Oklahoma Native Artists Project: Using linked open data to promote oral histories and Native artists

Abstract

This poster features OSU Library's ongoing case study on improving Oklahoma Native artists' representation through LOD. At the heart of this effort is the Oklahoma Native Artists oral history collection, a project initiated in 2010. When an artist's Wikipedia article was rejected for "lack of notability," we employed Wikidata to increase documentation of Native artists' exhibitions, awards, and bibliographies. While LOD connects disparate digital collections and improves notability, it also surfaces the fraught relationship for Native artists between representation and data collection. It raises questions about who benefits from these efforts and how individuals maintain agency over their representation.