Linked Open Data in GLAM: Open and Collaborative Projects Using Wikidata

Abstract

Linked Data has been around for more than 20 years and has been called many names such as Semantic Web, Web of Data, and Knowledge Graphs. Whatever the name is, the promise of Linked Data, and Linked Open Data, has always been to represent the sum of knowledge in a structured format, consumable by both humans and machines. This promise has had some hiccups for many reasons, such as the idea of the semantic web being too academic or non-friendly for application developers. Although not entirely new, the rise in popularity of recent technological advancements has made the barrier for Link Open Data lower, like in Wikidata.

Wikidata was created in 2012 by Wikimedia Deutschland to provide structured knowledge to Wikimedia Projects and third-party applications. Wikidata is open and free and can be edited by both humans and machines. It is a central storage of structured knowledge in the form of items with statements made up of properties, values, and qualifiers, which resemble the Resource Description Framework or RDF.

This study explores the use of Wikidata as a central repository of Linked Data, along with its tools, to develop open and collaborative projects that can be pursued in the GLAM sector. Examples of these projects are forming a union catalog, collaborative collection building, and cataloging, and an institutional scholarly works citation network to name a few.

Linked Open Data in GLAM is an opportunity for Librarians and Information Professionals to become outstanding in the field. Our skills and foundational knowledge in Information Organization, Metadata, and Community Building make us a perfect fit to use Wikidata for our projects.