Data Work in Memory Institutions: Why and How Information Professionals Use Wikidata

2025-08-18

AI Summary

This study addresses the lack of understanding regarding why and how information professionals in memory institutions—such as archives, libraries, and museums—integrate Wikidata into their organizational workflows. Using semi-structured interviews and a CSCW-informed theoretical framework, it conducts qualitative analysis to uncover motivations and practices. The research identifies three distinct professional roles in Wikidata engagement: providers (contributing institutional data), consumers (reusing Wikidata for internal purposes), and reciprocators (engaging in bidirectional collaboration with volunteer communities). It elucidates institutional drivers—including enhanced data visibility and support for knowledge infrastructure—as well as concrete implementation pathways. Crucially, the study affirms the value of professional data curation and proposes actionable strategies for institutionalizing expert contributions. These findings advance theoretical reconceptualization and practical development of institutional roles within open-data ecosystems. (149 words)

Technology Category

• Data Mining & Knowledge Management: Web
• Application Domains: Humanities & Computational Social Science
• Knowledge Representation and Reasoning: Ontologies

Application Category

• Semantics and Knowledge: Provenance, trust, security and privacy, and ethical issues in managing semantic data
• Web Mining and Content Analysis: Web data provenance, reliability, and authenticity
• Security and Privacy: Data transparency and provenance

Abstract

Wikidata, an open structured database and a sibling project to Wikipedia, has recently become an important platform for information professionals to share structured metadata from their memory institutions, organizations that maintain public knowledge and cultural heritage materials. While studies have investigated why and how peer producers contribute to Wikidata, the institutional motivations and practices of these organizations are less understood. Given Wikidata's potential role in linking and supporting knowledge infrastructures and open data systems, we examined why and how information professionals in memory institutions use Wikidata as part of their organizational workflow. Through interviews with 15 participants, we identified the three archetypal roles of Wikidata users within memory institutions, providers, acquirers, and mutualists, and the different types of contributions that these institutions bring to Wikidata. We then explored potential collaboration opportunities between memory institutions and other volunteers in Wikidata, discussed the value of the data work conducted by these professionals, and examined how and why they track their contributions. Our work contributes to the wider discussions around collaboration and data work in CSCW by (1) studying the motivations and practices of information professionals, their differences from those doing volunteer work, and opportunities for the Wikidata community to promote more collaborative efforts within memory institutions and with other volunteers and (2) drawing attention to the important data work done by memory institutions on Wikidata and pointing out opportunities to support the contributions of information professionals.

Problem

• Examining institutional motivations for using Wikidata
• Identifying roles and contributions of memory institutions
• Exploring collaboration between professionals and Wikidata volunteers

Innovation

• Interviewed professionals for Wikidata roles
• Identified three archetypal user contribution types
• Explored institutional-volunteer collaboration opportunities