Integrating Premodern Manuscript Metadata into Wikidata: A Case Study in Ontology Design and Linked Data Reuse

This article presents Digital Scriptorium’s efforts to model and integrate premodern manuscript metadata into Wikidata, addressing challenges posed by inconsistent cataloging practices and the limitations of existing data models. Building on the WikiProject Manuscripts Data Model, we identified key gaps, proposed ontology refinements, and developed scalable workflows for crosswalking, reconciliation, and upload. Our work demonstrates how domain-informed ontology design can enhance interoperability, machine-actionability, and data reuse, expanding access to manuscript metadata across institutions and platforms. We offer this case study as a model for thoughtful linked data integration grounded in humanities expertise.