Wikidata:WikiProject P244 maintenance
This page or section is in the process of an expansion or major restructuring. You are welcome to assist in its construction by editing it as well.
(Currently under construction: testing the documentation, statistics page based on IMAC feedback.)
Welcome! This project is for users who are familiar with the Library of Congress Name Authority File (LCNAF) who want to coordinate maintenance and improvement efforts to both Wikidata and the LCNAF via the Library of Congress authority ID (P244) property. It is also part of the Wikidata:WikiProject PCC EMCO Wikidata CoP. Right now, this project is concerned with two types of errors: duplications in the LCNAF, and duplications in Wikidata. That could change in the future, so please be sure to add this page to your watchlist!
As many Program for Cooperative Cataloging members know, there are many duplicate name authority records in the LCNAF and few tools to detect them. Wikidata is a useful tool for surfacing and resolving duplications. Since its inception in 2024, the LCCNbot report maintenance team has found at least one pair of duplicates in the name authority file per week while editing Wikidata. However, the bot can only detect duplicates when a Library of Congress authority ID (P244) already exists on a Wikidata item and another LCNAF record with an 024 field containing a Wikidata link is saved. This means that it cannot detect changes to Library of Congress authority ID (P244) made within Wikidata itself. Since there are so many Wikidata users helping us every day by adding LCNAF identifiers to Wikidata items, that's a major gap!
Wikidata's SPARQL query service can help to fill that gap by identifying when a Library of Congress authority ID (P244) has multiple values, or when the same value is used on multiple items. These errors can only be resolved with manual, human attention, so why not be that human? Learn more about how you can help below.
Cleanup tasks
[edit]- Potential duplicates in LCNAF (6,000+ as of December 2025): https://w.wiki/FRLn
- This task looks at all items that have two or more Library of Congress authority ID (P244) statements that are neither deprecated nor have any qualifiers. Resolving these errors is relatively simple, so it's a good task for experienced NACO contributors who are new to Wikidata. Participants will become familiar with deprecating and adding qualifiers to statements as part of this project.
- Learn how to resolve these errors by reading the documentation
- Potential duplicates in Wikidata (3,500+ as of December 2025): https://w.wiki/F8K$ (alphabetical list) OR P244/Duplicates (grouped by matching instance of (P31) values)
- This task looks at all instances where the same LCNAF identifier is found in multiple Wikidata items. Resolving these errors requires some knowledge of the Wikidata ontology and Library of Congress authority ID (P244)'s quirks, so this task is only recommended for more experienced users in both systems.
- Learn how to resolve these errors by reading the documentation
Did you fix something in the name authority file because of this project? Record it in the statistics page!
FAQs
[edit]- Do I need to be a fully-trained NACO contributor to be part of this project?
No! It would be helpful if you have access to the name authority file so that you can merge or correct records yourself, but if you aren't able to do so then please put the identifiers for the record(s) and a source for your change on the talk page. We have to record a source of information when we add or change information in name authority file records, so please make sure to provide one that we can reference!
- Do I have to be an EMCO member to be part of this project?
No, but you should consider joining!
- I have a weird situation that isn't covered in the documentation/I'm not sure I resolved the duplicate correctly/I'd like someone to double-check my edit.
Please write about it in the project talk page, and someone will be able to help you!
- I don't have edit access to the LCNAF. Can I report errors here?
Sure, put it on the talk page! But if you've already reported the error somewhere else, like on the Library of Congress website or to another Wikidata user with edit access, please don't report it again. Multiple reports to multiple people can make things more confusing to resolve.
Participants
[edit]The participants listed below can be notified using the following template in discussions:{{Ping project|P244 maintenance}}
External links
[edit]- Learn more about LCCNbot on Youtube and Github
- Learn about where to report errors in other authority files here
- Main P244 constraint violation report