GaNCH: Using Linked Open Data for Georgia's Natural, Cultural and Historic Organizations' Disaster Response, 2021

In June 2019, the Atlanta University Center Robert W. Woodruff Library received a LYRASIS Catalyst Fund grant to support the creation of a publicly editable directory of Georgia's Natural, Cultural and Historical Organizations (NCHs), allowing for quick retrieval of location and contact information for disaster response. By the end of the project, over 1,900 entries for NCH organizations in Georgia were compiled, updated, and uploaded to Wikidata, the linked open data database from the Wikimedia Foundation. These entries included directory contact information and GIS coordinates that appear on a map presented on the GaNCH project website (https://ganch.auctr.edu/), allowing emergency responders to quickly search for NCHs by region and county in the event of a disaster. In this article we discuss the design principles, methods, and challenges encountered in building and implementing this tool, including the impact the tool has had on statewide disaster response after implementation.