2019:GLAM/Embedding Wikidata into GLAM practice

GLAM/Embedding Wikidata into GLAM practice

Title

Embedding Wikidata into GLAM practice

Description

A visualization from Wikidata showing the connection between publishers and publications for Newspapers and Journals at the National Library of Wales

The National Library of Wales has embraced open access and has choose to share thousands of

A mock-up of the bilingual Wikidata powered timeline currently being developed by Histropedia for our Dictionary of Welsh Biography Website.

images via Wikimedia Commons as well as frequently running Wikimedia outreach events and programs. Over the last few years the library, and their permanent Wikimedian, have explored the potential of Wikidata as a means of sharing, enriching and exploring their open data. This was initially seen by management as a niche activity, separate to the Libraries main objects, but Wikidata now includes 10's of thousands of items about NLW collections and connected people. They have been able to demonstrate how sharing with Wikidata not only improves access, but enriches data and allows them to easily share and reuse this data in multiple languages. Discover how and why the library chose to begin reusing Wikidata to improve their own websites an

d services, from simple queries to c reate connections between collections, to a Wikidata powered timeline and using Wikidata entities to improve its volunteer platform.

This talk will advocate for the use of Wikidata as a cost effective way for GLAMs to create and share open linked data and will demonstrate how Wikidata is increasingly being seen as an acceptable and useful element in cultural institutions core infrastructure. The talk will focus on demonstrating the value to GLAMs of sharing and reusing Wikidata and helping to understand how we can encourage policy makes and senior management to embrace Wikidata as a valuable asset in their delivery of digital resources.

Relationship to the theme

'Wikidata loves GLAMs' presentation by the speaker at Wikidata Con 2017. The proposed talk really represents the next chapter in our Wikidata journey

This session will address the conference theme — Wikimedia, Free Knowledge and the Sustainable Development Goals — in the following manner: This session will address the conference theme by demonstrating the extent to which Wikimedia projects and their open ethos is being embraced by cultural institutions. The talk will discuss how leveraging Wikidata in the culture sector can promote language diversity and equality, with a focus on providing access to Welsh language content and data. Reusing Wikidata also supports quality education, by giving added value and context to historic collections, and by providing new ways to query and explore historical data. Wikidata also connects collections together, creating a web of cultural heritage information from multiple institutions around the world. For education, this is an incredibly powerful concept.

Session outcomes

At the end of the session, the following will have been achieved:

• Attendees will have learned about different ways GLAMs can engage with Wikidata and other Wikimedia projects.
• Attendees will have a better understanding of the benefits GLAMs might see from this kind of collaboration.
• The speaker will have set out model for engagement with Wikimedia projects.
• The speaker will have shared working examples of Wikidata reuse to support his claims.
• Attendees will leave full of enthusiasm for engaging with and developing GLAM-Wikidata initiatives (I hope!)

Session leader(s)

• Jason Evans
• Full name 2

Usernames

• Jason.nlw (talk) 10:10, 10 May 2019 (UTC)
• Wikimedia username 2

Affiliation/country

• National Library of Wales
• Affiliation 2

E-mail contact

• jason.nlw@gmail.com
• Email 2

Session type

Each Space at Wikimania 2019 will have specific format requests. The program design prioritises submissions which are future-oriented and directly engage the audience. The format of this submission is a:

• Lecture

Length of session

If other than 20 minutes, specify how long

Supporting work

Optional:

• My project page (includes reports, videos, blogs ect)
• Link 2

Requirements

The session will work best with these conditions:

• Room:

Lecture hall with projector & screen

• Audience:

No prior knowledge needed and no limit to numbers

• Recording:

Yes, no issues with recording