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Welcome to the National Library of Nigeria Semantic Name Authority Repository (NLN SNAR)!

This Wikibase instance is part of the Integrating Wikimedia Projects into African Libraries’ Ecosystem project (IWIPALE Project) under AfLIA, supported by the Wikimedia Foundation’s Knowledge Equity Fund, and implemented in partnership with the National Library of Nigeria and Wikimedia Deutschland.

It serves as a semantic name authority control hub to connect information about Nigerian authors, editors, and in the near future, publishers, and cultural figures to their works, affiliations, and contributions in a structured, linked data environment.

This is what you will find here

• Entities: Authors, Editors, Publishers, Institutions
• Relationships: Authorship, editorial roles, publication info, affiliations
• Identifiers: Local + global IDs (Wikidata, VIAF, ORCID, ISBN)

• Labels and descriptions

Understanding the data model for NLN SNAR

The NLN SNAR is a structured Wikibase-powered authority file designed to catalogue and interlink authoritative name forms and associated metadata for individuals (primarily Nigerian authors). In the very near future, this Wikibase instance will expand focus to include Nigerian creative works etc. The data model below outlines the key properties in use, grouped by function, and provides clarity on the nature of their values, whether they link to external authorities (e.g., Wikidata, VIAF), and whether the values are unique to the NLN SNAR system. This guide helps cataloguers, developers, and researchers understand the structure and relationships governing NLN SNAR entities.

Data Model Category A: Identity and Classification

Property	Label	Expected Value	New Entity?	Wikidata Linked?	Usage Note
P1	instance of	Item	No	Yes	Defines the class or type of the entity (e.g., human etc.)
P2	sex or gender	Item	No	Yes	Indicates gender classification
P3	given name	Item	No	Yes	May include middle names or initials
P4	family name	Item	No	Yes	Surname or last name
P40	NLN Authority Name Form	string	Yes	No	Standardized name form used in NLN records
P37	language of name	Item	Yes	No	Specifies the language origin of Nigerian names used in this instance

Data Model Category B: Biographical and Professional Information

Property	Label	Expected Value	New Entity?	Wikidata Linked?	Usage Note
P5	image	URL	No	Yes	Link to an image or portrait of the person on WikiCommons
P6	country of citizenship	Item	No	Yes	National affiliation
P7	occupation	Item	No	Yes	Profession being practiced
P8	academic degree	Item	No	Yes	Educational qualification
P10	date of birth	Date [point in time]	No	Yes	Birthdate in any variation of the ISO format
P32	employer	Item	No	Yes	Organization where the person works/worked
P33	educated at	Item	No	Yes	Institutions where the person studied
P34	field of work	Item	No	Yes	Area of professional expertise/discipline
P23	member of	Item	No	Yes	Group or organization affiliations

Data Model Category C: Bibliographic and Authority Identifiers

Property	Label	Expected Value	New Entity?	Wikidata Linked?	Usage Note
P11	reference URL	URL	No	Yes	Link to an external verifying source
P12	formatter URL	String [hyperlinked]	No	Yes	Used for generating external links
P13	ISNI	Identifier	No	Yes	International Standard Name Identifier
P14	ORCID	Identifier	No	Yes	ORCID researcher identifier
P15	VIAF ID	Identifier	No	Yes	Virtual International Authority File ID
P16	Open Library ID	Identifier	No	Yes	ID from Open Library database
P17	Wikidata Property ID	Identifier	No	Yes	Used when referencing Wikidata properties
P18	Library of Congress ID	Identifier	No	Yes	LC authority identifier
P19	Nigerian Legal Deposit Number	Identifier	Yes	No	Unique identifier for deposits in NLN
P20	Google Scholar Author ID	Identifier	No	Yes	GS Author Profile ID
P21	Goodreads Author ID	Identifier	No	Yes	Goodreads author record ID
P22	WorldCat Entities ID	Identifier	No	Yes	WorldCat entity linking
P39	Wikidata Item ID	Identifier	No	Yes	ID for linking to Wikidata items

Data Model Category D: Publication and Work Identifiers

Property	Label	Expected Value	New Entity?	Wikidata Linked?	Usage Note
P24	SSRN Author ID	Identifier	No	Yes	SSRN profile for authors
P25	Official Website	URL	No	Yes	Website of the person or organization
P28	ISSN	Identifier	No	Yes	Serial publications ID
P29	ISAN	Identifier	No	Yes	Audiovisual content ID
P30	ISBN-10	Identifier	No	Yes	10-digit book identifier
P31	ISBN-13	Identifier	No	Yes	13-digit book identifier
P36	language	Item	Yes	Yes	Language associated with the person or work
P35	subclass of	Item	Yes	Yes	Used to define hierarchical relationships

Use this resource to?

• Support library cataloguing and metadata management
• Create or enrich Wikidata and Wikipedia profiles
• Connect Nigerian knowledge to global knowledge graphs

Navigation hotspots

1. List of items in this wikibase
2. List of properties available in this wikibase
3. Pages with most revisions
4. Pages with most interwikis
5. Pages with most categories

Project partners

• African Library and Information Associations & Institutions (AfLIA)
• National Library of Nigeria (NLN)
• Wikimedia Deutschland (WMDE)

• Wikimedia Foundation – Knowledge Equity Fund (KEF)

How to create items + properties + (what is a good property)

Create a new Item with Special:NewItem on the menu to the left. You will be taken to a page that asks you to give the new item a label and a description. When you're done, click "Create".

Create the property with Special:NewProperty. Property entities can be edited like item entities with labels, descriptions, aliases, and statements. Property labels should be as unambiguous as possible so that it is clear to a user which property is the correct one to use when editing items and adding statements. Properties rarely refer to commonly known concepts but they are more constructs of the Wikidata with specific meanings. Unlike items, property labels must be unique. Property descriptions are less relevant for disambiguation but they should provide enough information about the scope and context of the property so that users understand appropriate usage of the property without having to consult additional help. Property aliases should include all alternative ways of referring to the property.

Example: property: P161 label: cast member description: actor performing live for a camera or audience aliases: film starring; actor; actress; starring

To create and delete data using tools, have a look at this list in the documentation.

Another way is via the Wikibase API that allows querying, adding, removing and editing information on Wikidata or any other Wikibase instance. A new version of the API is in the works with the REST API.

Don’t panic -> links to help

This is a lot of information and possibilities and might seem daunting. Don’t panic. There’s a lot of documentation for you to read, many other Wikibases you can look at to get inspired, a community that is happy to help out with any questions, and the development team who’s happy to support you where needed.