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Archive 1Archive 2

Lost Library Card Applicant

I was in the process of sending the email address of an applicant I approved to Taylor & Francis and something occurred which seems to have wiped the data of this applicant from the platform. All I recall was that the applicant was applying for the Art & Humanities bundle and had mentioned interest in the journal Costumes. The applicant had considerable edits in articles dealing with fashion and accessories. I approved the application about 2 weeks ago and was waiting (as instructed) to see if any other applicants appeared so I could send as a bundle. No applicant appearing in at least 2 weeks, I decided to send tonight so T&F could have it first thing Monday morning. But, as I say, as I was about to fix a new status, I instead went to "send application" to copy the email addy. But nothing was there and I can find neither hide nor hair of this applicant. Not in applicants to be reviewed. Not in applicants to send. Not in applicants sent. Not in latest activity. This applicant had to have applied in May but the latest activity tree shows no trace. Let me know if there is some way this person can be found Thanks. AnthroMimus (talk) 02:18, 22 May 2017 (UTC)

Disregard this message. I found the applicant. Sorry to bother you. AnthroMimus (talk) 04:37, 22 May 2017 (UTC)
@AnthroMimus: No problem! Is there something about this process we could make clearer? Sam Walton (talk) 08:02, 22 May 2017 (UTC)

Term

Hey Sam, read the post and wanted to add that TWL might want to refer to "integrated search" as "federated search" since I believe that's the common lingo. Thanks for your work on the library card! I am no longer watching this pageping if you'd like a response czar 23:55, 6 June 2017 (UTC)

@Czar: Thanks for pointing that out! Samwalton9 (WMF) (talk) 09:17, 7 June 2017 (UTC)

Sign Up Issue at the New Platform

Tracked in Phabricator
Task T170097

FYI DESiegel is encountering an internal server trying to use OATH to login to the new platform, I've opened T170097 in Phab for the issue. Could you take a look into this? --Cameron11598 (Talk) 01:21, 10 July 2017 (UTC)

ping @Ocaasi (WMF): and @Nikkimaria: --Cameron11598 (Talk) 01:24, 10 July 2017 (UTC)
@Cameron11598 and DESiegel: Thanks for reporting this. We've had at least one other report of a login failure, and suspect it has something to do with the interplay between OAuth and old accounts. We'll be looking into it as a high priority. Thanks for filing the bug! Samwalton9 (WMF) (talk) 08:16, 10 July 2017 (UTC)

What is going on?

@Samwalton9 (WMF) and Nikkimaria: I just got an email saying "Your Wikipedia Library application has been waitlisted" What application? It tells me my Jstor appliation has been waitlisted. Well ... I currently have Jstor and just tried it; I've had it for years. It also mentions Cambridge University Press, which I think I had once upon a time, and it lapsed. So far, no emails about my other accesses which I currently use: MUSE, Questia. Newspaper Archives, and Newspapers.com - however, I didn't know anything was changing. I didn't see any notice, didn't read anything about this. Shouldn't all these subscribers have had some kind of notice a change was about to happen? So ... I went to The Wikipedia Library Card Platform at labs, and it let me in. But it tells me I have to apply all over? What is going on? This is so confusing. Are all of our accesses about to be pulled without warning? — Maile (talk) 21:28, 15 July 2017 (UTC)

@Maile66: No, your access is still the same - see here. Nikkimaria (talk) 23:09, 16 July 2017 (UTC)

You've got mail!

Hello, Samwalton9 (WMF). Please check your email; you've got mail! The subject is Newspapers.com Account.
Message added 18:20, 25 July 2017 (UTC). It may take a few minutes from the time the email is sent for it to show up in your inbox. You can remove this notice at any time by removing the {{You've got mail}} or {{ygm}} template.

--Cameron11598 (Talk) 18:20, 25 July 2017 (UTC)

Message on the WPL talk page

I've responded to you on the project talk page

Regards, Barbara (WVS) ✐ ✉ 19:09, 26 July 2017 (UTC)

Gale

Hi, I've lost my login information for Gale - would it be possible to resend it to me? Seraphim System (talk) 06:53, 18 December 2017 (UTC)

@Seraphim System: Hi - yep, I'll just look into getting that sent over to you. Samwalton9 (WMF) (talk) 10:01, 18 December 2017 (UTC)

Discussion at User talk:Cameron11598#OUP

 You are invited to join the discussion at User talk:Cameron11598#OUP. --Cameron11598 (Talk) 01:24, 25 March 2018 (UTC)

Talkback

Hello, Samwalton9 (WMF). You have new messages at Seraphim System's talk page.
Message added 19:01, 1 May 2018 (UTC). You can remove this notice at any time by removing the {{Talkback}} or {{Tb}} template.

--Cameron11598 (Talk) 19:01, 1 May 2018 (UTC)

Phabricator Task - Wikipedia Library & Personally Identifiable Information

Hey Sam! Would you take a look at T195340 when you get the chance? Thanks! --Cameron11598 (Talk) 04:00, 23 May 2018 (UTC)

@Cameron11598: Good catch! Looks like this is really only an issue when applying for multiple partners, but we definitely should be flagging which of the information is going where. We'll take a look at this soon. Samwalton9 (WMF) (talk) 09:27, 23 May 2018 (UTC)

Your BRFA

Hello, your BRFA (Wikipedia:Bots/Requests for approval/TWLBot) has been approved for trial. Please update the BRFA page with progress notes/trial results. — xaosflux Talk 14:33, 22 August 2018 (UTC)

WP:RFBOT

Your recent bot approvals request has been approved. Please see the request page for details. When the bot flag is set it will show up in this log. — xaosflux Talk 13:00, 11 September 2018 (UTC)

Cochrane Library Page

Hi Sam, I noticed that the Cochrane Library Wikipedia Page does not show the text that is in the wiki markup. I tried to fix it, but need more time to fiddle. For now I left it as is (reverted my changes). I have a new project page for the Cochrane-Wikipedia project as well that I am linking this to. Cochrane-Wikipedia Project Page. This is not a big rush, I just wanted to explain all my edits and reverts! Thanks for all your support, JenOttawa (talk) 15:39, 31 January 2019 (UTC)

