English: Directly inspired by a lightning talk from GLAM-Wiki 2018 I started a project to improve the coverage and visibility of public libraries in the Netherlands on Wikidata.

Although there are a number of websites listing all these plusminus 1300 library branches, I was quite surprised to find that none of them provide both structured and openly licensed, let alone linked data, while openness should be at the the core of every library's mission.

I decided to solve this problem by adding address and geo data of every public library to Wikidata, hence for the very first time creating a (5-star) linked open data set for this type of library. See https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:WikiProject_Netherlands_Public_Libraries

This enables innovative uses, such as overviews and visualisations of the Dutch public library landscape on organisational, municipal, regional, provincial and national levels.

This is of interest not only to Wikipedia and LOD enthousiasts, but also to e.g. policy makers, municipalities, scientists and journalists.

In addition, to enable SPARQL generated library image galleries, I have started '1Lib1Photo' (inspired by 1Lib1Ref), an initiatieve to add an openly licensed image of every Dutch public library to Wikimedia Commons.

Takeaways

As a beginning Wikidatian myself, I hope to show that this type of project is suitable for beginners; adding address and geo infomation to Wikidata is a simple task that any one can do and a great way to learn SPARQL. Despite the simple nature of the inputs, the outputs (maps, image galleries, tables) are very relevant, not only for adding overviews of libraries to Wikipedia, but also for parties outside the Wiki sphere.

As this project was directly inspired by work done in Wales by Simon Cobb (User:Sic19), I in my turn hope to inspire others to start similar projects in other countries.

https://www.wikidata.org/w/index.php?title=Wikidata:WikidataCon_2019/Program/Sessions/Libraries_panel&oldid=1039089450

This presentation was part of a panel about Wikidata in libraries and has been recorded on video (archived copy) as well.

My talk within this longer video is also available as a separate video on Wikimedia Commons and on Zenodo.