On 12/15/06, MacGyverMagic/Mgm <macgyvermagic(a)gmail.com> wrote:
I remember a post way back about what the Wikimedia Foundation should do
in
case it receives a large grant or donation.
For the past few days I've been collecting data for a number of new
articles, and I realized how lucky I am.
A lot of people don't have access to things like Pubmed and LexisNexis
and
those are particularly useful in citing articles.
Buying a set of books and making their contents available is nice, but
still
growing databases of information are more useful, especially now we
should
focus more on sources instead of new content as Jimbo said at the
Wikimania
conference. As soon as I finish my study, my access to those databases
will
cease to exist. I don't know the numbers, but perhaps a number of
Wikipedians, say those in a referencing taskforce, should get access to
such
services with the help of the foundation...
Mgm
One note -- for those who don't know, PubMed (in a slightly less fancy
version) is free!
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi
it's pretty much *the* database to go to for medical research information,
at least for English speakers. Agricola and Eric, for agriculture and
education respectively, are also large U.S. government-produced databases
and are also free:
http://agricola.nal.usda.gov/
and
http://www.eric.ed.gov/
Sadly, Lexis-Nexis and most other commercially-produced research databases
are very very very unfree (and take up the bulk of your library's purchasing
budget, generally).
I think trying to provide source access is a great side project for the
foundation. However, there's a bit of a problem. Most databases like this
are priced based on the size of the potential user base -- e.g., a school
with 50,000 students will pay more than a school with 3000 students; a large
law firm pays more than a small one. Now someone just has to figure out a
good formula for the size of the potential user base for WMF-sponsored
databases... (or a way to restrict the user base to a reasonable number)
:) In the meantime, I and others with access will help when we can:
[[Wikipedia:Newspapers and magazines request service]]
-- phoebe
And, of course, having access to a database doesn't necessarily provide
access to the actual full-text of the article or paper itself, just the
citation. Only a handful of databases are full-text, and they tend to not be
the most specialized ones.
Throwing our collective support behind open-access publications and
initiatives is one way to go, but it doesn't solve the problem of getting
contributors good sources *now.* I urge people again to take advantage of
their libraries, and to make sure your library knows what you need as a
researcher.
-- phoebe