In this session, there will be five scheduled 10-minute lightning talks followed by a brief Q&A.
Evaluating the quality of linked open data in digital libraries
Gustavo Candela, Pilar Escobar, Rafael C. Carrasco, Manuel Marco-Such
Cultural heritage institutions have recently started to share their collections as linked open data in order to disseminate and enrich them. One of the most important goals of the culture heritage institutions is to be reused by means of the establishment of external links. In this context, data quality in terms of linked open data can be a crucial aspect to consider when selecting a repository for reuse. In this presentation, the methodology defined by previous research for the evaluation of the quality of linked open data is adapted to the specific case of libraries. The quality measures are reported in the case of four highly relevant libraries, including Wikidata as a repository for enriching their metadata.
Takeaways
An idea of how a culture heritage institution should publish LOD repositories and the most relevant aspects to assess a dataset from a technical data quality of view.
Creating LOD for Dutch public libraries
Olaf Janssen
Directly inspired by a lightning talk from GLAM-Wiki 2018 (https://bit. ly/2Dtrnxc) I started a project to improve the coverage and visibility of public libraries in the Netherlands on Wikidata.
Although there are a number of websites listing all these plusminus 1500 libraries, I was quite surprised to find that none of them provide both structured and openly licensed, let alone linked data, while openness should be at the the core of every library's mission.
I decided to solve this problem by adding address and geo data of every public library to Wikidata, hence for the very first time creating a (5-star) linked open data set for this type of library.
This enables innovative uses, such as overviews and visualisations of the Dutch public library landscape on organisational, municipal, regional, provincial and national levels. This is of interest not only to Wikipedia and LOD enthousiasts, but also to e.g. policy makers, municipalities, scientists and journalists.
In addition, to enable SPARQL generated library image galleries, I have started '1Lib1Photo' (inspired by 1Lib1Ref), an initiatieve to add an openly licensed image of every Dutch public library to Wikimedia Commons.
Takeaways
As a beginning Wikidatian myself, I hope to show that this type of project is suitable for beginners; adding address and geo infomation to Wikidata is a simple task that any one can do and a great way to learn SPARQL.
Despite the simple nature of the inputs, the outputs (maps, image galleries, tables) are very relevant, not only for adding overviews of libraries to Wikipedia, but also for parties outside the Wiki sphere.
As this project was directly inspired by work done in Wales by Simon Cobb (User:Sic19), I in my turn hope to inspire others to start similar projects in other countries.
How can a small research library benefit from Wikidata? Enhancing library products using Wikidata
Ursula Oberst, Heleen Smits
In 2018 the African Studies Centre Leiden (ASCL) has started to engage with Wikidata by uploading its African Studies Thesaurus to Wikidata and by adding Africa-related publications in the context of WikiCite. The ASCL library is well aware of the fantastic functionalities that can be realized in library catalogs with thesaurus identifiers being present in Wikidata but adjustments to the ASCL catalog itself are at present a too far-fetched goal. How else can the library benefit from Wikidata at short notice?
To prepare for the WikiconNL 2019 conference, the ASCL Library compiled an experimental web dossier which combines the components of a classical ASCL web dossier with features offered by Wikidata. The web dossier focuses on Southern African women writers and their publications. Special feature is the interactive Wikidata map that provides links to the writer’s publications in the ASCL catalogue and to her English Wikipedia article.
For WikidataCon 2019 the ASCL will prepare a second experimental web dossier on proverbs in African languages. The lightning talk presents the ASCL experimental web dossiers as an example for the enhancement of library products by using Wikidata.
Takeaways
The web dossiers are practical use cases that can be easily implemented by other libraries. The lightning talk hopes to inspire the attendees and the presenters hope to be inspired by the audience and their experience with easily realisable and practical (library) applications for Wikidata.
Using Wikidata to improve spatial subject indexing in a regional bibliography
Adrian Pohl
The North Rhine-Westphalian Bibliography with more than 400,000 entries is one of the biggest regional bibliographies in Germany. Wikidata has been utilized for more than five years to improve https://nwbib.de, the end user interface of the bibliography, and is lately also taking over an important role in the cataloging backend.
As part of subject indexing, catalogers have been recording names of places as strings (~9000 strings refering to ~4500 different places). To get more out of this rather messy data, we started to match strings with Wikidata doing lots of edits on the way. The geo coordinates from matched entries are used to offer map-based features.
Currently, we are entirely moving from strings to authority-based subject indexing and chose Wikidata as infrastructure for the creation and maintainance of the spatial classification to be used by catalogers. For this, we had to address several challenges, e.g. how to best periodically create an intermediary SKOS file from Wikidata to be used for features in nwbib.de.
The talk describes the lessons learned in matching place names to Wikidata and switching from cataloging strings to Wikidata-derived things.
Takeaways
How to build a custom matching index with SPARQL and Elasticsearch when traditional approaches (via API or OpenRefine) don't suffice
How to maintain authority data in Wikidata and create a SKOS classification from it
How to set up a process to conveniently monitor changes with regard to a subset of Wikidata entries and properties
Are catalogers inclined to work with Wikidata? How much and what kind of guidance do they need?
Wikidata and Libraries as Partners in Data Production, Organization, and Project Inspiration
Hilary Thorsen, Lena Denis, Christine Fernsebner Eslao, Marc McGee, Steven Folsom
This talk will highlight the exciting possibilities and challenges of integrating library metadata and Wikidata uncovered so far in Linked Data for Production Phase 2 (LD4P2, ld4p.org), an Andrew W. Mellon funded- project. Through projects involving cartographic, archival, and music collections, the project’s Wikimedian in Residence and staff at Harvard and Cornell, have focused on the exploration of Wikidata as a strategy for the creation of day-to-day core descriptions of library collections, identity management, and enhancing discovery of library and archival resources. The talk will demonstrate lessons learned so far, benefits for library users, challenges we have encountered, helpful tools, and example workflows that could serve as entry points for a wide range of institutions to Wikidata. By sharing this work we hope to receive feedback on our approaches, increase collaboration between the library and Wikidata communities, and help library metadata work learn from the openness of the Wiki movement.
Takeaways
Ideas for using Wikidata to enrich library discovery environments and contribute library data to Wikidata
Ideas for using Wikidata to connect data in ways not modelled effectively by traditional library description
How library data standards can facilitate data modeling and data profiles in Wikidata and vice versa
Relevant Wikidata tools and documentation practices for sharing and enriching library metadata
Examples of workflows and mappings for integrating library metadata and Wikidata systematically and holistically
Benefits of adding connections between Wikidata and library identifiers
Panel speakers:
Gustavo Candela (Evaluating the quality of linked open data in digital libraries)
Olaf Janssen (Creating 5* LOD for Dutch public libraries)
Ursula Oberst, Heleen Smits (How can a small research library benefit from Wikidata? Enhancing library products using Wikidata)
Adrian Pohl (Using Wikidata to improve spatial subject indexing in a regional bibliography)
Hilary Thorsen, Lena Denis --Librarian lena