Wikimedia+Libraries/Program/Submission/The Power of Wikidata: Revealing Digital Collections at the University of Nevada Las Vegas

Title of your proposal

Name(s) and/or username(s)

Violet Fox, User:Skvader

former Wikimedian-in-Residence, University of Nevada Las Vegas Libraries

Topic

• Experience with Wikidata

Type of submission (Please choose one)

• Individual Presentations (15 minutes)

Keywords and hashtags

Wikidata, digital collections, special collections

Abstract

As a Wikimedian-in-Residence at the University of Nevada Las Vegas from January to June 2021, I worked on multiple projects to highlight underutilized resources in the libraries' Digital Collections. With the use of bulk creation & editing tools, I created more than 18,000 Wikidata items, resulting in over 10,000 pageviews. Three-week sprints focused on a specific area of collections, for example, the creation of items for historic newspapers and newspaper editors, linking to the digitized copies of the newspapers themselves. Other sprints highlighted the libraries' collection of oral histories featuring members of the Las Vegas African American community as well as women represented in the Nevada Women's History Project. The power of creating this data will be demonstrated with the use of multiple SPARQL queries created by myself and project supervisor Darnelle Melvin, Special Collections and Archives Metadata Librarian at UNLV.

Expected outcomes

Participants will learn about Wikidata projects and understand how they might leverage Wikidata to highlight their own special collections or local history.

Duration (without Q&A)

15 minutes

Specific requirements

I'm not presenting in any other sessions.
Technology needs: just a screen and a laptop/desktop computer for a slideshow and a live demonstration.
No specific arrangement of the chairs and tables needed.

Resources

• The UNLV Wikidata project page, including example SPARQL queries and link to QuickStatements beginner's guide
• Slides (with speaker notes)

Interested attendees (Please add yourself, and you may indicate your questions to the presenter).

1. Omorodion1 (talk)
2. Walkuraxx (talk) 06:36, 19 June 2022 (UTC)
3. Ngostary2k (talk) 22:53, 19 June 2022 (UTC)
4. KellyDoyle (talk) 23:09, 21 June 2022 (UTC)
5. I'm curious about how you connected creating Wikidata items with increased pageviews. Rachel Helps (BYU) (talk) 16:56, 22 June 2022 (UTC)
6. EriedgenArc (talk) 12:14, 23 June 2022 (UTC)
7. Matthewvetter (talk) 15:02, 24 June 2022 (UTC)