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Why linked Data?

This project aims to reimagine traditional print bibliographic indexes, pushing the boundaries of traditional cataloging methodologies to integrate external data sources and invite scholars, students, and the public to contribute to library-based metadata. Though the use of linked data methodologies and technological solutions, this project will publish a version of Danky’s African American Newspapers and Periodicals: A National Bibliography, that is more open, collaborative, and supportive of computational methodologies. 

Front page of The Athens Clipper from 31 August 1901. 
Cover of The Christian Recorder from March 1894 
Front page of The Alaska Spotlight, Alaska’s earliest African-American newspaper, from July 28, 1956. 

The use of Wikidata was a deliberate choice. As of 2024, Wikidata is the largest multilingual knowledge graph on the web, comprising over 100 million entities. Wikidata offers a free, user-friendly platform that welcomes the contributions of all, enabling the project to connect with potentially unknown sources of information. Linking entities described in African American Newspapers and Periodicals: A National Bibliography to Wikidata adds additional context to the names, places, and publications described in the bibliography by linking it to data already in Wikidata, enables users to more easily trace the name changes ubiquitous to this type of resource, and transforms the African American Newspapers and Periodicals: A National Bibliography from a traditional print bibliographic index into a Collections as Data resource.

This resource is linked to data from existing cataloging efforts, digital projects, and reference resources that have worked to surface rare Black newspapers, periodicals, and other Black print culture resources such as Chronicling America’s African American Newspapers collection, licensed databases such as Accessible Archives’ African American Newspapers, Readex’s African American Newspapers and Periodicals, and ProQuest’s African American Newspapers, as well as digital humanities projects such as Colored Conventions and Black Bibliography. 

The Christian Recorder advertisement from The Philadelphia colored directory, 1910. 
Field Description Wikidata Property 
Label Title of the newspaper or periodical — 
Description Description of the periodical (American newspaper) — 
Language Language of description — 
Name of Bibliography Title of the bibliography P1343 
Bibliography ID Entry number in the bibliography P1545 
Title Title (most recent title in the case of publications with various titles) P1476 
Digitized version URL to online version of the periodical P953 
Type Type of work (periodical/newspaper) P31 
Publication Start Year(s) publication began or ceased P571 
Publication End Year(s) publication began or ceased P576 
Frequency Frequency (most recent frequency in the case of publications with varying schedules) P2896 
Editor Current editor P98 
Editor begin date Date person started as editor P580 
Editor end date Date person ceased to be editor P582 
Publication Address Street Address street P6375 
Publication Address City Address city P291 
Publisher Publisher(s) P123 
ISSN International Standard Serials Number P236 
LOC Library of Congress catalog number P1144 
OCLC OCLC, Inc. control number P243 
Language Languages used in the periodical P407 

The Wayfinder Project

The Wayfinder Project

The Wayfinder Project has been made possible in part by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities: Democracy demands wisdom. 

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