getting involved in the Wikidata community as users and contributors, can help address these barriers. Using infrastructure such as Wikibase and Wikidata allows integration into a variety of systems and tools that can be used to maximize interoperability and minimize hands-on work, and potentially allows for efficiencies across the research library sector.
This white paper advances a number of recommendations for research libraries to contribute to Wikidata, and the ecosystem of linked data that is growing around Wikidata in the form of other Wikibases. There are still a number of open questions about the the long-term needs for maintaining library engagement with open platforms, like Wikidata, but there is momentum in that direction. Before the library community can develop a shared strategy for working in this space of collaborative linked data, it is important to both run pilot projects and develop understanding and skill among library staff. Through such work, the library community can develop an understanding of the circumstances under which Wikimedia engagement is a competitive way to invest institutional resources.
