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Documenting Italian Libraries on Wikidata: From Local Projects to a Multilayered National Knowledge Graph Cover

Documenting Italian Libraries on Wikidata: From Local Projects to a Multilayered National Knowledge Graph

Open Access
|Feb 2026

Abstract

The representation of Italian libraries in Wikidata has grown through two major data imports. In 2020, under commission from Tuscany region, the Sistema Cultura Toscana dataset was uploaded, raising the number of Italian libraries from fewer than 500 to 1,322 and documenting the methodology of this first large-scale project. A second step followed in 2022 with the addition of 11,239 entries from the ICCU Italian Libraries Database. This process involved merging CC0 datasets, entity alignment, and addressing gaps between the web versions of databases and their dumps. Together, these efforts illustrate both achievements and challenges in enriching Wikidata’s coverage of Italian libraries, specifically highlighting the role of iterative, human-curated workflows in large-scale data imports.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5334/johd.478 | Journal eISSN: 2059-481X
Language: English
Submitted on: Nov 14, 2025
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Accepted on: Dec 18, 2025
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Published on: Feb 4, 2026
Published by: Ubiquity Press
In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services
Publication frequency: 1 issue per year

© 2026 Davide Rolleri, Alessandro Marchetti, Camillo Carlo Pellizzari di San Girolamo, published by Ubiquity Press
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.