Stanley Boakye-Achampong
Stanley Boakye-Achampong works with AfLIA, the continental association of library and information institutions and professionals in Africa, where he leads research and communications. He is also the Secretary to the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC) Africa Management Committee, an IFLA Impact Trainer and a Climate Reality Leader. He has been contributing to Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects since 2020, and he’s especially interested in Wikidata because of his love for research and data. Stanley helps organize the African Librarians Week, which brings librarians together every year to add and improve references on Wikipedia as part of the #1Lib1Ref campaign. He has trained and supported many librarians across Africa to contribute to Wikipedia, Wikidata, and Wikimedia Commons. Stanley has also been part of several Wikimedia Foundation-funded projects run by AfLIA, including Wikipedia in African Libraries, Promoting Open Knowledge in African Libraries through Wikidata, and Integrating Wikimedia Projects into African Libraries (IWIPALE).
Session
The Authority Control template is used to link content in Wikipedia to libraries and databases as a pathway for disambiguation and ensuring consistency. However, it was observed that this template links Wikipedia content about Africa and Africans to libraries and databases outside of the continent. This was due to the lack of Authority File Control systems within the African library sector. Through the Knowledge Equity Fund, the African Library and Information Associations and Institutions (AfLIA), with membership in 34 African countries addressed that gap by creating the National Library of Nigeria Semantic Name Authority Repository (NLN SNAR). AfLIA is also using NLN SNAR as a model for developing semantic Authority files on Wikibase for other National libraries within the continent. This is considered as a major step towards instituting a robust Authority control for Africa’s library sector as the same relationships, entities and data models would be used as Wikibase answers the question of centralization or decentralization of data.