{"id":733,"date":"2022-06-14T14:36:06","date_gmt":"2022-06-14T14:36:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.ohio.edu\/library-archives-blog\/?p=733"},"modified":"2022-06-14T14:36:06","modified_gmt":"2022-06-14T14:36:06","slug":"collection-creators-in-wikidata","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.ohio.edu\/library-archives-blog\/2022\/06\/14\/collection-creators-in-wikidata\/","title":{"rendered":"Collection Creators in Wikidata"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Greta Suiter, Manuscripts Archivist, Ohio University Libraries. This post is the second of three posts about adding collection information to Wikidata. Read the first post here.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wikidata is the largest repository of linked data in the world. Individual records in Wikidata are called items and each item has its own unique identifier. For example, when I search for “Eevee” in Wikidata, results range from the cute Pok\u00e9mon Eevee (Q1263559<\/a>) to a music group named Eevee (Q5347176<\/a>) to a software engine called Eevee (Q104137114<\/a>) to a scientific article titled “EEVEE: the Empathy-Enhancing Virtual Evolving Environment” (Q30626102<\/a>). This example shows us that many different types of things are represented in Wikidata. And in addition to all these types of things there are also people – or “instances of humans” – such as Susana Eevee (Q55687129<\/a>). When it comes to archival collections, there is a lot of importance associated with who collected or created the collection. Archivists often name collections after creators and will devote much time and energy to learning about the creators and describing them in agent records and writing biographical notes about them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When it comes to linking archival collections to people in Wikidata, there are a couple of ways to do it. If the collection creator is relatively famous it is easy to add a statement to the item saying “archives at” a specific repository. For instance, Cornelius Ryan, author and World War II journalist, has a Wikidata item (Q463975<\/a>). One can add a new “archives at” statement and indicate that the collection is at Ohio University Libraries (also a Wikidata item Q58243476<\/a>) and include a link to the collection description.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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 “Archives at” statement example from the Cornelius Ryan Wikidata item<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Another way is by editing items that exist based on finding aid information, but not adding \u201carchives at\u201d to the item. In many cases at the Mahn Center there are small collections of only one or a few items. It would be misleading to say that the archives of the creator is at the Mahn Center. In this case adding to the creator’s item is a way to engage with and enhance adjacent collections information that may be beneficial to the Mahn Center in providing more context to the collection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to editing items that already exist, one can add new creator items to Wikidata. After a creator item is in Wikidata, we can link to the creators from the collection items. Finally, we can make new Wikidata items for creators that we will add \u201carchives at\u201d properties to. These can be done with a minimal number of properties and can be done on an as needed basis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Example: George T. LeBoutillier \u2013 created with the following 8 properties:<\/p>\n\n\n\n