@JenOttawa: No problem! The TWL pages on-wiki use Template:TWL Header for formatting - in the past those pages had all that information visible. With our move to the Library Card platform, we disabled fields like the blurb so that our descriptions were centralised and we weren't having to keep text up to date in multiple places. We disabled it at the template level, however, so many of these pages still have that text in their source code, it just isn't presented on the page. Does that make sense? Sam Walton (talk) 15:52, 31 January 2019 (UTC)
Thanks for the response. Is it possible to make the blurb visible again? I tried, but with the template the whole page went off. :) JenOttawa (talk) 15:59, 31 January 2019 (UTC)
It's possible but we'd prefer to keep those descriptions centralised (Cochrane's is here) - is there important information you think is missing on that page, or were you particularly wanting to keep some text on-wiki? Samwalton9 (WMF) (talk) 16:01, 31 January 2019 (UTC)
Thanks for the quick responses. It would be great if "free access to cochrane" can be changed to: "Cochrane provides 100 free licenses to the Cochrane Library for people interested in using the Cochrane Library for editing Wikipedia content. Access to the Cochrane Library is reviewed regularly and is depending on the number of edits made over a 6 months period. In case of non-use the license will be given to another Wikipedia editor." Is this possible? Thanks again! JenOttawa (talk) 16:07, 31 January 2019 (UTC)
@JenOttawa: How does that look? Samwalton9 (WMF) (talk) 11:50, 6 February 2019 (UTC)

Nomination for deletion of Template:LCP

Template:LCP has been nominated for deletion. You are invited to comment on the discussion at the template's entry on the Templates for discussion page. Zackmann (Talk to me/What I been doing) 00:48, 7 March 2019 (UTC)

You've got mail!

Hello, Samwalton9 (WMF). Please check your email; you've got mail! The subject is OUP - Who do I contact now?.
Message added 22:23, 15 August 2019 (UTC). It may take a few minutes from the time the email is sent for it to show up in your inbox. You can remove this notice at any time by removing the {{You've got mail}} or {{ygm}} template.

--Cameron11598 (Talk) 22:23, 15 August 2019 (UTC)

Are

we providing a single port for all Oxford-Scholarship subscriptions from TWL? I am signed in as Wikipedia Foundation and am currently hitting a simultaneous user limit error. ∯WBGconverse 12:39, 27 October 2019 (UTC)

@Winged Blades of Godric: Despite the individual logins its likely we have some level of simultaneous user limit across the library. Is this something that's happened regularly or was it a one-off? I'll contact OUP to see what that limit is either way. Samwalton9 (WMF) (talk) 10:21, 29 October 2019 (UTC)
Got this error thrice (each for a span of about one/two hours) in the last 5 days. At any case, thanks for your enquiry.
Also how far we are as to enabling proxy-access? (You told September, about four months back.) And, how far as to enabling new resources lile Nature, ProQuest et al who were ready to be accessible via TWL, since a couple of years? I also note with considerable dismay that our partnership with Questia has expired. ∯WBGconverse 11:37, 29 October 2019 (UTC)
Odd, I got in contact with OUP, who inform me we should have an unlimited setup. Please let me know if this continues to be a problem. As for proxy, we're just about ready to do a soft launch with a few publishers (BMJ, MIT Press, Rock's Backpages) to make sure everything is working correctly. That should be happening within the next week, as we're just waiting on a final go-ahead for a corresponding Terms of Use update. Yes, the Questia partnership is a shame, there was unfortunately nothing we could do there. Samwalton9 (WMF) (talk) 15:56, 4 November 2019 (UTC)
I got that sorted out with OUP :-) Proxy/Bundle access displays You have no active proxy/bundle collections -- I guess that you are yet to launch! ∯WBGconverse 17:20, 11 November 2019 (UTC)

Google Code-In 2019 is coming - please mentor some documentation tasks!

Hello,

Google Code-In, Google-organized contest in which the Wikimedia Foundation participates, starts in a few weeks. This contest is about taking high school students into the world of opensource. I'm sending you this message because you recently edited a documentation page at the English Wikipedia.

I would like to ask you to take part in Google Code-In as a mentor. That would mean to prepare at least one task (it can be documentation related, or something else - the other categories are Code, Design, Quality Assurance and Outreach) for the participants, and help the student to complete it. Please sign up at the contest page and send us your Google account address to google-code-in-admins@lists.wikimedia.org, so we can invite you in!

From my own experience, Google Code-In can be fun, you can make several new friends, attract new people to your wiki and make them part of your community.

If you have any questions, please let us know at google-code-in-admins@lists.wikimedia.org.

Thank you!

--User:Martin Urbanec (talk) 21:59, 23 November 2019 (UTC)

Cambridge University Press

I was wondering if the library would be approving applications for Cambridge University Press anytime in the near future. The email I received from the library implied that the licenses are all taken up, but the page implies that 3/80 are taken up. Just wondering what is going on overall with that process, there is only one source I need right now so I will see if I can get a portion of it at the resource request (though the whole thing would be real helpful :) ). Kees08 (Talk) 02:43, 25 March 2020 (UTC)

@Kees08: The numbers aren't entirely accurate for technical reasons - we're going to be redistributing this access so that folks on the waitlist can get access within the next few weeks, via the new authentication-based access systems. Thanks for sticking with it, RX is probably best if you just need one source right now! Samwalton9 (WMF) (talk) 10:31, 25 March 2020 (UTC)
Great, thanks for the update Sam. I managed to find a few pages so that can get me started. I had been focusing on writing content about US spaceflight during the Space Race, which has plenty of online and offline sources, but have shifted to writing spaceflight articles where source information is more difficult to find. The Wikipedia Library has been an essential tool for this, appreciate the work you all do on it. Side note, I suggested one partner previously (who I have not been successful in contacting), is that something you have a large backlog in or is suggesting additional potential publishers a good idea? Kees08 (Talk) 17:06, 25 March 2020 (UTC)
Please feel free to continue suggesting publishers. We have a backlog that we're planning to dig back into after these technical systems roll out. Samwalton9 (WMF) (talk) 10:35, 26 March 2020 (UTC)

ProQuest availability

Thanks for the heads-up, Sam. Got some useful info into a couple arcane articles from a NYTimes piece today. Carrite (talk) 19:13, 9 June 2020 (UTC)

