/Notability_policy_reform), ensuring a continued vital role for archival topics on Wikidata. And it has prompted movement toward the development of a universal ArchivesSpace agent ID property, which could be used cross-institutionally. We also hope to eventually support a complementary Wikibase with further specialized content expanding on topics found in these participating archives, more comprehensively than is possible on Wikidata or Wikipedia itself. We have also presented on the project to archivists to raise awareness and adoption of the tool. There are 65 views on youtube for our presentation at last year's ArchivesSpace forum https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Jwlu_AXcV4 and 300 views for the ArchivesSpace webinar in December https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3hM9hc2tyM
Additionally, share the materials and resources that you used in the implementation of your project. (required)
For example:
- Training materials and guides
- Presentations and slides
- Work processes and plans
- Any other materials your team has created or adapted and can be shared with others
Resources are available on our Wikidata page such as the mapping we created between Wikidata entity records and ArchivesSpace agent records. https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:WikiProject_ArchivesSpace/Mapping
3. To what extent do you agree with the following statements regarding the work carried out with this Rapid Fund? You can choose “not applicable” if your work does not relate to these goals. Required. Select one option per question. (required)
| A. Bring in participants from underrepresented groups | Agree |
| B. Create a more inclusive and connected culture in our community | Agree |
| C. Develop content about underrepresented topics/groups | Agree |
| D. Develop content from underrepresented perspectives | Agree |
| E. Encourage the retention of editors | Agree |
| F. Encourage the retention of organizers | Neither agree nor disagree |
| G. Increased participants' feelings of belonging and connection to the movement | Agree |
| F. Other (optional) |
Part 2: Learning
4. In your application, you outlined some learning questions. What did you learn from these learning questions when you implemented your project? How do you hope to use this learnings in the future? You can recall these learning questions below. (required)
You can recall these learning questions below: We want to explore how the incorporation of Wikidata into GLAM professionals’ daily workflow broadens the scope and diversity of names that have an authority control in their archival databases available online for researchers. To what extent can Wikidata help make up for the shortcomings of the Library of Congress system? Will the plugin encourage the creation of new swathes of Wikidata items to fill in the gaps? The project team wants to see if GLAM engagement becomes strong enough to justify the possible future development of a round-tripping function between Wikidata and ArchivesSpace.
The full impact of this tool remains to be seen. We are doing outreach now to encourage its adoption and use. Within the partner institutions represented on our project team, we see increasing use of Wikidata entity records to supply name authorities used in archival description. We predict that this trend will continue.
5. Did anything unexpected or surprising happen when implementing your activities? This can include both positive and negative situations. What did you learn from those experiences? (required)
We experienced more administrative difficulties than expected that delayed our ability to start the project on time. In the future, I would try to find a smaller organization or individual to receive the Wikimedia Foundation grant instead of administering it through a large public university’s research foundation as we did on this project. In terms of the development work itself, we found that we needed many meetings to populate our mapping spreadsheet that directed our developer’s work. We had to reach consensus on which features would be part of a future roadmap so that we could produce a sound and well-tested minimally viable version of the plugin to share with the communities using it.
6. What is your plan to share your project learnings and results with other community members? If you have already done it, describe how. (required)
Our dissemination plan is organized by audience: For ArchivesSpace users, we will present a webinar hosted by the ArchivesSpace organization in October 2026. We will author an announcement for the ArchivesSpace monthly update that goes out to all ArchivesSpace members. We will also author a blogpost available to the general public on the ArchivesSpace blog. Members of the team will propose a session at the ArchivesSpace annual member forum, which will take place in March 2027. For the broader archivist community, we will post on appropriate Society of American Archivist listservs and in the Archivists Working with Archival Data slack channel (https://shoes-untied.slack.com/). We will also add the plugin to the Awesome ArchivesSpace github (https://github.com/archivesspace/awesome-archivesspace). For the Wikimedia community, we shared informally with attendees at the 2026 Wikimania Conference in Paris, France. We will pitch a session for the Wiki North America conference in December 2026. We will also publish a Wiki GLAM newsletter piece and inquire about contributing to an LD4 monthly meeting. For internal institutional communication for the project team, we will create an announcement about the launch of the plugin written for a general university faculty audience and adapt it for each team member’s institution.
Part 3: Metrics
7. Wikimedia Metrics results. (required)
In your application, you set some Wikimedia targets in numbers (Wikimedia metrics). In this section, you will describe the achieved results and provide links to the tools used.
| Target | Results | Comments and tools used | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Number of participants | 3000 | 360 | Participants in workshops and conferences during development phase |
| Number of editors | 2 | 3 | |
| Number of organizers | 5 | 5 |
| Wikimedia project | Target | Result - Number of created pages | Result - Number of improved pages |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wikipedia | |||
| Wikimedia Commons | |||
| Wikidata | 1000 | 100 | 0 |
| Wiktionary | |||
| Wikisource | |||
| Wikimedia Incubator | |||
| Translatewiki | |||
| MediaWiki | |||
| Wikiquote | |||
| Wikivoyage | |||
| Wikibooks | |||
| Wikiversity | |||
| Wikinews | |||
| Wikispecies | |||
| Wikifunctions or Abstract Wikipedia |
8. Other Metrics results.
In your proposal, you could also set Other Metrics targets. Please describe the achieved results and provide links to the tools used if you set Other Metrics in your application.
| Other Metrics name | Metrics Description | Target | Result | Tools and comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
9. Did you have any difficulties collecting data to measure your results? (required)
Yes
9.1. Please state what difficulties you had. How do you hope to overcome these challenges in the future? Do you have any recommendations for the Foundation to support you in addressing these challenges? (required)
When someone imports a Wikidata entity record into their ArchivesSpace resource record, there is no receipt of that transaction in Wikidata. There is also no evidence when a new Wikidata entity record is created or improved by an archivist who plans to use that entity as a name authority in their archival description. Therefore, the plugin can precipitate activity in Wikidata that will not be traceable.
Part 4: Financial reporting
[edit]10. Please state the total amount spent in your local currency. (required)
5000
11. Please state the total amount spent in US dollars. (required)
5000
12. Report the funds spent in the currency of your fund. (required)
Upload the financial report
12.2. If you have not already done so in your financial spending report, please provide information on changes in the budget in relation to your original proposal. (optional)
We initially estimated administrative costs would total $500 and they ended up being $455. We spent: $4545.00 – developer contractor $455.00 – facilities & administrative cost
13. Do you have any unspent funds from the Fund?
No
13.1. Please list the amount and currency you did not use and explain why.
N/A
13.2. What are you planning to do with the underspent funds?
N/A
13.3. Please provide details of hope to spend these funds.
N/A
14.1. Are you in compliance with the terms outlined in the fund agreement?
Yes
14.2. Are you in compliance with all applicable laws and regulations as outlined in the grant agreement?
Yes
14.3. Are you in compliance with provisions of the United States Internal Revenue Code (“Code”), and with relevant tax laws and regulations restricting the use of the Funds as outlined in the grant agreement? In summary, this is to confirm that the funds were used in alignment with the WMF mission and for charitable/nonprofit/educational purposes.
Yes
15. If you have additional recommendations or reflections that don’t fit into the above sections, please write them here. (optional)