Talk:The Wikipedia Library

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No access to the journals of the "Royal Society of Chemistry" (RSC)[edit]

I should currently have access to the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) Gold collection including several scientific journals - as also indicated on my Wikipedia Library landing page. When I attempted to access an article published in the RSC journal "Energy and Environmental Science" that should be included, I could not access the content, i.e., the content was beyond the paywall. Are there any known changes or problems? Kind regards, Espresso robusta (talk) 19:53, 8 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

@Espresso robusta Thanks for the heads up, looks like our access has lapsed. Unfortunately we haven't heard from our contact there in a little while so I'm not sure how quickly this will be resolved, but we'll do what we can. I'll flag this access issue in the library for other users. Samwalton9 (WMF) (talk) 15:05, 9 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks a lot for your efforts! Best wishes, Espresso robusta (talk) 18:30, 9 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]
On the bright side, that journal has a 25 % open access preservation rate, vs. a 15 % average for RSC, so you might have good luck by using Unpaywall in your browser. :) Nemo 20:24, 11 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Samwalton9 (WMF) I set this up when I was Wikimedian in Residence there. Would you like me to reach out to my contacts? Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 16:29, 8 December 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Access problem with De Gruyter[edit]

Access to the De Gruyter collection seems to be interrupted, since approx. 27. August 2023. De Gryuter indicates, that an "internal server error" did occur. This only happens when using EZProxy. So this seems to be related to an internal change at De Gruyter breaking access over EZProxy. Flyingfischer (talk) 07:18, 28 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Problem with FindMyPast[edit]

I have trouble with getting access to FindMyPast. I was approved in May, but did not get any access code for two months. Complaining in the application's discussion did not get any replies whatsoever. I finally made a renewal application in July and did get an access code, but it did not work. I did exactly as instructed: I created an account with FindMyPast, logged in, then went to https://www.findmypast.co.uk/voucher, entered the code as instructed and clicked Submit. As a result, I only got an error message saying "The voucher code entered doesn't seem to be working." Two more complaints, but no reply. So I made another renewal application. Got the code yesterday, tried to redeem it today, again did exactly as instructed (see above), and got the same error message "The voucher code entered doesn't seem to be working."

Something must be fundamentally wrong here. But what? Why does this not work? I've gained access to some other sites through the Wikipedia Library, and those always worked. Rosenzweig (talk) 16:59, 13 September 2023 (UTC)[reply]

@Rosenzweig We've been having a number of problems with BNA and Findmypast voucher codes unfortunately, including having them all revoked and reinstated with a new batch. You're not the only one facing issues with Findmypast at the moment, so we're in contact with them again to investigate. Apologies for the confusion, there's only so much we can do when Findmypast keep telling us things should be working! Samwalton9 (WMF) (talk) 14:48, 14 September 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Samwalton9 Any news about this? I just found out today that I can't access newspapers.com anymore as well, so the "Wikipedia Library" experience is rather negative for me at the moment :-( --Rosenzweig (talk) 22:23, 2 October 2023 (UTC)[reply]
@Rosenzweig I'm frustrated about all the problems at the moment too. In terms of Findmypast/BNA the situation is potentially turning out to be more complicated than anticipated so we're trying to sort through this to provide clear information to folks. The Newspapers.com issue is being tracked at T322916. Samwalton9 (WMF) (talk) 11:38, 4 October 2023 (UTC)[reply]

The British Newspaper Archive[edit]

Applied for access to this and was just granted, thanks, but I'm having trouble accessing the collection; searches work ok but when I try to click on hits it redirects me to a page inviting me to make an account. Am I doing something wrong? Espresso Addict (talk) 23:58, 19 September 2023 (UTC)[reply]

@Espresso Addict Did you receive an email from us with instructions on how to redeem your voucher code? It seems a number of users have been either missing these or not receiving them for some reason. Could you check your spam folder if you don't see it in your inbox? Samwalton9 (WMF) (talk) 12:10, 20 September 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks, Samwalton9 (WMF) -- Ah, found e-mail, activated voucher but it still seems to only be offering me the 3 free articles that go with its basic free login? Espresso Addict (talk) 17:51, 20 September 2023 (UTC)[reply]
@Espresso Addict Hm, that's odd. We're just trying to clarify how these codes should work with BNA because they recently told us they should be activated via the Subscribe page instead, but that seems to require entering payment information. We'll update when we know more. Samwalton9 (WMF) (talk) 15:32, 21 September 2023 (UTC)[reply]