@Carrite: Glad to hear! How do you find the workflow for accessing New York Times? We had requests for the NYTimes website itself, and while ProQuest has all the content, it's only the plain-text versions and on a separate website. Does that work for you, or would it still be worth us trying to get access to New York Times directly? Samwalton9 (WMF) (talk) 09:09, 10 June 2020 (UTC)

Access denied

Hi, I just became aware of the recent changes to the WP Library, especially with regards to the Library Bundle. I tried to access the Foreign Affairs magazine through the EZproxy but when I clicked on to download the latest issue, the page returns "Access Denied". I was able to download the issues earlier when there were individual applications. Is there any application I need to make? --Zayeem (talk) 13:04, 30 June 2020 (UTC)

@Kmzayeem: That's strange - what's the URL of the page you're looking at? Samwalton9 (WMF) (talk) 13:07, 30 June 2020 (UTC)
This one, the pdf download link for the July/August 2020 issue.--Zayeem (talk) 13:11, 30 June 2020 (UTC)
Ah, yep, looks like the URL to download the PDF isn't being proxied correctly. I've filed a task at T256757 for us to look into this. In the meantime, you can craft the proxied URL manually - in this case it's https://www-foreignaffairs-com.wikipedialibrary.idm.oclc.org/system/files/pdf/2020/99400_1.pdf, which should work. You just need to replace "https://www.foreignaffairs.com/" with "https://www-foreignaffairs-com.wikipedialibrary.idm.oclc.org". This should be happening automatically though, so we'll look into a real fix. Samwalton9 (WMF) (talk) 13:27, 30 June 2020 (UTC)
Oh yes, I just figured. Thanks for your help. --Zayeem (talk) 13:33, 30 June 2020 (UTC)
Hi, while you're at it, just to let you know the same issue persists at Oxford Scholarship Online. When I search for a title, the URL no longer remains proxied in the result. Although I'm not having any trouble in manually changing the URL, so shouldn't be considered a complaint. --Zayeem (talk) 15:55, 3 July 2020 (UTC)
@Kmzayeem: Thanks for letting us know! This is super helpful. I've filed T257190. Samwalton9 (WMF) (talk) 09:33, 6 July 2020 (UTC)
@Kmzayeem: Both of these issues should now be fixed :) Samwalton9 (WMF) (talk) 08:12, 8 July 2020 (UTC)
Wonderful! I just checked and it's working. Thanks. --Zayeem (talk) 15:48, 8 July 2020 (UTC)

Newspapers.com

Any update on my Newspapers.com application? ~EDDY (talk/contribs)~ 14:22, 25 May 2020 (UTC)

ProQuest issue

Hi! I’m on an iPhone 6, almost exclusively using Visual Editor. When I tried to access the library—first off a rather non-intuitive sign-up—it took a long time to load the choices. Then when I clicked on ProQuest it took awhile then I think timed out, the error message said “too many” of something before it gave up. I then rebooted my phone. Gleeanon409 (talk) 12:38, 18 August 2020 (UTC)

@Gleeanon409: Thanks for this information - could you try to access ProQuest again and copy or screenshot the error message you see? That would be super helpful in figuring out what the issue is here. Samwalton9 (WMF) (talk) 12:46, 18 August 2020 (UTC)
Can you give me the link? I’ll try again. Gleeanon409 (talk) 15:11, 18 August 2020 (UTC)
Sure, you click 'Access Collection' under the ProQuest entry at https://wikipedialibrary.wmflabs.org/users/my_library/. Sam Walton (talk) 16:00, 18 August 2020 (UTC)
No photo but - the error message is “too many HTTP redirects; NSURLErrorDomain; Try again”. Hope that helps. Gleeanon409 (talk) 16:31, 18 August 2020 (UTC)
@Gleeanon409: Thanks - I've documented this at T260763. What's the URL of the page you're on when you see the error? 08:43, 19 August 2020 (UTC)
[1]. Gleeanon409 (talk) 14:20, 21 August 2020 (UTC)

2020 United States presidential election

Hello, Sam,

I saw your post about disinformation about the election. I didn't want to send in an email but I'll just pass along that there were a few disruptive IPs editing the Hunter Biden articles about two weeks ago that were located in Moscow. Semi-protection has been put on the pages until Nov. 4th, at the earliest, but I thought the WMF might like to know that editors were aided by the fact that we could see where the IPs were coming from which were posting misinformation. Liz Read! Talk! 03:24, 2 November 2020 (UTC)

@Liz: Thanks for the information! Could you share any diffs or IPs I could take a look at? Samwalton9 (WMF) (talk) 09:17, 2 November 2020 (UTC)

JSTOR access anomaly

Hi Sam

When I look for this article on JSTOR via The Wikipedia Library Bundle, I don't have full access. But when log into JSTOR using the access I was given by the Wikipedia Library a while back, I do have full access to the article. What gives? —Bruce1eetalk 17:31, 13 November 2020 (UTC)

If you're logged into a JSTOR account you can read a certain number of articles for free each month, even if that account has no associated subscription at all. Nikkimaria (talk) 22:12, 13 November 2020 (UTC)
@Nikkimaria: Thanks, that explains it. So the Library Bundle doesn't give us x free articles per month, only what our subscription allows us to see. —Bruce1eetalk 22:26, 13 November 2020 (UTC)

Renewal anxieties - Newspapers.com and ProjectMuse

I finally got an email that my Newspapers.com renewal had been approved, and was told that I'd "receive access details within a week or two once it has been processed" - not ideal, but at least something is in the works.

ProjectMuse - I've been working on something that had relied on a book at ProjectMuse. Worked yesterday. Oh...surprise...I no longer have access. Not through the account I was accessing, nor through our library card platform. How many weeks or months do I wait for this one?

