We regret to inform you that ARLIS/NA will not be holding its 48th Annual Conference in St. Louis, MO because of the serious health risks posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
This session will focus on the presentation and discussion of projects that implement linked data. Presentations about practical application of Wikidata, BIBFRAME, and other linked data tools and methodologies will demonstrate the viability of linked data in art libraries and elucidate pathways towards the incorporation of linked data into library activity.
Rather than theoretical discussions of how linked data will impact libraries and discovery, this session will look at how linked data projects have been executed – and the resulting outcomes and workflows. The main intent of this session is to demonstrate viable and realistic ways that linked data has been applied to library projects and metadata. Through the presented strategies, resources, and workflows attendees will have concrete examples of how linked data is evolving and how it can be applied.
Dr. Benjamin Zweig, Digital Projects Coordinator at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., will present “Opening Up: Wikidata and the National Gallery of Art, Washington.” This paper describes the National Gallery of Art’s recent contribution of collection records for 120,000 artworks to Wikidata, an open-access structured data knowledge base created and maintained by the Wikimedia Foundation. In early 2019, the National Gallery of Art began contributing basic art object data to Wikidata based on its collection records in TMS. The initiative represents a new direction in the Gallery’s history of open access initiatives, moving into the world of open data in addition to its longstanding commitment of providing open-access images of its collection. Reasons for release of the Gallery’s data on Wikidata, which this paper will discuss, includes the ability to reach large new audiences, enriching collection records with help from the Wikidata community, and merging the Wikidata entities with the 53,000 images of artworks the National Gallery of Art donated to Wikimedia Commons in 2019. In particular, this paper will discuss how contributing the Gallery’s art object data to Wikidata can specifically enhance art historical research, and will also address the challenges involved in the undertaking, notably data remodeling limitations and reconciliation practices required to merge Gallery data with Wikidata.
Mary Seem, Assistant Cataloging and Acquisitions Librarian at the Frick Art Reference Library, will discuss the implementation of BIBFRAME record creation. As a cohort member of the second phase of the LD4P, Mellon-funded grant on BIBFRAME the Frick Art Reference Library draws on its rich collection of historic auction catalogs, web archived material, and monograph collections as a case study for the implementation of BIBFRAME. With the grant less than six months from the end of its two-year timeline, this presentation offers a chance for attendees to see a linked data project in action, the completed steps, and the strategies that have developed thus far. At the core is this presentation is the construction of different metadata application profiles, training materials, and documentation.
