Improve metadata on Wikimedia Commons

What is Wikimedia Commons?

With tens of millions of files, Wikimedia Commons is one of the largest online repositories of media files. Built from the works shared by thousands of volunteers, Commons hosts educational images, videos, and audio files that are used by Wikipedia and the other projects of the nonprofit Wikimedia Foundation. All of the works on Commons are under a “free license.” That means they can be used and shared by anyone, for free, just by following the license rules – usually by giving credit to the author and preserving the license so that others can re-share the work as well.^[1]

For more information about uploading images from Harvard's collections, see our page about that.

Baker Library, Harvard University

How does adding structured metadata help?

Adding or improving statements under the "structured data" tab on a Wikimedia Commons image (or other media file) provides information that can be understood -- in multiple languages! -- by humans and be processed by machines. This metadata uses multilingual concepts from Wikidata, Wikimedia's knowledge base. For examples, see section 1.4.1. See the video below for a run-through on how structured data can help make Harvard Library materials' characteristics more discoverable.

Find Virgil with structured data on Commons. Links in video to Category:Virgil and to a depicts Virgil search

The video shows how structured data makes characteristics within images easier to find. If you want to test this live:

Navigate to Wikimedia Commons
Start typing the name "Virgil" in the search box
Notice that the bottom half of the results shows a line break with files depicting... and a number of Wikidata (structured data) items
Click the option for Virgil Ancient Roman poet

Alternatively, if you're already in the Commons Category for Virgil:

Navigate to the bottom of the long info box on the right side of the page, finding the end of the Authority control section
Click on the very last link in this box, Search depicted

You can also try out searching for Structured Data about anything with this handy Structured Search tool.
For more information about editing Wikidata, see our page about that.

Examples

Start editing image metadata

Quick start guide

Navigate to the image you want to edit
Scroll down below the image to where you see the File Information tab
Click on the second tab behind File Information, which is Structured Data
Locate the box labeled Items portrayed in this file
Start typing the names of items that are depicted in the file. When you find a match to a Wikidata item (which is the type of structured data being used here), it will start to give you suggestions
Choose the suggestion that matches. You've added structured data, congratulations!
You can add additional depicted items, and if you know more information, such as Creator, you can add a new (non-Depicts) statement by clicking the + Add Statement button

For a visual guide and more details:

See more:

Structured Data modeling^[1] recommended for Harvard Library materials

These suggestions provide a minimal content standard. Other statements should be added, such as published in (P1433), that will depend on the object medium.

depicts (P180) → what is portrayed in the image file
collection (P195) → where the object is held e.g. Harvard Library (Q3232931)
source of file (P7482) → original creation by uploader (Q66458942) to indicate the source
creator (P170) → "Some value without a Wikidata item" to indicate the creator doesn't have a Wikidata item. Optionally qualified with:
- object has role (P3831) → photographer (Q33231) to indicate we're talking about the photographer here, if it is a picture and not a video or audio file
- author name string (P2093) → "<some name>" to indicate what name should be shown. Usually a username or a real name
- Wikimedia username (P4174) → "<some username>" to indicate the contributing user
- URL (P2699) → "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:<some username>" to link back to the user page of the contributing user, if it exists

If the item isn't listed in the File Information as public domain:

copyright license (P275) → A license, for example Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (Q18199165) to indicate under what license the photograph can be used
copyright status (P6216) → copyrighted (Q50423863) to indicate that the photo is copyrighted or copyright status (P6216) → public domain (Q19652) to indicate that the photo was released into the public domain

Adding structured data in batches to multiple files

You can also add multiple statements to multiple images simultaneously by enabling the AC/DC gadget: AC/DC

Demonstration video here:

Demo of search for depicted items in Wikimedia Commons and adding statements in batch with AC/DC

Categorizing existing images

Another simple but helpful task is categorizing images that have been uploaded with minimal metadata. For example, the images below in the Media from Harvard Collections on Wikimedia Commons section are all categorized according to their Harvard Library location.

Commons keeps tracks of images that need categories: Media needing categories

An easy way to add categories to these and other images is to enable the HotCat gadget: Gadget-HotCat

Media from Harvard Collections on Wikimedia Commons

Try adding structured data to the images in these collections!

Resources

How to add metadata to Wikimedia using Wikidata and Depicts
Overview of structured data on Wikimedia Commons
Examples of cultural heritage projects using Wikimedia Commons structured metadata
More information about statements beyond "depicts"

^ "Commons:Structured data/Modeling - Wikimedia Commons". commons.wikimedia.org. Retrieved 2020-04-13.

[1] "Commons:Structured data/Modeling - Wikimedia Commons". commons.wikimedia.org. Retrieved 2020-04-13.

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