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Playlist "WikidataCon 2019"

#HerNaturalHistory

Siobhan Leachman

Wikidata can play a vital role in surfacing notable women and can assist with closing the gender gap in various language Wikipedias. Using the example of under acknowledged women in the field of natural history, this presentation will show how Wikidata editors can collate data enabling researchers to more easily locate, investigate and publish on underrepresented women. The interlinking of elements in the Wikimedia Commons Structured Data project can assist editors in establishing sufficient notability for Wikidata items for these women. This in turn can assist Wikipedians to overcome the notability criteria for Wikipedia articles. This presentation will outline the practical steps needed to ensure the creation or improvement of external identifiers for these women through collaboration with other organisations such as the Biodiversity Heritage Library and the Stuttgart Database of Scientific illustrators. This wikiwork can then feed into external organisation outreach campaigns creating a virtuous cycle of data creation, sharing and linking.