The Wikipedia Library/Newsletter/May-June 2023

The Wikipedia Library

Books & Bytes

Issue 57, May–June 2023

In this issue we highlight some improvements to Suggestions, the Favorites page, a spotlight on a new library-related project, and, as always, a roundup of news and community items related to libraries and digital knowledge.

Suggestion improvements and a call for technical volunteers

At the Wikimedia Hackathon 2023 some improvements were made by volunteers to the 'suggest a collection' page in the library. Specifically, you can now use longer titles, and there is a search filter to browse previously suggested collections.

We wanted to take this opportunity to also let folks know that we're very enthusiastic to support volunteer contributors to the library codebase. You can find the code repository here, there is comprehensive documentation on local setup, and users have requested a large number of possible feature improvements on Phabricator. We're always happy to provide guidance and code review, so please feel free to get in touch if you're interested in helping out!

Favorite collections

Eligible Wikipedia Library users have access to a wide array of sources on their My Collections page. However, if you find yourself returning to a particular resource again and again, you can click the star in the top-right corner of the resource's card to add it to your Favorites page. This will let you quickly return to your favorite databases without needing to scroll through the many available resources. (But we definitely recommend checking back, as we regularly add new options!)

Spotlight: Promoting Nigerian Books and Authors

Excerpted from Diff

Promoting Nigerian Books and Authors 2023 was an initiative led by Rhoda James to bridge the knowledge gap on Wikipedia and Wikidata about books and their authors in Nigeria. This endeavour received support from the first implementation of EveryBookitsReader in April 2023. The Promoting Nigerian Books and Authors project ran from May 1st to June 31st and originated from The Wikidata for Nigerian Novelist and Novel project, conducted in March 2022.

The initial implementation stemmed from the recognition of a content gap about Nigerian novelists and their novel on Wikimedia platforms due to limited online visibility. Nigerian books frequently encounter challenges in gaining global recognition, resulting from insufficient representation and promotion within the international literary community. The primary objective of this project is not just to increase and improve contents about Nigerian books and their authors on Wikipedia and its sisters, but also highlight the cultural richness within these books.

The project activities encompassed both online and physical training sessions to cater for a wider audience and facilitate hands-on learning. During the implementation of the project, the participants made a substantial impact by contributing over 500 edits on both Wikipedia and Wikidata. For more detailed information and a comprehensive overview of the participants' contributions, we encourage you to explore the outreach dashboard.

Bytes in brief

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