MLA 2024 Conference

Are you interested in bringing more visibility to your library’s digital content? Join us to learn more about Wikimedia Commons, Wikidata, and Wikipedia and how these emerging platforms can improve user experiences and increase collection discoverability.

Since 2020, Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) has worked with contributing partners to upload their open access digital content to Wikimedia Commons. Staff at Minitex and the Minnesota Digital Library were inspired by the success of the DPLA project and conceived of their own pilot to learn more about using the wiki-based, free-to-use media repository called Wikimedia Commons, along with its sister sites Wikidata and Wikipedia, to increase discoverability of content from digital collections.

Presenters will discuss the outcomes of our successful 2023 pilot project and the continuation of the project’s work during the summer of 2024. We will provide an overview of how we added archival images to Wikimedia Commons, Wikipedia, and added structured data (linked data) from Wikidata. Participants will learn about our goals, impact on access and use, and some tips on how to get started with a Wikimedia project at your own organization.