Wikidata:WikiProject DNB

Leslie Stephen (Q740657)

George Murray Smith (Q2559715)

This is Wikidata's WikiProject DNB. The Dictionary of National Biography (DNB) is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published from 1885. There are about 30,000 entries of the Dictionary of National Biography (Q1210343) available at WikiSource:Dictionary of National Biography.

At the start of this project:

• some article at Wikisource are linked directly as sitelinks from Wikidata items about their subject
• most entries are linked from separate Wikidata items. Hardly any of these are cross-referenced to their subject at Wikidata.
• many entries are cross-referenced directly at English Wikipedia or Wikisource.

Purpose

• define a Wikidata scheme for DNB entries at Wikisource
• index and cross-reference all DNB entries at WikiSource, import from Wikisource or Wikipedia if possible
• list all steps needed, potentially providing guidance for other works at WikiSource

Participants

• Joe Filceolaire (talk) 20:31, 3 September 2015 (UTC)
• Heron (talk) 16:38, 13 September 2015 (UTC)
• Charles Matthews (talk) 11:37, 22 July 2016 (UTC)

WikiData Items and Sitelinks

DNB biographies in wikisource do appear to be the same type of thing as wikipedia articles so, at first glance it would seem appropriate to use a sitelink to link the DNB biography to the same Wikidata item as the the associated wikipedia article. We do not do that for two reasons.

1. Wikisource pages are each about a document and the associated wikidata item should give the details of that document. If the document is about a particular topic or object or thing described in wikidata then the item for the wikisources document should be linked to that item but they are different items.
2. Wikisource contains multiple encyclopedias and biographical dictionaries and in many cases will have more than one biography of the same historical personage. Due to technical limitations of the design of wikidata (they want articles to have only one outgoing language link in each language) we can only have one sitelink from each language version of wikisource to a wikidata item. This means that, where there is more than one biography of a person on wikisource then each of these biographies will have to be linked to a different wikidata item.

Properties

• on items for entries:
  • main subject (P921)
• on items for the subject of the entries:
  • described by source (P1343)

Examples

List of random entries

• Live on "TAB": click "Show" to load

Examples : DNB entry

Model item ‘Plantagenet,’ Edward (Q19019224)   

Item	‘Plantagenet,’ Edward (Q19019224)
Label	‘Plantagenet,’ Edward (DNB00)
Description	entry in Dictionary of National Biography
Statements	<main subject (P921) : Edward of Norwich, 2nd Duke of York (Q452639)> <instance of (P31) : biographical article (Q19389637)> <published in (P1433) : Dictionary of National Biography, 1885–1900 (Q15987216)>; (volume (P478) : '45'), (chapter (P792) : 'Plantagenet, Edward') <author (P50) : James Tait (Q15820749)>

Item	Hutchinson, Lucy (DNB00) (Q19055447)
Label	Hutchinson, Lucy (DNB00)
Description	DNB redirect
Statements	<main subject (P921) : Lucy Hutchinson (Q6698372)> <instance of (P31) : DNB redirect page (Q19648608)> <published in (P1433) : Dictionary of National Biography, 1885–1900 (Q15987216)>;

• Note that the value for chapter (P792) has string datatype and you should put the name of the DNB biography exactly as given in the DNB here.
• Label matches the string of the wikisource sitelink

Examples : Subject of DNB entry

Item	Edward of Norwich, 2nd Duke of York (Q452639)
Statements	<instance of (P31) : human (Q5)> <described by source (P1343) : Dictionary of National Biography, 1885–1900 (Q15987216)>; (<statement is subject of (P805) : ‘Plantagenet,’ Edward (Q19019224)>)

Note that <instance of (P31) : human (Q5)> should only be used for individuals. If an item is about a group of persons then use group of humans (Q16334295) or one of its subclasses.