┌─────────────────────────────────┘
@Samwalton9 (WMF): I can suddenly no longer access BNA articles, even though my WL profile says my BNA access doesn't expire until 28-Oct-2024. I get a message telling me I have to pay for a subscription. Muzilon (talk) 03:31, 24 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

ProQuest[edit]

While searching the ProQuest database earlier today, I encountered the following error: "Available Product Permission Error. An error has been detected in the configuration of the account's product permissions. This is an error in the ProQuest account setup; please contact your library to report this error or contact ProQuest Customer Support to correct this issue." I also noticed that when I click "Access collection" from my Wikipedia Library home page, my browser no longer navigates to the ProQuest site; instead it says "This site can't be reached". Sunnya343 (talk) 06:07, 1 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Now tracked at task T350303. Nikkimaria (talk) 22:49, 1 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]
I tried to reach a book digitized by the Royal Library Copenhagen and got We're sorry, your institution doesn't have access to this article through ProQuest. ProQuest seems the only way for non-residents of Denmark to access the digitized collections of the Royal Library. Could the ProQuest subscription be amended? --concord (talk) 14:38, 7 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

The Wikipedia Library now available as a link in Google Scholar[edit]

A quick announcement that you can now add The Wikipedia Library as a link from Google Scholar results! This should match our holdings and send you through the library's proxy, so if you find a result in Scholar that's in the library, you can get quick and direct access to it.

  1. Go to https://scholar.google.com/ while logged in to a Google account.
  2. Click the hamburger menu in the top corner and click Settings
  3. In the 'Library links' menu, search for Wikipedia
  4. Check the box next to "The Wikipedia Library - The Wikipedia Library"
  5. Click Save.
  6. You should now see "The Wikipedia Library" links next to applicable search results.

One minor issue with this is that the first screen you'll end up on from the results page will usually error, and you need to click the "open the page in a new window" link at the top. We're looking into this to see if we can resolve the problem. Samwalton9 (WMF) (talk) 16:50, 20 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Do those links take precedence over open access links like scholar.archive.org? If so this sounds like a regression. Nemo 07:09, 24 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Ok, I've checked myself: in at least one case, they didn't (before and after). Nemo 07:15, 24 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]
It looks like the error I noted in my first message has now been fixed. Please let me know if it reoccurs. Samwalton9 (WMF) (talk) 17:14, 27 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

OCLC Classify is being discontinued[edit]

I have been using the OCLC Classify service to add OCLC work identifiers to books on Wikidata. Today I read at https://classify.oclc.org/classify2/ that "Classify is being discontinued on 31 January 2024." Is there any plan to give Wikidata editors access to one of the replacement services to find OCLC work identifiers? Daask (talk) 18:18, 20 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

@Daask Thanks for bringing this up - we'll look into it. Has this been discussed anywhere on Wikidata in a way that I could get a sense of how important this is? Samwalton9 (WMF) (talk) 12:30, 27 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

May need a bot[edit]

I found out that when we use newspapers.com as a source we should create a clipping and link to it. However, when I did that, JPxG corrected my link. I asked this person what the procedure was and got no response. But if I copy the link to the clipping directly, I am asked to sign in, and I guess the objective is to allow anyone, signed in or not, to see the clipping.Vchimpanzee (talk) 22:24, 23 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

