- Asking for clarity on the framing of the document (was it meant to inform or to advocate, and to which audience or audiences?)
- Pointing out known cultural challenges within Wikipedia and questioning the extent to which those issues are present in the Wikidata community
- Pointing out known structural challenges within libraries with respect to how authoritative metadata is created and propagated, and the workflow implications of embracing Wikidata
- Challenging whether there is reciprocity and mutual benefit in strengthening the Wikimedia-library relationship, in particular when time is a scarce resource
- Questioning the use of a centralized wiki-database for structured data, with respect to both quality control and preservation in the library context
- Reflecting on how the growth and practice of Wikidata, and the white paper's presentation of it, relates to linked open data in libraries writ large
While the Task Force on Wikimedia and Linked Open Data provides responses to some of the critiques and thorny issues, some will simply not be resolved in this paper. Some of the feedback provides the basis for a research agenda we hope will be taken up by readers.
ARL convened the task force and wrote this white paper to inform its membership about GLAM (galleries, libraries, archives, and museums) activity in Wikidata and highlight opportunities for research library involvement, particularly in community-based collections, community-owned infrastructure, and collective collections. The task force included colleagues who do not work in ARL member institutions, and the white paper covers activity well outside ARL libraries, including smaller libraries, museums, and scholarly communities. Many in the international research community, including in libraries, are focused on community-owned infrastructure2 and robust metadata3 to facilitate open scholarship practices,4 and this paper takes a close look at Wikidata and Wikibase through that lens—as a public good worthy of