Could be better. — Maile (talk) 13:59, 15 November 2020 (UTC)

@Maile66: Looks like you'll need to submit a renewal for Project Muse too. I totally sympathise with how frustrating this workflow is - we're trying to get as many publishers as possible moved over to the Library Bundle where applications aren't required so that this is less common. @Smmurphy: might know more about expected wait time for Project MUSE. Samwalton9 (WMF) (talk) 11:11, 16 November 2020 (UTC)
@Maile66:, In the recent past ProjectMUSE has said renewals are no longer necessary. I've submitted the most recent batch of applications and included yours (and 3 other renewal applications), asking specifically about them. I expect to hear back within the next day or two. Best, Smmurphy(Talk) 15:04, 19 November 2020 (UTC)
@Smmurphy:, I think there are transition snags as we migrate to the new system, accessing through the library card platform. After I posted above, some person gave me the old access, however long that lasts. However, even through the library card platform, it very clearly states that applications need to be submitted for each access. And even then, not all access is the same. McFarland, for instance, has "Special requirements for applicants - McFarland requires that you specify a particular title that you want to access." How would I know which title I want, if I can't access their site to see what is available to Wikipedia users? I would love McFarland in general, but having to make a separate application for each book is not productive to how Wikipedia editors work. By the time a user gets access, they might have abandoned what they needed the access for. Thanks for everyone's attention to and help of this. — Maile (talk) 15:30, 19 November 2020 (UTC)
@Smmurphy:, this is not going well. Now I'm completely screwed, right in the middle of editing. My subscription to ProjectMuse has now apparently been yanked within sometime this morning. But I can't access it through the Library Card Platform without a completely new application. I had an application out there, but I see that you withdrew it today. So now I have absolutely nothing on Project Muse. Would you people please make up your minds, so I can get on with a project I'm working on? — Maile (talk) 20:38, 19 November 2020 (UTC)
Maile, I'll let Smmurphy answer on the Muse issue, but with McFarland, you can see their titles in the online catalogue linked from the description on the platform. The reason why you can't access McFarland in general is because they're sending out individual ebook files, rather than giving access to an online database. Nikkimaria (talk) 21:38, 19 November 2020 (UTC)
I hope there's a positive answer on ProjectMuse. Right now on the platform, I see it lumped with Questia, which we apparently dumped as a resource. — Maile (talk) 22:55, 19 November 2020 (UTC)
I don't know what is meant by "withdrew", I approved the application on Thursday, sent it in to ProjectMUSE, and have now received responses from MUSE for the batch including Maile66's account. I've now set the status of the application as "Sent to partner" and I've emailed @Maile66: their new(?) account info. Best to all, Smmurphy(Talk) 15:19, 21 November 2020 (UTC)
@Smmurphy: - First of all, I have received my password, and MUSE is working beautifully for me. I seriously love MUSE. Thanks for that. Well, if you don't know what "withdrew" is on my individual applications for, then I'm not going to worry about it. On my platform, there is a page for "My applications", where - at least until now - I had to go to renew when any application expired, say at the end of 12 months. Everything on that page now says "withdrew", so I'm just assuming that's some sort of clean-up that really is not relevant now. Thanks for everything. — Maile (talk) 17:42, 21 November 2020 (UTC)
@Maile66: Glad to hear that's all sorted. The 'Withdraw' text is a button you can use to withdraw an application - I agree it's confusing to see it below 'Sent' applications, because withdrawing those doesn't make much sense. I'll file a new task to see if we can get that tidied up :) Samwalton9 (WMF) (talk) 10:16, 23 November 2020 (UTC)
Filed that at T268449 and pinged the volunteer who implemented the feature. Samwalton9 (WMF) (talk) 10:23, 23 November 2020 (UTC)

Renewal of Newspapers.com subscription

My Newspapers.com subscription apparently has expired. The site shows my account status as: "You're currently a Registered Guest. This free subscription gets you access to search newspapers but you will not be able to view the full page. Get a paid subscription for access." Do I need to do something (other than contacting you), or can you renew the subscription for me? I know that you are busy, but I will appreciate your help. Eddie Blick (talk) 02:24, 29 November 2020 (UTC)

I just realized that I should have mentioned that my Newspapers.com ID is Teblick. If you need any more information, please let me know. Thanks. Eddie Blick (talk) 02:03, 30 November 2020 (UTC)
@Teblick: It looks like you need to renew your account - head over to https://wikipedialibrary.wmflabs.org/users/my_library/, click the Individual Access tab and you should find a Renew or Extend button under Newspapers.com. Samwalton9 (WMF) (talk) 10:50, 30 November 2020 (UTC)
Thanks for the tip. I didn't see Renew or Extend, so I clicked on the Waitlist option. The resulting message says, "There are no access grants available for this partner at this time. You can still apply for access; applications will be processed when access is available." I appreciate your help in pointing me in the right direction. Do you know whether I will be notified when my application is processed, or do I need to just try logging in until I have access again? Eddie Blick (talk) 01:50, 1 December 2020 (UTC)
@Teblick: Ah, I hadn't noticed Newspapers.com was waitlisted. Let me look into that and get back to you, I wasn't aware we had run out of available accounts. Samwalton9 (WMF) (talk) 11:31, 1 December 2020 (UTC)
@Teblick: Looks like that might have been a mistake - you should now find a Renew/Extend button. Samwalton9 (WMF) (talk) 12:49, 1 December 2020 (UTC)
Thanks for looking into that. I found the Extend option on https://wikipedialibrary.wmflabs.org/users/my_applications/417/ and clicked on it. I'm sorry to take up your time in dealing with this situation. Eddie Blick (talk) 16:49, 1 December 2020 (UTC)
@Teblick: No problem at all - this stuff isn't anywhere near as clear as it should be, please feel free to reach out with questions if anything is confusing. Samwalton9 (WMF) (talk) 11:41, 2 December 2020 (UTC)
I appreciate your time and effort and your willingness to help. One good thing about this interruption in my Newspapers.com subscription is that I have delved more into some of the other resources that the WP Library provides. You and others have done much good work in arranging partnerships to provide access to valuable information from many sources! All involved deserve thanks and appreciation from the rest of us. Eddie Blick (talk) 15:04, 2 December 2020 (UTC)
Glad to hear that! We're working on making everything more easily browsable so it's easier to discover that stuff. Thanks for your kind words, I'll pass them on to the team :) Samwalton9 (WMF) (talk) 15:47, 2 December 2020 (UTC)

Next year

Hi Sam! I saw your request on Discord for feedback about things it might be helpful for the library team to work on next year. I don't have much experience with ProveIt (I tried it once and didn't feel like it improved on RefToolbar), but here are some thoughts about things it'd be nice to see improved about references. (I'm not precisely sure what the mandate of your team is, so apologies if some of these are outside your remit):

  • Improving the autofilling functionality of RefToolbar. This includes outlets like Bloomberg that think we're a robot (T210871), as well as tweaks like including wikilinks to outlets with a Wikipedia page when they're filled.
  • Adding more newspapers to the Wikipedia Library in addition to academic sources. Newspapers.com is fantastic, but it doesn't help me get past the paywalls I run into at The Washington Post or The Wall Street Journal while trying to look up a recent obit or relevant news article. It'd be nice to have subscriptions for some of those included.
  • There are also some other ideas for reference improvements at the wishlist. The wishlist team probably won't get to the top one from this year, separating references from body text, but it'd be really nice to see it addressed.

