#Wikipedia discovers #OpenLibrary

On Facebook, Dumisani Ndubane posted his discovery of Open Library:

I just discovered that The Internet Archive has a book loan system, which gives me access up to 5 books for 14 days. So I have a library on my laptop!!! This is awesomest!!!

And it is. Anybody can borrow books from the Open Library (is is part of the Internet Archive). What Dumisani did not know at the time is that there are books in other languages to be found as well.

Dumisani found out by accident; he googled for an ebook called "Heart of darkness" by Joseph Conrad. What Dumisani did not know at the time is that the Open Library includes books in many languages. His next challenge: find the books in Xitsonga, and tell his fellow Wikipedians about it.
Thanks,
      GerardM

#Wikipedia vs #Wikidata - Quality and low hanging fruit

When Wikipedia is to be the best, it has to understand and preserve its quality. When Wikidata is to be the best, it has to understand and preserve its quality. Both Wikipedia and Wikidata are wikis but their quality and how it manifests itself are utterly different. At the same time they intersect and this is where we find low hanging fruit.

In Wikidata we have "Author"s and subclasses of author. Many of them have a VIAF identifier and this means that libraries know about them. Information like VIAF is shown in the English Wikipedia when there is an {{authority control}} template. It shows nothing when there is nothing to show but it will update Wikipedia when the information is added to Wikidata.

The low hanging fruit:

• English Wikipedia - All articles about someone who is known as an author of any kind gets the template.
• Wikidata - For all the items for someone who is known as an author of any kind we seek the VIAF identifier.
• OCLC - All the libraries in the world will be updated with a link to Wikidata within a month. This will make it easy for a librarian to find Wikipedia articles in any language.
• Open Archive - It has a project called "Open Library" and it has freely licensed e-books. Wikidata includes Open Library identifiers. OCLC and OL have links combined with Wikidata identifiers. As these numbers include, people in libraries or from Wikipedia could find authors with free books.
• other Wikipedias - they could include VIAF and OL identifiers as well. Open Library has books in languages other than English..

We live in an interconnected world. Wikimedia quality is in not being on an island but increasing the reach and enabling our readers.

Thanks,

      GerardM

Copyright free #books from #India

The West Bengal Public Library Network is a digital repository of copy right free rare books which are under the custody of various libraries of West Bengal, India. The aim of this digital repository is to provide free service to academics, researchers, and students. It is a digital service that collects, preserves, and distributes rare digital material.

The books provided by this library network are excellent candidates to source facts and to make people familiar with their cultural heritage. It will get us for instance a grammar of the Pushto language, Halayudha's Abhidhanaratnamala which is a Sanskrit vocabulary..

The fact that these books have been digitised indicates their notability. By including them in Wikidata we promote the use of these resources. It is an obvious win win situation; the WMF achieves its goal by enabling people to share in the sum of all knowledge.
Thanks,
      GerardM