NaMo, utility for populating missing date fields in authority records

Abstract

The article introduces NaMo, a tool developed to achieve effective and integrated bibliographic control and to enrich person entities in library catalogs, with particular reference to the work carried out by the Library of the Pontifical University Santa Croce. In a context of increasing use of entities and URIs within the semantic web, NaMo leverages Wikidata to integrate and update biographical information — such as birth and death dates — through catalogers’ contributions, using SPARQL queries and a dynamic interface. The tool operates on two data sets: one consisting of recently updated records in Wikidata, and another enabling retrospective work, both aimed at enriching authority entities. NaMo facilitates the identification of records with incomplete data, supporting critical review and validation processes. It proves effective not only in data enrichment but also in error correction and disambiguation, highlighting the importance of standardized query tools and collaboration across bibliographic systems. The study also explores the potential extension of NaMo to other systems such as SBN, GND, and BNF.