See en:w:Wikipedia:NEWSPAPERSDESCHMUTZ; www-newspapers-com.wikipedialibrary.idm.oclc.org should be changed to newspapers.com. The proxy link doesn't let people view the clippings unless they're logged into TWL and have active n.com subscriptions, so while it's still possible to cite them, it's far less helpful. The browser extension I wrote to cite these pages fixes these URLs automatically, and otherwise there's an AWB script (at the deschmutz link). JPxG (talk) 22:33, 23 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]
I'm getting "syntax error". Also, what do I do with the script?Vchimpanzee (talk) 23:03, 23 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Generally speaking you should never use any of the links coming from The Wikipedia Library, unless you suspect the URL itself is citable (as opposed to the work it carries). See also, for the English Wikipedia, w:en:Wikipedia:Citing sources#Convenience links and w:en:Wikipedia:Citing_sources#Say where you read it. Nemo 07:01, 24 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

But we are asked to provide a link to the clipping.Vchimpanzee (talk) 17:06, 24 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]
If you cite a proxied link on the English Wikipedia I believe Citation bot should come along and correct it - elsewhere you should ideally cite non-proxied links in the first place. I appreciate that's unfortunately a cumbersome process. Samwalton9 (WMF) (talk) 12:32, 27 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]
How exactly do I do that once I create a clipping?Vchimpanzee (talk) 17:18, 29 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Two options:
  1. After making clippings within the library, navigate to newspapers.com outside of the library, log in to your Newspapers.com account, and go to your clippings and copy the URL(s) from there.
  2. As JPxG explained above - change www-newspapers-com.wikipedialibrary.idm.oclc.org in the URL to newspapers.com.
Samwalton9 (WMF) (talk) 10:46, 30 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

TLS[edit]

I'd hoped to be able to access the TLS (formerly the Times Literary Supplement) via Gale, but apparently it's not available there. Or am I missing something? Muzilon (talk) 03:14, 1 December 2023 (UTC)[reply]

@Muzilon We're not sure on this one - I believe we do have some TLS content in Gale, but it's possible that they don't aggregate recent content due to an embargo. Often times these aggregators only have content up to some number of years ago. Samwalton9 (WMF) (talk) 12:13, 12 December 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia Library emails are currently broken[edit]

Tracked in Phabricator:
Task T347512

This is a quick notice to let you know that Wikipedia Library email notifications are not currently working as intended. You may not receive emails such as application approvals or access instructions until the issue is resolved. We will endeavour to manually re-send emails on a regular basis but apologise if the service isn't reliable over the coming weeks. We're exploring some other options for notifying users, such as using Echo notifications and directing users towards information in the library, and we'll let you know when we have opportunities for input into those potential solutions.

If you have any questions or expected to receive an email that you didn't, please let me know. Samwalton9 (WMF) (talk) 12:36, 5 December 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Unable to validate login credentials[edit]

When I try to search the library, I get the error message:

We are unable to validate your login credentials. Please contact your institution for assistance. Please note, Referring URL authentication may have been prevented by antivirus or privacy control software. [Authentication Error Code 103]

at https://search-ebscohost-com.wikipedialibrary.idm.oclc.org/login.aspx?bquery=Foo&lang=en&custid=ns253359&groupid=main&profid=eds&scope=site&site=eds-live&direct=true&authtype=url

I have tried disabling Privacy Badger, to no effect. Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 16:22, 8 December 2023 (UTC)[reply]

@Pigsonthewing Sorry you're facing this issue. Just to understand fully - are you navigating to https://wikipedialibrary.wmflabs.org/, then searching in the bar at the top? If not could you tell me the steps you're going through to search. Samwalton9 (WMF) (talk) 12:12, 12 December 2023 (UTC)[reply]
@Samwalton9 (WMF): Highlighting text on page (say "Foo") and using a browser plugin that opens a tab with the URL https://wikipedialibrary.wmflabs.org/search/?q=Foo Manually opening a tab end entering the same URL gives an identical result.
However, if I use the method you describe, I am redirected to https://wikipedialibrary.wmflabs.org/users/my_library/ and if I search using the field there I get the same error, albeit at https://search-ebscohost-com.wikipedialibrary.idm.oclc.org/login.aspx?custid=ns253359&groupid=main&profid=eds&scope=site&site=eds-live&direct=true&authtype=url&lang=en-gb&bquery=Foo Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 16:22, 12 December 2023 (UTC)[reply]
@Pigsonthewing Do you have any other privacy extensions installed? The software checks the referring URL (i.e. what page you came from) to verify you are able to use search, but some privacy extensions block this information. Samwalton9 (WMF) (talk) 16:27, 14 December 2023 (UTC)[reply]
@Samwalton9 (WMF): I do (I'm using Firefox), but neither whitelisting the sites nor disabling the add-ons makes any difference. I've also tried deleting cookies. I can search without issue in a different browser. Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 19:52, 14 December 2023 (UTC)[reply]
@Pigsonthewing Unfortunately I'm unable to reproduce the issue in a newly-installed Firefox. I've filed T353868 in case other users report the same issue. Samwalton9 (WMF) (talk) 10:22, 21 December 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Unsafe security certificate[edit]

