Libraries & Wikidata[edit]

Hi there! If you are a librarian working with Wikidata, this section will be of interest to you. From our understanding, there are several ways in which libraries interact with Wikidata:

1.Contributing data to Wikidata. Some libraries contribute metadata of their bibliographic records directly to Wikidata, to increase visibility to the wider user community.

2.Connecting to Wikidata. Some libraries connect their catalog (e.g. authority records) to existing items on Wikidata via their External Identifier property on Wikidata. This allows their catalog to be more visible to other users of Wikidata. Connecting their catalog to Wikidata also allows for mismatches/ inconsistencies in their catalog to be flagged out to the library with the help of community members via tools such as Mix'n'Match.

3.Accessing/Reusing Wikidata's data. Libraries also access and reuse Wikidata's data to either enrich the data on their catalog, or in other projects such as an informative user portal.

So in short, Wikidata helps libraries to have a better understanding of their own data, enrich their data (also from other Wikimedia projects), and at times, even increase the visibility of their own data.

Getting Started

Here are some links which may be of relevance to librarians. You don't have to look at them now. Just know that they are here and you can check them out anytime.

AfLIA Wikidata Project- General Wikidata training materials put together by librarians
23 Linked Data Things- This is a self-paced program designed for those in libraries who want to learn more about linked data principles and explore how linked data can transform the way we think about metadata.
Wikidata:WikiProject PCC Wikidata Pilot- Program for Cooperative Cataloging (PCC) Project for librarians
LD4 Wikidata Community- this is an awesome group where members of the library community meet up regularly to share their efforts and experiences with Wikidata. These sessions are all recorded so everyone can revisit in the future.
The Future of Wikidata + Libraries workshop- This is a series of 6 blogposts (by WMF) with librarians' favorite Wikidata projects and tools, but also the challenges they face and the future they envision from a workshop at LD4 Conference 2023.

Use case:

"The Miguel de Cervantes Virtual Library (BVMC) catalog (in Spain) contains more than 300,000 records that were originally created from the MARC21 standard...the catalog was updated with the FRBR conceptual model promoted by IFLA. The database content has been automatically migrated to RDF triples using the RDA vocabulary to describe the entities, as well as their properties and relationships."
- see here for description of the BVMC project.
- Miguel de Cervantes on Wikidata and Miguel de Cervantes in BVMC catalog.

Creating an External Identifier (Property) on Wikidata[edit]

Creating a Property (an external identifier) to link your library's catalog to Wikidata is one of the first steps in any library's interaction with Wikidata, and the Linked Open Data web. The reason why libraries do this is to enable users of Wikidata to easily find the corresponding item on your catalog when they are viewing an item on Wikidata.

For a basic course on databases and linked data, check out a quick course here.

Step 1.

Ensure your library has an existing online catalog of metadata that can be connected to Wikidata.
Example is the Singapore Infopedia ID and its corresponding source at https://www.nlb.gov.sg/main/nlonline.
You can learn more about the Singapore Infopedia ID's proposal discussion here.

Step 2.

Put in a request for an external identifier here.
See an example of property request here.

Link your catalogs to Wikidata[edit]

User:Epìdosis has a short video with 5 suggestions on how to link your catalogs to Wikidata. Check out the video here.

Data Modelling[edit]

If you are adding an item to Wikidata for the first time, where should you look to find relevant data model examples or ideas? We usually recommend first time users to look at an example of an existing item on Wikidata that is similar to the type of data you wish to model.

For example, if you would like to know what are the different properties you should have for the authors in your catalog, then perhaps it makes sense to look at an example of an existing author (e.g. Gabriel García Márquez) on Wikidata, and use the same properties for a start.

https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:WikiProject_Manuscripts

Otherwise, the following might be helpful to you.

Different ways of modelling your data on Wikidata: Author[edit]

People Data Structure examples from the Semantic Name Authority Repository Cymru, by the National Library of Wales.
Example of BVMC person ID property.

Different ways of modelling your data on Wikidata: Novels[edit]

See WikiProject:Books Work Item and Edition Item properties sections.

Different ways of modelling your data on Wikidata: Biography[edit]

coming soon

Different ways of modelling your data on Wikidata: Music score (printed)[edit]

coming soon

Different ways of modelling your data on Wikidata: Reference books (dictionaries / encyclopedias)[edit]

coming soon