Nurturing Innovation in Historical and Cultural Research: The Role of University Libraries in Curating Linked Open Data

In an academic landscape increasingly influenced by digitaltransformation, university libraries serve as critical hubs for fosteringinnovative modes of scholarly engagement. This presentation focuses on the roleof digital scholarship within the specific contexts of historical research andcultural heritage, and its integration with Linked Open Data (LOD), usingWikidata as a case study. Digital scholarship offers powerful avenues fordisseminating research outputs in the discipline of arts and humanities. Itinvolves the creation of various digital assets ranging from digital archivesto specialized databases and interactive interfaces, extending the traditionallibrary function into a dynamic, multi-modal realm of scholarly endeavor andpublic engagement. LOD presents a unique opportunity to connect disparatehistorical and cultural datasets in a semantically rich framework. Wikidata, asan open, structured, and community-sourced repository, serves as an idealplatform for curating unique data produced by digital scholarship projects. Itsimplementation enables a deeper level of contextualization, interactivity, andcross-dataset linkages, thereby enriching the scholarly output and publicresources available through university libraries. This presentation articulatesthe practical steps and considerations for embedding Wikidata intolibrary-supported digital scholarship initiatives at the Hong Kong BaptistUniversity. We will highlight case studies demonstrating the value of Wikidataand the use of SPARQL queries for retrieving historical dataset,cross-referencing cultural assets, and optimizing metadata for increaseddiscoverability. Ethical issues such as data stewardship, intellectualproperty, and equitable access will also be discussed.