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GLAM/Newsletter/May 2026/Contents/Biodiversity Heritage Library report

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Biodiversity Heritage Library report

Updates on work by BHLWiki Working Group members

By Ambrosia10

Darwin Correspondence Project and Wikidata

During the recent BHL Day 2026, a presentation was given by Liz Smith and Mike Hawkins from Cambridge University Library and Archives titled The potential of legacy data sets: challenges and ambitions from the legacy of the Darwin Correspondence Project. See the presentation here. In the Q&A Siobhan Leachman asked whether the presenters had thought of using Wikidata for the correspondents of Darwin. The presenters said yes but that this was on their “to do” list. BHL-Wiki working group member Andy Mabbett immediately started work on this, proposing a Wikidata property for the identifier given to Darwin correspondents by the Darwin Correspondence Project. This property was accepted by the Wikidata community - see https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Property:P14397. Andy then organised a Wikidata Mix’n’match project and added the Darwin correspondent identifier dataset to this Wikidata tool and allowing for the matching of appropriate Wikidata items to appropriate correspondents. The Mix'n'match project can be found here https://mix-n-match.toolforge.org/#/catalog/7918.

As at 4th June 2026 this dataset is 69% complete - that is 69% of the correspondents of Darwin provided with an identifier by the Darwin Correspondence Project have been matched to their Wikidata item.

Reviewing of the Wikimedia Commons Specimen template

Members of the BHL-Wiki working group continue to collaborate on Wikidata:WikiProject Natural History Specimen data model. Currently that collaboration is working on reviewing the Wikimedia Commons Specimen template https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Template:Specimen attempting to bring it in line with the proposed data model. See Specimen template review for further information.

The overarching aim of this project is to assist with the enrichment and reuse of specimen images in Wikimedia Commons. This can include linking to other images such as scientific illustrations of those specimens, the data model of which has been informed by the BHL-Wiki working groups data model for BHL illustrations. See Biodiversity Heritage Library Modeling.

Disambiguating BHL creators

Progress is continuing to be made by BHL-Wiki working group members to disambiguate BHL creators and improve both the Wikidata items for those creators and the BHL catalogue. If folk want to contribute to this effort the Biodiversity Heritage Library Creator dataset is in mix’n’match. Most of the creators listed in Mix'n'match need Wikidata items created for them. Any help would be gratefully received!


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