By Greta Suiter, Manuscripts Archivist, Ohio University Libraries.

This post is the third of three posts about adding archival collection information to Wikidata. The first introduction post is here and the second post focusing on collection creator information in Wikidata is here.

In addition to adding “archives at” statements to collection creator’s Wikidata items, archivists can also create new Wikidata items for collections as well. There are over 400 manuscript collections in the Mahn Center for Archives and Special Collections. These collections document a wide variety of topics including military, politics, poetry, modern dance, and Athens county history. Currently 36 of these collections are described in Wikidata. The goal is to eventually have all collections represented.

For each manuscript collection, a base amount of data is being added to Wikidata via QuickStatements. This base amount of information can be further enhanced in the future. For example, volume (as cubic feet), coordinates (of the Alden Library), and start and end dates (of the collection) can be added after the collection is established via QuickStatements. Below is an example of how to format the metadata for QuickStatements ingest. The last column is not included in QuickStatements, but allows us to see what the P number is referring to. For example P31 = instance of, and Q9388534 = archival collection. These can be created in a spreadsheet and then copied and pasted into QuickStatements.

Some queries useful for archivists focusing on collection management include size of collection, dates of collection, and main subjects of collections. Having easy access to these types of queries can be used by library staff when advocating for collections, diversifying collections by knowing where gaps are, and quickly finding commonalities across collections. Institutions that lack a collection management system may also greatly benefit from using Wikidata as a place to store collection level information – even though it is a public place and editable by anyone, it still may be useful.

• Size of collections – https://w.wiki/4pbQ

• Dates of collections – https://w.wiki/4pbQ

• Main subject queries
  • How many collections at Alden Library have the main subject of World War 2? – Run the query to find out! https://w.wiki/59vu

There are many more queries that are possible and I look forward to figuring them out and seeing the collection in new ways.