Guidelines

Basics

Linked data works by connecting together data entities to create rich structured data in the form of triples. For example,

1. John James Jones Q67878 2. was Educated at (P23) 3. Aberystwyth University Q32313.

The more detailed we make our data the more inter-connected the data will become.

When creating new items (click 'New Item' in the lefthand menu) for people or places you may find the data you need to describe them, such as the place they were born or educated, does not exist. When this happens you should also create a separate item for that entity in order to complete your data entry, but make sure you search the database thoroughly first in order to avoid creating duplicate items. You can examine similar items in order to see how the data should be structured, or consult the tables below.

When creating any new item you should always search for and include the Wikidata ID if it exists, using Wikidata URI (P62). This helps keep the two datasets aligned and allows for federated query across both databases.

A full list of Properties used in the database can be found here

If you find Duplicate items, they can be merged using the Merge Tool. Always merge the newer item (higher Q number) into the older item (lower Q number).

Do not create new properties without consultation with SNARC ADMIN.

People

Identifiers
Title	ID	Data type	Description	Requirement
Instance of	P7	Item	should be used with Human for people	Always
Sex or gender	P13	Item	use male,female,non-binary,intersex,intersex,trans woman or trans man	Always
Give Name(s)	P15	Item	find or create an item for the subjects given name(s)	Always
Family Name	P16	Item	find or create an item for the subjects family name	Always
Nationality	P14	Item	use any sovereign country or nation (including Wales!)	Preferred
Occupation	P25	Item	use occupations. Choose the most specific (e.g. for Welsh Bards use Bard, not Poet or Writer)	Preferred
Date of Birth	P17	Date	date of birth of a person. Dates can be exact or a month, year, decade, century etc. Dates can also be qualified with accuracy - circa	Preferred
Date of Death	P18	Date	date of death of a person. Dates can be exact or a month, year, decade, century etc. Dates can also be qualified with accuracy - circa	Preferred
Educated at	P23	Item	use any educational institution. Do not use towns, villages ect	Optional
Place of Birth	P21	Item	can be any place (e.g. building, town, city, country)	Optional
Place of Death	P22	Item	can be any place (e.g. building, town, city, country)	Optional
Sibling	P52	Item	use item for brother or sister of the subject (also add 'Sibling' to the target item)	Optional
Father	P53	Item	use item for Father of subject. For step parent use step parent. (Also add the inverse statement (Child) to the target item)	Optional
Child	P54	Item	use item for biological child of the subject. (Also add the inverse statement (Father and or Mother) to the target item) to the target item)	Optional
Mother	P55	Item	use item for mother of subject. For step parent use step parent. (Also add the inverse statement (Child) to the target item)	Optional
Spouse	P56	Item	use item for spouse of subject. For unmarried partners use unmarried partner. (Also add the inverse statement (Spouse) to the target item)	Optional
Relative	P59	Item	family member other than parent, child. Such as cousin, grandparent, ancestor ect	Optional
Date christened	P60	Date	The date a person was christened or baptised. Especially useful when no birth date can be found	Optional
Date of Burial or Cremation	P61	Date	The date a person was buried or cremated. Especially useful when no death date can be found	Optional
Language spoken or written	P20	Item	use any instance of a language	Optional
Short Biography	P19	String	For any free text associated with authority records	Optional
Pseudonym	P24	String	Alias used by someone, often to sign creative works	Optional
Social classification	P81	Item	Social class as recognized in traditional or state law. Currently only used in conjunction with slaveholder.	Optional

Places

Places
Title	ID	Data type	Description	Requirement
Instance of	P7	Item	Use with types of human settlement or items such as monument, house or Library to best describe a place. Be as specific as you can. For example for a church use church building rather than building	Always
country	P63	Item	The country or nation in which the item is located. (Not used on items for countries)	Always
coordinate location	P26	String	add the decimal coordinates of a place e.g. 52.414,-4.081	Always
historic county	P38	Item	For places in the UK use with any historic county of England, historic county of Wales or historic county of the United Kingdom	Preferred
located in territorial entity	P27	Item	Use to state the larger administrative area in which an item exists. Usually a county	Preferred
diocese	P70	Item	used for ecclesiastic parishes	Optional
parish church	P71	Item	used for ecclesiastic parishes to denote the church or churches associated with, or formally associated with a parish	Optional
source of name form	P72	Item	source where the standard form of the name (label) was obtained. Please create new item to describe the source if one doesn't exist. If no source is specified Wikidata is assumed. Only use if a recognised authority has published a standard form of the name	Optional
location	P73	Item	used to state the location (city, town village ect) of the item	Optional
occupant	P79	Item	used to state the current or previous occupant(s) (person or organization) of a building such as a house, chapel or hotel	Optional

Identifier Properties

Identifiers
Title	ID	Data type	Description	Requirement
Wikidata URI	P62	String	the corresponding URI in Wikidata, starting with http://, NOT https:// ! Example: http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q6682. Search Wikidata to find the equivalent item ID whenever possible.	Always
National Library of Wales Authority ID	P12	String	identifier of persons, corporate entities and families in the National Library of Wales Archives and Manuscripts database	Optional
Welsh Biography ID (EN)	P5	String	Identifier for the Dictionary of Welsh Biography. Can be qualified using Date published to provide the date the article was published	Optional
Welsh Biography ID (CY)	P5	String	Identifier for the Dictionary of Welsh Biography. Can be qualified using Date published to provide the date the article was published	Optional
Library of Congress authority ID	P11	String	Library of Congress name authority (persons, families, corporate bodies, events, places, works and expressions) and subject authority identifier	Optional
ISNI ID	P9	String	International Standard Name Identifier for an identity	Optional
VIAF ID	P10	String	Identifier for the Virtual International Authority File database	Optional
CADW Building ID	P68	String	identifier for listed buildings in Wales	Optional
Coflein ID	P69	String	identifier for an historic site, monument or building in the National Monuments Record of Wales (NMRW) database	Optional
Historic Place Names of Wales ID	P83	String	identifier for place names in the Historic Place Names of Wales database	Optional
CADW Monument ID	P84	String	legacy identifier for CADW historic monuments	Optional

Images

There are two ways to connect images with items.

Using Wikimedia Commons media (P31) allows you to connect a file from Wikimedia Commons. These can be searched manually or you copy the file name directly. For example: Wales Principal Areas Map.svg
If The National Library of Wales has a digital image which clearly depicts the subject of the item, this can also be linked using NLW media (P50) by using the persistent identifier for the image found in the NLW image viewer (handle ID). For example 10107/1131121. You can then add a qualifier image title (P80) to share the short title for the image. See [example].