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

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 work!ow. Through interviews with 15 participants, we identi"ed the three archetypal roles of Wikidata users within memory institutions-providers, acquirers, and mutualists-and the di#erent 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 di#erences from those doing volunteer work, and opportunities for the Wikidata community to promote more collaborative e#orts 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.

• Human-centered computing → Empirical studies in collaborative and social computing.