Steps

• create items for all WikiSource entries. Tool: https://wikidata-todo.toolforge.org/creator.html
• add labels to items
• add or standardize descriptions for items
• apply statements as needed
• reference item from item of main subject
• cleanup existing entries, create additional items as needed
  • entries linked from items with P31:Q5

Numbers

Date

25 March 2015

Category Wikisource:Category:DNB biographies

30,684

Items

30,669

Items with main subject (P921)

30

Items with instance of (P31)

2,332

Items with instance of (P31) = biographical article (Q19389637)

1,059

Items with instance of (P31) = human (Q5)

1,330

Items without instance of (P31) = human (Q5)

29,339

Items with published in (P1433)

1018

Items with author (P50)

26

Resources

• /list

• General
  • Create items for all pages in enwikisource:"Category:DNB biographies" →  OK on 15 November 2015
  • Items in enwikisource:"Category:DNB biographies" with P31:Q5 (ideally zero) →  OK on 15 November 2015
  • Items in enwikisource:"Category:DNB biographies" without P31:DNB redirect or P31:biographical article (ideally zero, partially same as previous) →  OK on 15 November 2015
  • Items with P1433:DNB (instead of DNB00/DNB01/DNB12) (ideally zero) →  OK on 15 November 2015
  • Items in enwikisource:"Category:DNB biographies" without P1433:DNB00/DNB01/DNB12 (ideally zero) →  OK on 15 November 2015
  • Items not in enwikisource:"Category:DNB biographies", but with P1433:DNB00/DNB01/DNB12 (ideally zero) →  OK on 15 November 2015
  • Items in enwikisource:"Category:Contributors to DNB" without P31:Q5 (ideally zero) →  OK on 15 November 2015

• Articles
  • Properties on items with P31:biographical article and P1433:DNB00/DNB01/DNB12
  • Items with P31:biographical article and P1433:DNB00/DNB01/DNB12, but no description "entry in Dictionary of National Biography" (ideally zero) →  OK on 15 November 2015
  • Count on items with P31:biographical article and P1433:DNB00/DNB01/DNB12, but no author (P50) (ideally zero) →  98% on 16 November 2015
  • Items with P31:biographical article and P1433:DNB00/DNB01/DNB12, but no author (P50) (ideally zero) →  98% on 16 November 2015

• Redirects
  • Properties on items with P31:DNB redirect
  • Items in enwikisource:"Category:DNB See" without P31:DNB redirect page (ideally zero) →  OK on 15 November 2015
  • Items with P31:DNB redirect, but no P1433:DNB00/DNB01/DNB12 (ideally zero) →  OK on 15 November 2015
  • Items with P31:DNB redirect page and P1433:DNB00/DNB01/DNB12, but no description "DNB redirect" (ideally zero) →  OK on 15 November 2015

• Main subject (P921)
  • Count of items with "published in:" DNB, but no "main subject" (ideally zero for articles) → 75% on 15 November 2015
  • Items with P31:biographical article and P1433:DNB00/DNB01/DNB12, but no "main subject" (ideally zero) → on 15 November 2015
  • Items with "published in:" DNB and "main subject", but main subject without property "published in" (ideally zero for articles) → on 15 November 2015
  • Items with "published in:" DNB and "main subject", but main subject without P31:Q5 (ideally no disambiguation pages?)
  • Items with disambiguation page as main subject → on 15 November 2015
  • Persons with DNB entry, but no gender (P21) (ideally zero) → on 15 November 2015
  • Persons with DNB entry, but no dates of birth/death/floruit (ideally zero) → on 15 November 2015
  • Persons with DNB entry, but no location: place of birth/place of activity/place of death/place of burial (ideally zero) → on 15 November 2015

Result

• • All persons with a DNB entry at Wikisource (Autolist)
  • All persons with a DNB entry at Wikisource (TAB) (slow)
  • All persons with a DNB entry at Wikisource (SPARQL)
• Templates at Wikisource
  • Wikisource:Template:DNB00
  • Wikisource:Template:DNB01
  • Wikisource:Template:DNB12