Talk:Q473858

Autodescription — Memory of the World (Q473858)

description: documentary heritage of worldwide importance, initiative launched by UNESCO

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• Report on constraint conformation of “Memory of the World” claims and statements. Constraints report for items data

• Number of statements about Memory of the World by property (query)

• All claims about Memory of the World (query)

• List of items with same label (query)

• List of lexemes with sense Memory of the World (query)

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heritage status or program

Memory of the World is now used both for program as for the heritage status of documents. We could better split this. Not sure how we should name both 'Memory of the World Program' and 'Memory of the World'? Hannolans (talk) 09:02, 11 September 2024 (UTC)

Hi @Hannolans I want to pick up your good point from last year, and address the recent edits by @SFauconnier and @2le2im-bdc. As the Wikimedian In Residence at the Khalili Foundation, I am currently working with the UNESCO MOW team to do a bulk transfer of data from the MOW International Register to Wikidata. This will include removing some statements which are inaccurate.

I don't think Memory of the World (Q473858) should be used for instance of (P31) heritage designation (Q30634609), because MOW includes multiple kinds of heritage designation (Q30634609). If we mean the international register rather than the regional or national registers, we should specify Memory of the World International Register (Q16024238). The Memory of the World Programme is an activity of UNESCO that covers multiple registers. It isn't itself a subclass of (P279) documentary heritage (Q119418271) but the Memory of the World International Register (Q16024238) should be. We need to stop calling things "Memory of the World" and be specific about whether we mean the whole programme, the international register, or a regional or national register.

Very keen to get your input on this, Sandra, because of your previous involvement with the MOW programme. MartinPoulter (talk) 15:43, 24 April 2025 (UTC)

Ah great that you are working on this. So we will then need several multiple kinds. Do you know which one we would need? In this change we probably should also take care of the categories used in Wikipedia. Hannolans (talk) 17:13, 24 April 2025 (UTC)

Thanks for the response. I've found that the confusion between the different kinds of MOW status persists on Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons as well as Wikidata. Partly this is because the communication from UNESCO is sometimes confusing; I've conveyed this to the MOW team and they are about to publish simple explanations of the different statuses. My work is to properly represent the international register, but in the course of that I've created Wikidata items or Wikipedia articles about national registers to move information that was wrongly added to the international list. See Australian Memory of the World Register (Q131783973), Memory of the World Aotearoa New Zealand Ngā Mahara o te Ao (Q131430929), Brazil Memory of the World Register (Q131471677) MartinPoulter (talk) 16:01, 28 April 2025 (UTC)

Hi there @MartinPoulter, I was curious if you were indeed still working on that. Great to hear that you are, awesome! I am pretty rusty re: the structure of MOW heritage designations but as you work closely with the team, I fully trust your judgment and am sure that you have an up-to-date understanding. Your proposal sounds good. I think the biggest challenge will be to keep the data clean on Wikidata, as the nuances may be difficult to understand by most editors who are not very familiar with the program, so clear and simple to read documentation may be needed, and maintenance lists as well. Good luck on this work - I hope it's fun and rewarding! SFauconnier (talk) 19:07, 27 April 2025 (UTC)