Smithsonian Libraries and Archives & Wikidata: Plans Become Projects

Smithsonian Libraries and Archives & Wikidata: Plans Become Projects

This post is part of our
Smithsonian Libraries and Archives & Wikidata series
.
Over the past two years, Smithsonian Libraries and Archives has embarked on a linked data journey along with many other libraries in the
Program for Cooperative Cataloging
(PCC) Wikidata pilot project. From October 2020 to August 2021, the Libraries Wikidata team experimented with creating and maintaining name authority in a completely new way, including plans to install a decentralized Wikidata instance (Wikibase) that would meet the Smithsonian policies and best practices. This is the second part in the
Wikidata blog post series
, be sure to
read our previous post
for additional information.
Smithsonian Libraries and Archives’ Wiki initiation commenced with a Wikidata workshop held in November 2019 with Andrew Lih, currently the Wikimedian-In-Residence for the
American Women’s History Initiative
.  The outgrowth of the workshop was a name reconciling project using carefully curated name data. During the pandemic, this process was expanded to include additional staff and two name datasets: 1) the Art and Artist Files database and 2) a portion of Smithsonian American Art Museum’s artist names from its database.
Wiki Platform
For the last two years, the Libraries’ Wiki project has mainly focused on Wikidata and Wikibase, and briefly experimented with Wikimedia Commons for images as part of the Smithsonian’s PCC Wikidata Pilot Projects (Oct 2020- Sep 2021).
Wikidata
Wikidata, launched in 2012, is a global and open knowledge repository of structured data that serves as a hub for linking resources. This linked open data information cloud attracts and integrates authority data from many libraries. Wikidata quickly became the authority knowledgebase of choice in libraries and commercial institutions for names for people, places, etc. Its structured data gives many developers a way to create tools to query and present findings on trending topics, such as the resources which impact or are impacted by the pandemic, COVID-19 (
http://coviwd.org
)
Wikidata has become a high-demand library authority identifier clearing house. The PCC Policy Committee recognized the platform could play a role in its effort to transform authority control into identity management. In September 2020, called for a pilot among the PCC member libraries. The Smithsonian Libraries and Archives assembled a team to participate in October 2020 as telework projects during the pandemic.
The Wikidata team prioritized the following goals in order to create cohesive processes for names (identity) management for the Smithsonian’s collections,
The creation and curation of names for CPF (corporate bodies, persons and families), collections, and publications for the Institution.
Adopting replicable workflows to SI units that would work beyond the Libraries and Archives’ cataloging or metadata professionals.
Increasing professional curio…