Since at least 3 months I'm unable to access JSTOR and some other collections (gale) because my antivirus blocks the access saying that the security certificate used by wikipedia library in relation to these collections is not safe. Is it a real issue or just a false flag by the antivirus? Can I safely go on? Please note that not all the collections are blocked, as it's not blocked the access to the homepage of the Library.Friniate (talk) 21:21, 3 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Friniate Connections to these websites should be safe provided the web address you're connecting to looks something like https://www-jstor-org.wikipedialibrary.idm.oclc.org/. Samwalton9 (WMF) (talk) 13:39, 8 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Yes, the URL is "www.jstor.org.wikipedialibrary.idm.oclc.org". The antivirus says that the name of the security certficate is not valid. The security certificate was released by OCLC TLS Issuing RSA subCA R1, from 24/05/2023 to 23/05/2024. Friniate (talk) 13:54, 8 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Ancestry login issues[edit]

Ancestry search results usually redirect to Ancestry's Customer Login page. Flod logic (talk) 16:51, 5 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Flod logic Are you still seeing this issue? Another user reported it but then said it was resolved. Samwalton9 (WMF) (talk) 13:41, 8 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]
It was happening more often than not over the past few days, but seems to be better as of yesterday. Thanks! Flod logic (talk) 17:28, 8 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

JSTOR "archival" access[edit]

From late last year:

Thanks for flagging this, it looks like there's an archival collection that we don't have access to, and we haven't matched this up properly in EBSCO Discovery Service (the search software we use). We've updated the JSTOR description and are going to ask them if we might be able to include this content. Samwalton9 (WMF) (talk) 13:57, 27 September 2023 (UTC)

I'm still getting "Your institution does not have access to this journal article on JSTOR" errors with older material (e.g. stuff from the 1940s to 1970s, as far as the specific items I was trying to read). Examples include [1] and [2]. The thread about this got archived with the clean sweep of 2023 stuff off this page, but this one remains unresolved. Is there a Phab ticket or something to keep track of?  — SMcCandlish ¢ >ʌⱷ҅ʌ<  14:18, 6 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@SMcCandlish Apologies that there was no follow up here. I've filed T354632 to track the work on this. We're going to ask JSTOR to add these collections, but in the short term we'll see about removing them from the search indexing so there's less confusion. Samwalton9 (WMF) (talk) 12:22, 9 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

ACS Guide to Scholarly Communication[edit]

Is there any means via TWL of accessing this publication? Its main URL seems to be https://pubs.acs.org/page/acsguide (and it is no longer a paper publication; the last of those was the 2006 edition).

There doesn't seem to be an ACS entry on the main TWL page, and this work is not inside JSTOR. I'm not really sure what other TWL avenues might lead to it. I really just need a specific sectional quote from it (on punctuation of quotations; it's been claimed several times that ACS uses the same or nearly the same "logical quotation" system as Wikiepdia, and I'm trying to verify this for the w:en:Quotation marks in English article).  — SMcCandlish ¢ >ʌⱷ҅ʌ<  14:23, 6 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@SMcCandlish Unfortunately we don't have this anywhere else - it seems to be an ACS-specific publication not indexed elsewhere. Samwalton9 (WMF) (talk) 12:22, 9 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Okey-dokey. I asked on Facebook, and someone near me says that their local library has access to it, and also someone suggested the Libby app ("Gives you access to local libraries, if you have a library card"), probbaly US-only, though I dunno yet.  — SMcCandlish ¢ >ʌⱷ҅ʌ<  13:16, 9 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

