GLAM/Model projects/Adding a Wikipedia citation template to your database

One of the most important rules on Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects is "verifiability". Just like any researcher, Wikimedia editors should know where their information comes from and how to give proper credit. This is especially important when it comes to using images and other media—without proper identification, rich media will not be allowed to remain for long. And while Wikipedia in particular contains plenty of information now that is not adequately sourced, Wikimedia editors are always working toward making its projects more reliable.

As a representative of a GLAM institution, you have a singular opportunity to help the Wikimedia community do this. Because your organization already houses a great deal of information that is useful to Wikimedians, you can take steps now that will not only make it easier for contributors to improve Wikimedia sites with your archive material, but it will also give them reason to return to look to your institution for research in the future.

Wikimedia Foundation sites have a few different ways of identifying information with its source, but by far the most common on Wikipedia is the citation. And while there is more than one way to roll a citation, most editors agree the best way to do so is to use citation templates. But citation templates are not the simplest thing to understand: there are different citation templates for different kinds of sources, and even within different kinds of sources there is more than one format available for citation templates.

Fortunately for you, Wikipedian and Wikimedian researchers are most likely to encounter you on the web. Provided you have already posted images and information about your institution's collections on the web, adding citation templates to pages for items and collections can be relatively easy.

About citation templates edit

  • Explain what they look like and how they work. Demonstrate how these citation templates produce COinS metadata that allow citation managers such as Zotero and Endnote to extract references and support researchers using them.

How to use them edit

  • Explain parameters and how they likely apply to GLAMs.
  • Likely usage: Online catalogues / databases; exhibition materials; pamphlets' exhibit cases; labels

Citation templates in practice edit

See also edit

This project aims to produce similar functionality via a browser plugin: https://github.com/jdickie/GLAMCamp/tree/master/wikicite