CURRENT POSITION Continuing Education Librarian, Minitex DEGREE MLIS, University of Wisconsin–Madison, 2004 FAST FACT Ring has an outside-of-work project of collecting oral histories from regional libraries. FOLLOW z.umn.edu/23linkeddatathings; minitex.umn.edu/tags/23-linked-data-things; minitex.umn.edu/people/sara-ring Photo by Michael A. Foley

Linked In

When Sara Ring talks about her work with the 23 Linked Data Things project, she hastens to point out it wasn’t initially her idea. It grew out of conversations with colleagues at a conference a few years ago where they discussed the lack of resources for librarians to keep up to date on technology that affected their work, and how it constantly changed. As the continuing education librarian for Minitex Digital Initiatives & Metadata Education at the University of Minnesota, Ring saw a need. But it wasn’t until she and other coworkers formed a Wikidata Book Club that the discussion extended into how to help people—including themselves—learn about linked data.

As a group, they realized they could create something to help, and Ring took on the role of project leader. In 2022, 23 Linked Data Things was born. Initially the team created webpages with subtopics about linked data that people could read on their own time. Eventually they began adding hands-on lessons and a certificate of completion. The project was finished in late 2023, and it’s had more than 22,000 views.

Ring isn’t done learning or teaching about data. “I just wrapped up a media pilot called the Minitex Wikimedia Project,” she says. The team uploaded content from digital libraries to Wikimedia Commons, linked it to Wikipedia articles, and added linked data for Wikimedia Commons users and editors to more easily find it when searching online. “I want to learn those tools and that process. Then we’re going to make another pilot in the coming years.”