De Standaard[edit]

I requested access to De Standaard last month and received approval on the 31st of December, but it was in my spam folder. Now I wanted to use it recently but De Standaard say on their website that the offer was valid to the 31st of December. What to do? Sjoerd de Bruin (talk) 10:12, 15 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Sjoerddebruin We're just setting up some new codes for De Standaard - we'll reassign new codes to you once we've done so :) Samwalton9 (WMF) (talk) 13:14, 16 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Thank you! Sjoerd de Bruin (talk) 15:04, 16 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Just received the updated code, it was in my spam folder once again though. Sjoerd de Bruin (talk) 20:51, 21 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Suggest Page vs Phabricator[edit]

I am confused by something in the latest newsletter:

The Library Card Platform Suggest Page allows you to recommend new resources to be added to the library. You can upvote suggestions on that page to assist with prioritization. It's not been obvious where these suggestions go historically, so we're actively trying to do a better job of linking these to corresponding Phabricator tickets, where we'll post updates on our progress, so you can subscribe to tickets to learn more about how things are going with any particular organisation. Once partners become available they will also be announced in this newsletter.

I looked at each of the entries I have raised on the 'Suggest Page', there are no Phabricator tickets mentioned against any of them.

I looked on Phabricator and can see no entries for any of the suggestions I made (examples: Royal United Services Institute; RIBA Journal; The Railway Magazine), except one, PressReader, where there is a suggestion for the same site made by another editor (Phab:T351856), with no mention of my earlier suggestion.

Am I missing something? What has changed? Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 17:30, 24 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Pigsonthewing Thanks for the question! Adding suggestions to Phabricator takes a non-trivial amount of time so at the moment we've prioritised the suggestions which have received the most votes (~50+ for now) and seem like viable partners. We just don't have the time to action every suggestion we receive, so this also reflects our internal priorities about who we might try to contact. Since Phabricator is an open platform anyone can simply make a ticket directly on the board (as that user did) and I don't see much use in closing the ticket, which is why there are a few examples like this. Does that make sense? Samwalton9 (WMF) (talk) 10:41, 25 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Thank you. Your reply makes sense, but seems to tell a different story to the newsletter text. There seems to be no link between the Suggest Page and Phabricator, nor vice versa. Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 14:38, 25 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Time out error for all wikipedialibrary.idm.oclc.org links[edit]

I seem to be running into a time out error for all of the proxied resources through TWL. Do you know if this is a common issue? -- Guerillero Parlez Moi 20:53, 24 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Guerillero From a quick check I can't reproduce this issue. Have you tried clearing your cookies for oclc.org? Samwalton9 (WMF) (talk) 10:38, 25 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]
I've been getting this today too. My browsers (Firefox and Brave) show that Cloudflare is running a security check that does not resolve. The error message it shows is
"www.newspapers.com Checking if the site connection is secure This check is taking longer than expected. Check your Internet connection and refresh the page if the issue persists.
Ray ID: 84cb7d10db286167 Performance & security by Cloudflare" My internet connection is fine so I think something else may be going on. Let me know if I can provide more details. Jessamyn (talk) 19:02, 28 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]
I'm getting the same error when trying to access newspapers.com through TWL (https://www-newspapers-com.wikipedialibrary.idm.oclc.org/). Accessing the site directly using https://www.newspapers.com/ works fine. —Bruce1eetalk 06:30, 29 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Other links from TWL, for example NewspaperARCHIVE.com, appear to be working fine. —Bruce1eetalk 06:34, 29 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]
I'm having this problem right now. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 19:47, 29 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Me too with newspapers.com. Luckily I found someone else clipped what I needed for this time. Hopefully this is addressed soon. StefenTower (talk) 02:02, 30 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]
@Bruce1ee, Gråbergs Gråa Sång, and StefenTower: It looks like the Newspapers.com issue should now be resolved! Please let me know if you have any further issues. Samwalton9 (WMF) (talk) 11:11, 1 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]
@Samwalton9 (WMF): It's working fine now from my end. Thanks for your help. —Bruce1eetalk 11:23, 1 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Works for me! Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 11:25, 1 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Working fine for me too. Thanks! StefenTower (talk) 15:11, 1 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Not working for me. :( Magiciandude (talk) 03:07, 5 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Zootaxa[edit]

