User:John Cummings/Wikidata Tours External identifiers

Welcome to the External Identifiers Tour

Welcome to Wikidata! This tour will take you through the steps for understanding and adding external identifiers, which are links to information on a topic on databases across the web. External identifiers are important because they allow Wikidata to link knowledge about a subject from many sources together, this provides a valuable research tool on the topic and also allows Wikipedia articles and any other websites which use Wikidata to display the information.

Please note that the page in the background is only a replica of a real page—you can think of it as a sandbox for you to play in and try new things. Your changes won't appear on Wikidata so there's no need to worry while making edits in this space. Let's get started!

If there are any terms in this tour you would like a definition for please see the Wikidata:Glossary.

External identifiers

Explain what external identifiers are here and how they work

An external identifer is a link from an item about a subject on Wikidata to that subject on an external database, encycopedia or other collection of knowledge.

This is important as it links knowledge about a subject across the web together, allowing people to know where to source more information about the topic and also use the information in Wikipedia articles and any other websites which use Wikidata.

Wikidata does this by using a specific property for each database e.g VIAF ID

records the unique identifier for the subject on that database and if it is available a web link

Important Don't need one of these for using a URL as a reference or any other URL, only for ????

???explain what a property is here???

Find the external identifier property

To find out if the

Tip: in the property search make sure to search for both the full name of the database and any acronyms used e.g search for both Virtual International Authority File and VIAF.

To add a link from an external database into Wikidata Wikidata:List of properties

Property search

You can only add an external identifier for a database if an external identifier property has been created.

Each external database needs its own property

If an external identifier property doesn't exist

If an external identifier property doesn't exist for the database you want to link to:

Alternatives

External identifiers are only generally for databases with over 100+ entries, you'd like to add information If you want to link to an external source which is not a large website you could use

If an external

described at URL (P973)

described by source (P1343)

or official website

Create an external identifier property

Large database, probably best to start an import and let someone experienced in Wikidata imports help or do it for you If you want to import links to all the entries on a website catalogue, encyclopedia etc

ask on project chat Property proposal

Find the external ID for the item

??? If the external ID does exist but the link isn't

The first thing we need to do to add is to find the ??? . Once we have this information we can add it to Wikidata.

??needed earlier??? Reminder: An item refers to a page in Wikidata about a real-world object, concept or something else, it includes information about the topic and has a unique identity. If you'd like to know more about items please take the Items Tour.

Add a statement

All item pages have a Statements section which can include any number of rows containing different things — words, numbers, even image files. This may look complicated but it's fairly straightforward. Let's take a closer look at one of these rows now.

We add the official website about a subject to an item by adding a statement about it. To start adding a statement click on the + add statement button

Reminder: A statement is a piece of data about an item, recorded on the item's page. A statement consists of a claim If you'd like to learn more about statements please take the Statements Tour (add link).

Add the external identifier property for that database

In the box type the name of the external identifier

Reminder about how to find the identifier

Add the ID

In this box add the ID number (not the whole URL), .

Reminder: A Q number is Wikidata's unique identifier for an item about a concept. If you'd like to learn more about Q numbers please take the Q numbers Tour (add link).

Add reference

The next step is to record where you got this information from, to do this click '+ add reference'

Reminder: Reference (or source) describes the origin of a statement in Wikidata. A reference is often an item in its own right; for example, a book. If you'd like to know more about references please take the References Tour.

Add reference URL

In the box type 'reference URL' and chose reference URL

Add reference link

Paste into the box the URL the information comes from e.g a link to the place on Google Maps

Publish

The final thing to do is to publish this information to Wikidata ?????

Adding information about a new external identifier

You can only add an external identifier for a database if an external identifier property has been created

property search

Ask on project chat

Request a property

Congratulations!

Congratulations! You've completed the External Identifiers Tour.

Please add external identifiers to Wikidata items which are missing them to enrich the data and make it more useful.

Want to keep learning? Click here to return to the tours portal.

Still have questions? Talk to someone over live chat on IRC #wikidata^connect or check out the following pages for help:

• Wikidata's Help portal
• The Wikidata glossary
• Project chat, for discussing any and all aspects of Wikidata