image CC-BY-SA by Wikimedia Foundation

In June 2018, the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) charged a task force to look at Wikidata. The task force emerged from several years of discussion between ARL and the Wikimedia Foundation on where the two communities can effectively collaborate. The focus on Wikidata and Wikibase came from two points of alignment in particular: interest in linked open data for both library discovery systems and Wikipedia, and advancing a diversity and inclusion agenda in the cultures of both libraries and Wikimedia.

In practice, this meant (1) focusing on Wikidata as a potential repository for libraries’ linked open data, and (2) that a significant use case driving the formation of the task force was a mutual interest between libraries and the Wikimedia community in creating culturally competent descriptive metadata, in collaboration with communities whose lives, collections, and relationships are being described. When the task force was convened, it became clear that Wikibase (the infrastructure) and Wikidata (the community) should also be explored explicitly in the context of ARL’s commitment to open, equitable, and inclusive scholarly communication.

Members of the task force presented elements of this work at the WikiConference North America in October, and the task force is pleased to circulate this draft white paper for open community comment through November 30. Please review and provide comments within the document, or by email to Judy Ruttenberg (judy@arl.org).

About the Association of Research Libraries

The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) is a nonprofit organization of 125 research libraries in Canada and the US whose mission is to advance research, learning, and scholarly communication. The Association fosters the open exchange of ideas and expertise, promotes equity and diversity, and pursues advocacy and public policy efforts that reflect the values of the library, scholarly, and higher education communities. ARL forges partnerships and catalyzes the collective efforts of research libraries to enable knowledge creation and to achieve enduring and barrier-free access to information. ARL is on the web at ARL.org.