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Wikidata, a community-curated knowledge base related to Wikipedia, affects our access to information, wielding more power than many realize. Seeing an opportunity for improving access to knowledge and promoting their collections, libraries, archives, and other cultural heritage institutions have been experimenting with Wikidata in various ways. One burgeoning area of activity is in Wikidata’s scholarly citation data, but that participation has largely concentrated in the sciences, leaving a gap in its theological and religious studies coverage. This presentation demonstrates how this gap matters to theological libraries and shows how you can contribute to efforts to fill it, even in small ways. Delving into Wikidata can be intimidating, but it doesn’t have to be. As long as you have basic computer skills, you can find a way to participate.

Buswell Library at Wheaton College in Illinois faced a cataloging backlog of thousands of rare materials focusing on American and British Protestant evangelism and missions. Cataloging staff used creative thinking to solve challenges such as lack of staff time and expertise. We collaborated with special collections staff to determine specific user needs, then used our knowledge of metadata practices to meet those needs. Many complicated items appeared in the workflow, but we found creative ways to make them accessible. To communicate the project to the rest of the library, we presented at a staff meeting, explaining the types of materials cataloged and sharing tips for searching for them. The project significantly increased the amount of special collections items cataloged annually and allowed us to connect faculty and students with our valuable research materials.