I hope that's helpful! Cheers, {{u|Sdkb}} talk 06:30, 13 February 2021 (UTC)

Thanks for your thoughts Sdkb! Regarding RefToolbar, have you tried Citoid in VE/New Wikitext editor? I'm not sure how much of a priority something like RefToolbar will be given that it's for the older editor.
That wish is definitely something I'd like to see. An idea I've been playing around with is a kind of bibliography pane like you see in most modern text editors (Google Docs, Word, EndNote) - you could then collapse all the references within the editor and enable editing them from that interface instead of directly amongst the page source. It could also then be a platform on which to build other functionality for working with a page's references. Just an idea at this point but would appreciate your thoughts :) Samwalton9 (WMF) (talk) 13:58, 16 February 2021 (UTC)
I haven't used VE/New Wikitext citations that much. I think they might use Citoid just as RefToolbar does, though (and if not, the functionality probably ought to be merged). In any case, I hope the WMF isn't totally giving up on support for the wikitext editor, as it's still the tool used by the strong majority of more experienced editors, and for good reason.
A bibliography pane sounds like it'd be very neat! Getting it to work well for citation styles beyond CS1 might be tricky, though, so if you want to pursue that, it might be helpful to pay attention to efforts to further standardize referencing, such as the recent deprecation of the inline parenthetical style, and to let us know where such efforts might help. {{u|Sdkb}} talk 22:54, 16 February 2021 (UTC)

Progress?

Hi, Sam! I was wondering what became of this endeavor? The paywalls are growing exponentially, forcing users to resort to using browser extensions like Fairshare to bypass some of the paywalls. I can't figure out why the top-rated news sources would not cooperate with TWL because citations serve to drive more traffic to their respective sites. ??? Atsme 💬 📧 10:12, 17 February 2021 (UTC)

Hi Atsme - just to clarify which part of 'this endeavor' you're referring to, are you looking for access to the kinds of news sources I listed there? If so, they should be available to you via our partnership with ProQuest. This requires searching for the news items you need on ProQuest, rather than gaining access on each of the news sites' individual websites, but you should access. Please let me know if any of those don't seem to be turning up for you and I can investigate. Samwalton9 (WMF) (talk) 14:07, 18 February 2021 (UTC)
Ok, I went to ProQuest, and they want a login. Wikipedia doesn't show up in the search. Should I be holding my mouth a certain way in order to access that site? As for this Phabricator link my response is ???. Atsme 💬 📧 15:07, 18 February 2021 (UTC)
@Atsme: Wikipedia Library content is accessed via the Library Card. If you log in there you should be able to navigate to My Library and find ProQuest listed among the available databases. Clicking 'access collection' will take you through our proxy server which should grant you full access to the collections available to us. Samwalton9 (WMF) (talk) 10:05, 19 February 2021 (UTC)
Oh, and the Phab board moved since I sent that message. It's now located here. Samwalton9 (WMF) (talk) 10:05, 19 February 2021 (UTC)
Perfect - I'm in at ProQuest! Thank you! Unfortunately, I'm lost as to the purpose of the phabricator link. Where can I ketchup on the details of what & why? Orange you glad I'm not one of those silly editors? Happy editing! Atsme 💬 📧 11:33, 19 February 2021 (UTC)

I now have used the Library!

Hi Sam,

I now was able to enter one library. With the very best regards,

Paradise Chronicle (talk) 21:50, 1 March 2021 (UTC)

Checking in

Hi again! Have you gotten any updates or responses to your email about Springer shareable links? Thanks again for your help. Best, Tyrone Madera (talk) 23:39, 15 July 2021 (UTC)

@Tyrone Madera: Nothing yet - will follow up :) Sam Walton (talk) 09:12, 16 July 2021 (UTC)
Samwalton9, Thanks :) Tyrone Madera (talk) 19:31, 16 July 2021 (UTC)
Samwalton9, Any luck? Best, Tyrone Madera (talk) 19:48, 28 July 2021 (UTC)
@Tyrone Madera: Unfortunately not. Samwalton9 (WMF) (talk) 09:15, 29 July 2021 (UTC)
Samwalton9 (WMF), Oh well, thanks for trying :) Tyrone Madera (talk) 20:45, 29 July 2021 (UTC)

Appreciation for the New Feature

The search bar is pretty good. Thanks. DMT Biscuit (talk) 21:12, 7 October 2021 (UTC)

No problem DMT Biscuit - I'll pass your appreciation on to the team. I'm glad you're finding it useful! Samwalton9 (WMF) (talk) 13:51, 8 October 2021 (UTC)

Proquest Historical Newspapers

Can you negotiate with Proquest to have us access Times of India in their "Historical Newspapers Collection"? Will be a great aid for anybody interested in S. Asia. TrangaBellam (talk) 09:07, 11 October 2021 (UTC)

@TrangaBellam: We've asked ProQuest about expanding Historical Newspapers a few times but haven't been able to make much progress. I've pinged again so I'll let you know what happens! Samwalton9 (WMF) (talk) 09:20, 12 October 2021 (UTC)
Thanks for all that you do. TrangaBellam (talk) 09:54, 12 October 2021 (UTC)

WPL & find sources

Hello, Samwalton9 (WMF). You have new messages at Module talk:Find_sources#Wikipedia library.
Message added Mathglot (talk) 20:25, 29 October 2021 (UTC). You can remove this notice at any time by removing the {{Talkback}} or {{Tb}} template.

