GLAM/Newsletter/June 2018/Contents/UK report

This Month in GLAM – Volume VIII, Issue VI, June 2018

UK report

Wikidata at Oxford

University of Oxford

There is a new project page on Wikidata documenting Martin Poulter's work as Wikimedian In Residence, sharing data on Wikidata and building Wikidata-driven applications to make the university's GLAM collections more discoverable. The main focus so far has been Asian art from the Ashmolean Museum, with some data also being added about Asian paintings and manuscripts in the Bodleian Library, and a small set of art works from the Pitt Rivers Museum. Numbers of items will be updated on the project page.

Here's an example of a Listeria list of works by an Asian artist with works in the Ashmolean. Some artists added to Wikidata in this activity include Tao Yiqing (wikidata:Q55204660), Wang Honghui (wikidata:Q55184764), Zhang Minjun (wikidata:Q55178853), Sun Xiaoyun (wikidata:Q55175445), Zhou Jingxin (wikidata:Q55175108), Li Guixin (wikidata:Q55172121), Mori Yūsen (wikidata:Q55171976), Shanshen Yang (wikidata:Q55171848), Yang Liuqiao (wikidata:Q55171714), Lou Bai'an (wikidata:Q55171592), and Yang Yanping (wikidata:Q55171437) .‎

Collection Explorer, the proof-of-concept application driven by the above data, is continuing to grow and is currently being user-tested with students.

Another aspect of the project is sharing data about the works of the 18th century Austrian illustrator Ferdinand Bauer. Oxford holds two and a half thousand artworks by Bauer from a 1786-88 expedition in the Mediterranean - mainly botanical illustrations, but also illustrations of fauna and landscape art. The artworks have scientific, bibliographic and geographical aspects so are ideal for representation in Wikidata. Recent work has involved representing the landscape drawings and botanical illustrations and connecting them to the modern identifiers for things they represent.

A third possible project is being discussed. This would share data about astrolabes, of which Oxford's Museum of the History of Science is thought to have the finest collection.

Post Scriptum, October 2018: Shanshen Yang and Yang Yanping have since been reconciled to Wikidata entries that already existed (wikidata:Q6778384 and wikidata:Q22159072 respectively).

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