The Wikipedia Library
Wikipedia is a ubiquitous starting point for research. Students, librarians, and even doctors check Wikipedia to begin their research, get an overview of a field, find relevant sources, and engage with the popular conception and summary of a subject.
In the modern information age, search no longer begins at the library or the archives. It begins with a web search and typically goes next to the top-linked Wikipedia article. There's a saying in the library world that discovery happens elsewhere,[3] away from the library. What is less often mentioned is that these days, "elsewhere" IS Wikipedia.
We know researchers are starting their searches on the open web, and even on Wikipedia directly. Working directly with the Wikipedia community allows archives and special collections to engage directly with issues around how to expose their collections in Wikipedia and continue the conversation about how to get researchers from sources on the web, back to the library or archives, where they can access those resources directly and discover even more to help them with their information needs.
Here are some basic principles to take into account when adding links:
Below are several examples of scenarios and methods of citing an archive. One you should definitely know about is the citation template we made just for archives.
Template:Cite archive has many fields directly related to common archival holding specifications.
{{cite archive |first= |last= |item = |item-url = |type = |item-id = |date = May 8, 1924|page= |pages= |fonds = |series = |file = |box= |collection = |collection-url = |repository = |institution = |location = |oclc= |accession= |ref=}}
{{cite archive |first= Booth|last= Tarkington|item = Booth Tarkington letter to George Ade |type =Textual record |date = May 8, 1924 |series = Correspondence, ca. 1882-1947|file =Correspondence, Sto-U, ca. 1894-1943 |box= Tarkington, Booth, ca. 1905-1943|collection = George Ade Papers, 1878-2007 |repository =Virginia Kelly Karnes Archives and Special Collections Research Center |institution =Purdue University |location =West Lafayette, IN}}
Tarkington, Booth. "Booth Tarkington letter to George Ade" (May 8, 1924) [Textual record]. George Ade Papers, 1878-2007, Series: Correspondence, ca. 1882-1947, Box: Tarkington, Booth, ca. 1905-1943, File: Correspondence, Sto-U, ca. 1894-1943. West Lafayette, IN: Virginia Kelly Karnes Archives and Special Collections Research Center, Purdue University.
You can use this template any time you want to include these fields, especially those that aren't present in the more commonly used Cite web template.
If your digital holdings include unique or otherwise hard to obtain information about a topic, but cannot be included as a reference because that information is principally in primary sources, adding a "Research collections" and/or "Archival holdings" section to an article's "Further reading" section can highlight where to find that further information. In adding to these sections, make sure to do due diligence as a research facilitator, and include any other relevant archival or digital holdings from both your institution and others. Typically "Further Reading" sections will point to narrow scope resources using a full citation; for example a section of a digital book or a particular article in a magazine only available through your library would be appropriate for Further reading sections. Sometimes, your archival materials or the materials aren't "readings": it might be appropriate to change the "Further reading" section into another title such as "Other sources", as is used at Gordon Parks#Other sources.
Displays as:
Further reading
Formatted with:
==Further reading==
*{{cite archive |last=Donnelly |first=Judy |collection=The archive of Clarke, Irwin & Company Limited |date=1992 |institution=[[McMaster University]] Library |location=Hamilton, Ontario |collection-url=https://library.mcmaster.ca/archives/findaids/fonds/c/clarkir.htm}}
Frequently articles about authors will have Works "sections", and longer articles will have a "Bibliography of" or "List of works about" section, or secondary articles that includes a comprehensive list of resources, works or other materials related to the topic. Like "Further reading" sections, these are very rich places for placing links to your collection: this is where, typically, including a link within the list to distinctive or rare examples of a works in library holdings will be useful. Make sure to annotate the link, so that both readers and other Wikipedians understand how that link or item is important to the research being discussed.
Displays as:
Document Collections
Formatted with:
==Document Collections==
*{{cite web |publisher=[[United States Army Center of Military History]] |title=Cold War Archival Material |url=http://www.history.army.mil/html/bookshelves/resmat/tcwy.html#tab_2 |accessdate=June 10, 2010}}
*{{cite web |publisher=[[Cold War International History Project]] |title=Digital Archive |url=http://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/ |accessdate=April 29, 2013}}
References support the verification of the information contained within an article or record. Citations from external sources give readers the opportunity to click through and check where the information came from and if it is a valid source for the claim. On Wikipedia, we generally do not use primary sources to verify claims; instead, we prefer secondary or tertiary sources. That said, if you have a finding aid with rich scholarly supplemental material or metadata about the subject, then that can be considered a secondary source about the item and used to verify content. In general, the community most prefers links to external resources added as references to verify article content.
Adding references
To add a reference do the following steps:
For more information about adding references to Wikipedia pages, see Help:Referencing for beginners
Displays as:
Curry, however, argued that the idea to be expressed was a correct assumption of how life was in rural America.[. 1]
References
Formatted with:
Curry, however, argued that the idea to be expressed was a correct assumption of how life was in rural America.<ref>{{cite archive |last=Lewenthal |first=Reeves |box=1|file=41item=Object 3: Personal letter |collection=John Steuart Curry and Curry family papers |repository=Archives of American Art |institution=Smithsonian Institution |item-url=http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/container/viewer/-192788|type=letter}}}</ref>
==References==
{{reflist}}
External links sections at the ends of articles typically should be reserved for only the most useful or definitive digital resources on the web. Adding a link to your collection in the external links section of an article should only happen if you have exhausted the other options. Generally, External links sections get the most scrutiny from editors, because they should only be pointing to the several most relevant external places for finding additional information about a topic.
If you find that multiple archives, digital collections, or similar academic sources are listed, it might be useful to break the external links into subsections at the beginning of a list of like external links, in this case links to archives ( i.e. add "'''Archival collections'''" to the beginning of a list).
Displays as:
External links
Formatted as:
==External links==
*[http://www.blakearchive.org/ The William Blake Archive] – A Comprehensive Academic Archive of Blake's works with scans from multiple collections
Other examples include:
This list includes case studies that highlight the use of interns or other library staff to improve the relationship between digital library resources and Wikipedia.