Brill

Is there anyway I could get access to Brill published books and reference works, especially "Encyclopedia Of Islam"? Thanks, VR talk 05:50, 30 December 2021 (UTC)

@Vice regent: We previously had a partnership with Brill but unfortunately our contact person there left and no one else was interested in talking with us. It's on our list of priorities so hopefully we can get them back in the library :) Samwalton9 (WMF) (talk) 11:28, 4 January 2022 (UTC)

Project specific libraries

Hi Samwhalton09, I have thought a lot on contacting you. I would appreciate if there would be a project specific library for each project where one can add accessible links to the books like here and here or here I have done so for the Kurdish area for myself, but I could add more to other projects. But there is no project related library with online accessible books to be found in the projects I looked or at least I didn't find one. An article specific library for monographs and articles of WP:RS on the subject at the article talk page would be nice, too.Paradise Chronicle (talk) 22:43, 25 January 2022 (UTC)

@Paradise Chronicle: This is a nice idea. We don't currently have the capacity to build anything like this, but I think it could be helpful :) Samwalton9 (WMF) (talk) 08:57, 26 January 2022 (UTC)
But could I have your approval if I'd add one discussion header with recommended sources, or something similar? Paradise Chronicle (talk) 13:09, 26 January 2022 (UTC)
@Paradise Chronicle: You're very welcome to write such a list on-wiki, though direct links to PDFs accessible through the library aren't likely to be accessible to users who aren't eligible. Please don't upload the PDFs elsewhere and link to them, as this would be a violation of the terms of service. Samwalton9 (WMF) (talk) 13:23, 26 January 2022 (UTC)
Yes, I meant to add links accessible to Wikipedia editors also without access to the Wikipedia library. I'll start and see where it leads to. Paradise Chronicle (talk) 15:01, 26 January 2022 (UTC)

Mobile interface

Hallo Sam, I've struggled to find the conversation on Meta again, where you asked about my experiences with editing on mobile, so having now found it will reply to you here as being my natural habitat. I'm on laptop as I type but will try to save some screenshots on mobile to demonstrate the problems, or possibly do an editing session there while making notes here. Need to do some RL stuff today but I'll get back to you. PamD 07:35, 12 April 2022 (UTC)

I see I wasn't the only editor struggling to find that Meta conversation, so I'll park the link here: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Community_Wishlist_Survey_2022/Mobile_and_apps/Show_editnotices_on_mobile#Share_your_thoughts_on_feature_improvements_to_content_moderation_via_mobile_web PamD 07:40, 12 April 2022 (UTC)
@PamD No problem - I look forward to hearing back from you :) Samwalton9 (WMF) (talk) 07:51, 12 April 2022 (UTC)
I can't work out how to capture a screenshot on newish phone (Samsung Galaxy A12), hence haven',t got back. I sometimes get a grotty version when looking for a different, sometimes am offered "view" rather than edit, can't see page title if I've followed a link (particularly annoying if it's to a talk page section where the topic under discussion is only mentioned in section heading ) etc. PamD 13:25, 26 April 2022 (UTC)

Wikipedia Library going viral

​221k views on TikTok. Congrats! {{u|Sdkb}} talk 05:08, 10 June 2022 (UTC)

@Sdkb: Very cool, thanks for the link! Samwalton9 (WMF) (talk) 08:53, 14 June 2022 (UTC)
And now on Twitter! {{u|Sdkb}} talk 14:17, 19 July 2022 (UTC)
Ha, thanks Sdkb! Samwalton9 (WMF) (talk) 14:24, 19 July 2022 (UTC)

Oxford Academic Journals

Obiviously, there's been a switch up with the site and upon returning I notice our - or at least my - access to their journals has ceased. Is this a glitch or an intentional decision - has it been chosen to not renew that aspect of the subscription? No demands being made just interested in any answer. DMT Biscuit (talk) 23:15, 4 August 2022 (UTC)

I came to say this. TrangaBellam (talk) 12:38, 6 August 2022 (UTC)
@DMT Biscuit and TrangaBellam: Thanks for letting me know - this is on our radar and we've contacted Oxford University Press to see if we can resolve the issue. Samwalton9 (WMF) (talk) 12:00, 8 August 2022 (UTC)
Also, what do you think about T314780? It occurs to me we should do more to tell users when there are access issues for specific collections. Samwalton9 (WMF) (talk) 12:04, 8 August 2022 (UTC)
Will take a look. Btw, you need to create a new panel for Oxford Academic that will subsume Oxford Journals and Oxford Scholarship Online.
On an aside, any plans for bundling Noormag and EPW? TrangaBellam (talk) 15:40, 8 August 2022 (UTC)
@TrangaBellam: I'll take a look into merging those Oxford collections. In terms of Noormags and EPW, I don't think either of these publishers can support proxy-based access, which the bundle requires, so unfortunately not for now. Samwalton9 (WMF) (talk) 08:20, 9 August 2022 (UTC)
Thanks! Noormags support Proxy based access. TrangaBellam (talk) 09:19, 9 August 2022 (UTC)
Oh! Then we will have to look in to that :) Samwalton9 (WMF) (talk) 10:23, 9 August 2022 (UTC)

Help with The Wikipedia Library

Hello Sam, can you help me with this issue, I accessed TWL for the first time today, and they told me your Wikipedia account doesn’t currently qualify to access The Wikipedia Library, citing that it looks like you have an active block on your account. You can check my en.wiki block log, my only block was lifted in June 2019 after six hours. If I'm blocked on some other wiki, I am not aware of it. Thank you in advance. starship.paint (exalt) 14:26, 12 August 2022 (UTC)

@Starship.paint: It looks like you have a username block on Indonesian Wikipedia. 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) 14:33, 12 August 2022 (UTC)
Thank you very much Sam, I can confirm that I have access to TWL now, and appreciate that you found the strange other wiki block. Cheers and hope you have a good weekend. starship.paint (exalt) 14:46, 12 August 2022 (UTC)