I see that the Suggest Page currently has three separate proposals requesting access to Zootaxa:

-- Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 15:52, 25 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks, I've merged the second two suggestions but I'll leave the first since it's a broader request. Samwalton9 (WMF) (talk) 09:46, 26 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]
And thank you. Due to an uptick in interest, the combined level of interest is now over 50. Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 15:17, 26 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Access to newspapers.com through TWL[edit]

Hello. I'm unable to access newspapers.com through TWL--just started today. Have tried Edge and Chrome, cleared history, etc. Don't know if there's an actual issue with it. This is the message: "Checking if the site connection is secure www.newspapers.com needs to review the security of your connection before proceeding. This check is taking longer than expected. Check your Internet connection and refresh the page if the issue persists." Cloudflare. Has been this way all day, and the first time I've seen this message in all the years I've been accessing. Thank you very much. Caro7200 (talk) 21:24, 27 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

See Talk:The Wikipedia Library#Time out error for all wikipedialibrary.idm.oclc.org_links above. —Bruce1eetalk 06:33, 29 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]
When searching for articles, I'm consistently getting the error message "Oops, we are having trouble loading results. Try again." I don't have this problem with my personal (non-TWL) Newspapers.com account. Muzilon (talk) 06:55, 9 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]
@Muzilon Please try clearing cookies for oclc.org and let me know if that fixes it. Samwalton9 (WMF) (talk) 11:38, 9 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

A new problem - I can't make any "clippings". I get a message telling me to Register or Log In. When I try logging with my personal email address, the "sign in" button is greyed out. Have tried logging out and clearing cookies. Muzilon (talk) 09:58, 14 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Muzilon That's odd - logging in with your personal email address should work. Please try going to https://www-newspapers-com.wikipedialibrary.idm.oclc.org/signin/?next_url=/ and logging in and let me know if that works. Samwalton9 (WMF) (talk) 20:42, 14 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]
OK, that worked after going into private browser mode, thanks. Maybe a browser issue (Firefox). Muzilon (talk) 22:26, 14 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

The Railway Magazine[edit]

There are now duplicate entries for The Railway Magazine, on the Suggest Page. Please merge them. Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 16:04, 29 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Done Samwalton9 (WMF) (talk) 11:13, 1 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Problem at Brill accessing their online encyclopaedias[edit]

Hi there, I am being sent to a http-style authorisation page when accessing articles at Brill. After successfully searching for an article, eg, "ecclesia et synagoga" and attempting to follow a link, eg to the Ecclesia et Synagoga article, I get an http-style authorisation page asking for a user name and password. I have tried using Safari and Brave on Mac so far, and FF on LinuxMint. The value ?rskey= changes, but the request for http-auth is consistent. I tried removing oclc.org cookies in case that helped, but without any luck.

I get the same problem accessing the Neo-Latin Encyclopaedia articles via this search. I have accessed this encyclopaedia previously without trouble.

