Wikipedia:Biographical metadata

This page is intended to summarise the state of biographical metadata on Wikipedia. Where such data exists, what tools are available to extract and use it, and what systems are in place to synchronise, update and extend existing data. Please add more to this summary as needed.

Examples of biographical metadata

Date of birth
Date of death
Surname and given names
Gender (currently not covered at all)
Place of birth
Place of death
Relationships (marriages and genealogy)
Location of grave or other resting place (see Geographical coordinates)

Examples of biographical metadata systems

Examples of biographical metadata systems used on Wikipedia-EN include:

Year of birth and year of death categories
- Category:Births by year
- Category:Deaths by year
Birth and death and age data in an article and an article infobox
- {{Birth date}}, {{Birth date and age}}
- {{Death date}}, {{Death date and age}}
- {{Birth year and age}}
- Wikipedia:Age calculation templates
hCard microformats
- See WikiProject Microformats & WikiProject Microformats/hcard
- Currently applied mainly through biographical infoboxes; see Category:Templates generating hCards
- There is a need for a template to apply hCards in inline text, for people whose biographical article has no infobox, or who appear in articles but who are not the subject of a biographical article.
Wikipedia:DEFAULTSORT values
- See also Wikipedia:Categorization#Setting a default sort key
Wikipedia:Authority control
- Currently used mainly in biographical articles, but intended for all topics with authority records (organizations, entities, index terms, etc.).
- Uses unique IDs of the person's entries in various authority files (LCCN, VIAF, PND). Through this, biographical articles can be linked with lists of literature and other works from and about that person in many databases.
- Mainly imported from Wikidata, by {{Authority control}}

Missing or incorrect data

Various systems exist to track and update missing data.

Others try to detect inconsistencies and incorrect metadata.

Wikipedia:Database reports/Living people on EN wiki who are dead on other wikis, see also meta:Death anomalies table

Tools

Various applications and tools exist or could exist to handle and search biographical data.

Personensuche is a toolserver application developed for the German Wikipedia that provides a search for biographical articles on the German Wikipedia. Persons can be searched by name, gender, dates and locations of birth and death, description and nationality. The tool also provides a data sheet for every person in the database which includes all metadata (Persondata, categories, authority records) from the article as well as links to corresponding entries in various online databases.

External databases

Examples of external databases that include biographical metadata include:

NNDB website
WorldCat Identities, which links to the Library of Congress Name Authority File (especially useful for providing variant name forms)
Internet Movie Database - biographies of actors and related professional
Virtual International Authority File website - an aggregation of authority records from national libraries and other institutions