Wikipedia Library

I would like to use Wikipedia Library to access some information in a book that cannot be found anywhere else, but I am blocked on two other wikis. I will get unblocked, but it is a complicated situation and will likely take a while. So, in the meantime, could I be given an exemption? – Ilovemydoodle (talk) 12:27, 18 August 2022 (UTC)

(talk page stalker) "Complicated situation" is rather an innovative way of awareing people that you got indefinitely blocked on English Wikitionary for vandalism and trolling, and here (at en-wiki) for disruption. I went though your global contributions and there is not the remotest indicator of you being ever involved in writing articles of any kind in any wiki. TrangaBellam (talk) 13:26, 18 August 2022 (UTC)
@TrangaBellam: I was not blocked indefinitely, I did not troll, and I did not vandalize. The "complicated situation" referred to a different wiki entirely. – Ilovemydoodle (talk) 13:56, 18 August 2022 (UTC)

A request

Hi Sam,

We have posted an open letter to the Foundation and Board of Trustees. It concerns the development of MediaWiki extensions and needs the personal attention of all concerned developers and managers. Please see it at:

Wikipedia:New_pages_patrol/Coordination/2022_WMF_letter

Your comments are welcome. Many thanks.

Kind regards,

On behalf of the English Wikipedia Community

Kudpung กุดผึ้ง (talk) 10:26, 22 September 2022 (UTC)

A barnstar for you!

The Technical Barnstar
Thanks for all you and your team do. — Ixtal ( T / C ) ⁂ Non nobis solum. 15:40, 17 April 2023 (UTC)
@Ixtal Thank you :) Samwalton9 (WMF) (talk) 19:19, 17 April 2023 (UTC)

New Page Patrol – May 2023 Backlog Drive

New Page Patrol | May 2023 Backlog Drive
  • On 1 May, a one-month backlog drive for New Page Patrol will begin.
  • Barnstars will be awarded based on the number of redirects patrolled and for maintaining a streak throughout the drive.
  • Article patrolling is not part of the drive.
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  • There is a possibility that the drive may not run if there are <20 registered participants. Participants will be notified if this is the case.
You're receiving this message because you are a new page patroller. To opt out of future mailings, please remove yourself here.

MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 17:12, 20 April 2023 (UTC)

Vandalism on new article

Here's the text of an exchange from the Wikipedia talk:New pages patrol/Reviewers if you wish to comment. Smallchief (talk) 19:05, 28 April 2023 (UTC)

"Earlier today I created a new article List of New Mexico counties by socioeconomic factors. Looking at it on the New Pages feed I see it is tagged "Vandalism." What is that about? Whatever it is, I don't like the implication that this article is a product of vandalism.Smallchief (talk) 17:22, 28 April 2023 (UTC)

That's odd. I'm not sure what the software is interpreting as vandalism in that article. However, please be aware that that is an automated rating, not something a human did. ~ ONUnicorn(Talk|Contribs)problem solving 18:22, 28 April 2023 (UTC)
I'm wondering if the thing is detecting references to race and ethnicity and basing the "Potential issues: Vandalism" tag on that? Samwalton9 (WMF) has been doing some work on the page curation tool, maybe he knows more about how that gets generated. ~ ONUnicorn(Talk|Contribs)problem solving 18:26, 28 April 2023 (UTC)
Thanks for the replies. I'm glad to know it's a bot rather than a human judgement. Maybe I'll communicate with Walton on this. Smallchief (talk) 18:56, 28 April 2023 (UTC)"

You've got mail

Hello, Samwalton9 (WMF). Please check your email; you've got mail!
It may take a few minutes from the time the email is sent for it to show up in your inbox. You can remove this notice at any time by removing the {{You've got mail}} or {{ygm}} template.Doug Weller talk 07:32, 27 May 2023 (UTC)

New pages patrol needs your help!

New pages awaiting review as of June 30th, 2023.

Hello Samwalton9 (WMF),

The New Page Patrol team is sending you this impromptu message to inform you of a steeply rising backlog of articles needing review. If you have any extra time to spare, please consider reviewing one or two articles each day to help lower the backlog. You can start reviewing by visiting Special:NewPagesFeed. Thank you very much for your help.

Reminders:

Sent by Zippybonzo using MediaWiki message delivery at 06:59, 1 July 2023 (UTC)

AFilter account

  • phab:T53837 is a security bug; phab:T160666 is for some of the more general problems. A partial workaround may be to just define a "page" (e.g. MediaWiki:automoderator-page) that points to something generic like Project:Automoderator page (those can be localized). And then when doing things like "signing" posts use that as the username; perhaps even just redirect user:automoderator (or whatever) to the value in MediaWiki:automoderator-page. You'll have to get in to those phab tickets for more tech details. User:Roan Kattouw (WMF) is the author of the first one if you need access. — xaosflux Talk 15:58, 30 August 2023 (UTC)
    Thanks @Xaosflux - very helpful! Samwalton9 (WMF) (talk) 16:26, 30 August 2023 (UTC)
    Also, if this is going to be an outside-in type of tool (meaning it runs somewhere else, likely using the editapi) it will likely need to be a normal "account", subject to blocking, locking, etc. It would need to run as an extension or in core to be a system account for most cases. You'll want to explore the different authentication schemes and review how you will deal with access management to the underlying credential. — xaosflux Talk 17:31, 30 August 2023 (UTC)

New page patrol October 2023 Backlog drive

New Page Patrol | October 2023 Backlog Drive
  • On 1 October, a one-month backlog drive for New Page Patrol will begin.
  • Barnstars will be awarded based on the number of articles and redirects patrolled.
  • Barnstars will also be granted for re-reviewing articles previously reviewed by other patrollers during the drive.
  • Articles will earn 3x as many points compared to redirects.
  • Interested in taking part? Sign up here.
You're receiving this message because you are a new page patroller. To opt-out of future mailings, please remove yourself here.

MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 09:14, 9 September 2023 (UTC)

New pages patrol newsletter

Hello Samwalton9 (WMF),

New Page Review article queue, March to September 2023

Backlog update: At the time of this message, there are 11,300 articles and 15,600 redirects awaiting review. This is the highest backlog in a long time. Please help out by doing additional reviews!

October backlog elimination drive: A one-month backlog drive for October will start in one week! Barnstars will be awarded based on the number of articles and redirects patrolled. Articles will earn 4x as many points compared to redirects. You can sign up here.

