DOREEN APPIAH
A female Librarian from Ghana, employed as the AfLIA's Program Officer and the Secretary to the Governing Council. Ms. Appiah's is interested in Indigenous knowledge, information Management, Digital literacy, public libraries and Development Agenda. She is also a student at the University of South Africa.
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.