Gateway into Linked Data: Breaking Silos with Wikidata

Abstract

Linked data has been a hot topic in librarianship for the last decade, but technical, staffing, and budgetary barriers have prevented wide scale adoption. However, Wikidata has recently gained traction as a low obstacle way for GLAM institutions to participate in linked data projects. Texas State University has jumped enthusiastically into the Program for Cooperative Cataloging Wikidata Pilot, with eight participants and three projects. This work includes authority records for faculty, an oral history project, special collections archives, and journals from digital collections. We will provide a brief overview of Wikidata and the successes and challenges of the above projects.