PageTriage code upgrades: Upgrades to the PageTriage code, initiated by the NPP open letter in 2022 and actioned by the WMF Moderator Tools Team in 2023, are ongoing. More information can be found here. As part of this work, the Special:NewPagesFeed now has a new version in beta! The update leaves the NewPagesFeed appearance and function mostly identical to the old one, but updates the underlying code, making it easier to maintain and helping make sure the extension is not decommissioned due to maintenance issues in the future. You can try out the new Special:NewPagesFeed here - it will replace the current version soon.

Notability tip: Professors can meet WP:PROF #1 by having their academic papers be widely cited by their peers. When reviewing professor articles, it is a good idea to find their Google Scholar or Scopus profile and take a look at their h-index and number of citations. As a very rough rule of thumb, for most fields, articles on people with a h-index of twenty or more, a first-authored paper with more than a thousand citations, or multiple papers each with more than a hundred citations are likely to be kept at AfD.

Reviewing tip: If you would like like a second opinion on your reviews or simply want another new page reviewer by your side when patrolling, we recommend pair reviewing! This is where two reviewers use Discord voice chat and screen sharing to communicate with each other while reviewing the same article simultaneously. This is a great way to learn and transfer knowledge.

Reminders:

MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 16:46, 22 September 2023 (UTC)

November Articles for creation backlog drive

Hello Samwalton9 (WMF):

WikiProject Articles for creation is holding a month long Backlog Drive!
The goal of this drive is to reduce the backlog of unreviewed drafts to less than 2 months outstanding reviews from the current 4+ months. Bonus points will be given for reviewing drafts that have been waiting more than 30 days. The drive is running from 1 November 2023 through 30 November 2023.

You may find Category:AfC pending submissions by age or other categories and sorting helpful.

Barnstars will be given out as awards at the end of the drive.

There is a backlog of over 1000 pages, so start reviewing drafts. We're looking forward to your help! MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 13:24, 31 October 2023 (UTC)

New pages patrol January 2024 Backlog drive

New Page Patrol | January 2024 Articles Backlog Drive
  • On 1 January 2024, a one-month backlog drive for New Page Patrol will begin.
  • Barnstars will be awarded based on the number of articles patrolled.
  • Barnstars will also be granted for re-reviewing articles previously reviewed by other patrollers during the drive.
  • Each review will earn 1 point.
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You're receiving this message because you are a new page patroller. To opt-out of future mailings, please remove yourself here.

MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 02:10, 20 December 2023 (UTC)

Wikipedia Library, Unpaywall, and your email address

Why would a link from a Wikipedia Library search end in an email to you? I started to click on an open-access link, and noticed that after going to Unpaywall, it ended in your email address: https://eds.s.ebscohost.com [long encoded html] ?email=swalton@wikimedia.org. BlackcurrantTea (talk) 17:53, 23 December 2023 (UTC)

Probably because it's part of the API call. Nikkimaria (talk) 18:07, 23 December 2023 (UTC)
I see. I would have expected general office email would be used for that, e.g. 'wmlibrary@wikimedia.org'. It seems a bit strange to link the address of one person to what might be the requests of hundreds of editors. Thanks for the answer. BlackcurrantTea (talk) 21:15, 24 December 2023 (UTC)
@BlackcurrantTea Thanks for pointing this out, I wasn't aware! We'll look into changing this to our team email. Samwalton9 (WMF) (talk) 12:52, 8 January 2024 (UTC)
Changed :) Samwalton9 (WMF) (talk) 13:09, 8 January 2024 (UTC)

newspapers.com

The proxied site (www-newspapers-com.wikipedialibrary.idm.oclc.org) seems to be having issues; loading the site gives the Cloudflare "Checking if the site connection is secure" message and you never get through to the site. Also had theleekycauldron check and it gives them the same issue, so it isn't just a problem on my end. Elli (talk | contribs) 03:29, 28 January 2024 (UTC)

@Elli Sorry for the delay in responding - I've been out ill for the past few days. It looks like this issue should now be resolved, could you take a look and confirm? Samwalton9 (WMF) (talk) 11:09, 1 February 2024 (UTC)
Yeah, it's working now. Hope you feel better :) Elli (talk | contribs) 15:11, 1 February 2024 (UTC)

Newspapers.com...

Hey Sam,

It seems like I was never able to regain access to Newspapers.com after the recent service issue. I do not get the Cloudflare message anymore. However, wether I go directly to https://www-newspapers-com.wikipedialibrary.idm.oclc.org/ or attempt to access it through WP:LIBRARY, it does not let me log on, so I can't clip any articles. Might there be something funky going on with my account, or is there something I'm doing wrong? Appreciate you, JTtheOG (talk) 18:41, 5 February 2024 (UTC)

@JTtheOG Can you describe the steps you're taking and what error message, if any you're seeing? Samwalton9 (WMF) (talk) 13:04, 6 February 2024 (UTC)
Yes, of course. I'll go to WP:LIBRARY and click the link that takes me here. Sometimes I'll log out and back in at this point just for good measure. I'll click the Access Collection button and it takes me to https://www-newspapers-com.wikipedialibrary.idm.oclc.org/, but I am logged out of Newspapers.com and can't seem to log in using my WP login. If I try to clip something it says I need to register. JTtheOG (talk) 19:50, 6 February 2024 (UTC)
Did you already have a Newspapers.com account from prior to this new access of method? You may find that you can't register a new one while proxied, so you can go directly to https://newspapers.com, register an account, and then log in with that. If this doesn't work please let me know specifically what issue you're having when attempting to log in. Samwalton9 (WMF) (talk) 15:18, 7 February 2024 (UTC)
Yes, I had one for a few months before receiving full access through WP:LIBRARY. Do you mean to create a whole new account? I'm not very clear on this. JTtheOG (talk) 19:24, 14 February 2024 (UTC)
@JTtheOG Ah nevermind, that was if you didn't already have one. You should be able to log in to your old account while at https://www-newspapers-com.wikipedialibrary.idm.oclc.org/ - if that doesn't work please let me know what error messages you're seeing. Samwalton9 (WMF) (talk) 12:16, 15 February 2024 (UTC)
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