Thus the problem seems to affect the online encyclopedias specifically, book titles are accessible. JimKillock (talk) 17:55, 18 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@JimKillock I've been largely unable to reproduce this issue unfortunately. I see it sometimes, including at the link you provided above, but I can't actually find that link at your first link, so I'm left a little confused - access still seems to mostly be working for me. Samwalton9 (WMF) (talk) 14:10, 20 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Try a search for ""ecclesia et synagoga" and then follow the search results for the encyclopaedia JimKillock (talk) 14:28, 20 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]
@JimKillock Clicking the first search result (the one which is "in Enzyklopädie jüdischer Geschichte und Kultur") takes me to this page which seems to be the intended destination. The issue seems to be that the URL you shared is to referenceworks, but I can't reproduce getting a search result to send me there. Samwalton9 (WMF) (talk) 12:13, 22 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]
@Samwalton9 (WMF) That's really odd. Your link takes me to the referenceworks URL and http-login. Something to do with my account or some section of accounts?
Here's two possible ways forward: (1) Is it possible to see what is happening in the logs for my account, or switch logging on for it so we can see; and (2) if not, could I nominate a second WP account for access? I have an account I have used for some limited second reading proofing on Latin Wikisource, where I returned to the pages after 12-24 months and gave them a second proof. Trying with a second account might also give some clues as to reproducability. JimKillock (talk) 12:28, 22 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]
@JimKillock One quick thing to test is could you clear cookies for oclc.org? Samwalton9 (WMF) (talk) 15:05, 22 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Sure. I did this at the start :) And by using four different browsers which wouldn't have contained cookies! But happy to give it another go. JimKillock (talk) 21:16, 22 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]
well it is working now! Ours not to reason why I guess! JimKillock (talk) 21:22, 22 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Very odd. Please let me know if the issue reoccurs :) Samwalton9 (WMF) (talk) 09:37, 23 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia Library: Can't access {Banned from ru.wiki}[edit]

Hello, i would like to access Wikipedia Library but i cannot as i am banned from the russian Wikipedia, as my name contains "oppio" and i guess they do not like it. I would like to note that i am from Italy, i speak Italian and English, and i can't comprehend anything in Russian. I never even made an edit on that wiki!

Rather than that I am not banned nor had any problems on any other wiki, i would like to use the Wiki Library for a page i am developing.

Would it be possible to make me access anyways this Library? Thank you in advance. :) Ashoppio (talk) 00:26, 19 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Ashoppio No problem! I've added an exemption to your account so you should now be able to access the library. You may need to log out and back in for this to take effect. Samwalton9 (WMF) (talk) 13:52, 20 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]


The Oxford English Dictionary (OED)[edit]

Is the OED part of the Wikipedia Library collection? Is there away we can access the OED through Wikipedia? If not I would propose that it be added to the collection. I know it may sound like a hard sell but for a free, community-based, collaboratively edited English language encyclopedia, a good, comprehensive, well sourced and well dated dictionary is of the essence.

I know there are a lot of free access English dictionaries out there but 1. They are slowly going away (Oxford Dictionaries and Macmillan both ended their free access, although some, not all, content of Oxford Dictionaries can still be accessed via Google, and other free dictionaries might disappear too in the future) 2. They are lacking. This may take a lot of time to explain but as someone who studied linguistics in university I could point to a lot of shortfalls of free online dictionaries including even the best ones like Merriam Webster and Cambridge. I can't remember how many times I have been frustrated by their lack of accuracy or comprehensiveness. Pomodecon (talk) 20:31, 6 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Free contents - OA resources in the Wikipedia Library ?[edit]

Hi! It intrigues me that while the free encyclopedia offers its contributors a wide selection of commercial resources (great!) I can not see many free information resources in the library (DOAJ, DOAB, BASE, CORE, etc.). OpenEdition is there, O.K. Is that because those free resources are ubiquitous, and they are free anyway? Is it because the underlying discovery system searches in some of those? Yes, good reasons. But. I would prefer to proselytize the use of free resources. Somehow the commercial companies are always there to advertise their goods, and even professional librarians tend to use those, over the free. In the field of academic publications OA is already wide-spread. Visible for the big search engines, but still invisible in many other ways. Can we do better? Andrasholl (talk) 14:35, 20 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Andrasholl Thanks for your comments. We agree in general that OA should be promoted and encouraged for use by Wikimedians. The search system does already index BASE, CORE, and others - as you suggest, so OA results will be surfaced through general searches. The reason that we haven't included OA resources in the library as prominent collections is one of scope. It would require additional product work to figure out how and where to add these resources in the library (e.g. alongside paywalled content or in another view), and how to decide which collections to include - there's an almost infinite number of websites which could be in scope, so we'd need to draw a line somewhere, and I'm not sure what the best answer is there. I made some notes at T326812 about one potential approach. I'd love to hear your thoughts. Samwalton9 (WMF) (talk) 13:01, 25 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]