On 3/20/07, Andrew Gray <shimgray(a)gmail.com> wrote:
On 20/03/07, Andrew Gray <shimgray(a)gmail.com>
wrote:
>
> But the thing is... why not just say
>
> Jean Justice. "Le Crime de la Route A6". Laffont, 1968.
>
> Not everything has to have a weblink next to it... why does it need to
> be "verified"? All that does is confirm the purported source exists;
> it doesn't actually give us any help in confirming the content of the
> source.
Why do ISBNs and ISSNs have check digits? Wikipedia's citations needs
to be verified because there is no other way to visually differentiate
between
Jean Justice. "Le Crime de la Route A6". Laffont, 1968.
and
Jean Justic. "Le Crime". Laffont, 1968.
Having the ability to verify works means volunteers can chase down the
ones that look a little sketchy. And rapidly double check the ones
that do have the linkies.
> If you want better metadata than the fragment on
the Amazon site, you
> can get it out of the BNF catalogue easily enough - it took me, with
> my patchy French, two minutes to find...
>
> Jean Justice. Le Crime de la route A6 [Texte imprimé][″Murder versus
> murder″]. Traduction et présentation de Claude Mourthé. - Paris : R.
> Laffont, 1968. - In-16 (20 cm), 343 p., carte, pl., couv. ill. 19,50
> F. [D. L. 2867-68].
>
> ...but you can't give it a fixed URL, so I guess it may as well not
> exist. Catalogue number is FRBNF33059758 ;-)
While I do find the link to Amazon useful, my reasoning for using ASIN
for works without another identifier is simply that it is useful to
add catalogue identifiers to every citation and reference work in
order to assist others that use the raw wikipedia data as input to
other projects (e.g. librarything). The reality is that most people
dont know about WorldCat, wont bother trying to use the LOC search,
and definitely will be confused by our LOC templates. They will on the
other hand add an ISBN or ASIN if it is sitting right in front of
them, and our newer contributors will be mighty chuffed with
themselves when they manage to add an Amazon link correctly. Learn to
love the bomb.
{{ASIN}} allows all ASINs to be placed into
[[Special:Whatlinkshere/Template:ASIN]] or a category if that becomes
necessary. This allows others who care more for the utility of the
these citations, beyond mere reading pleasure, to replace them with
the an appropriate identifier where possible.
I see the ASIN template primarily as a way of classifying citations
and the articles they sit on. I would expect that the [[WP:FACT]]
project would endeavour to remove any ASIN from an article before it
hit the front page. If {{ASIN}} become over-used (its been hovering
between 50-100 for a while), they could plough through them in a
clean-up exercise.
If we end up with a large number of ASINs that cant be replaced with a
better identifier, a repository like WorldCat may come along and
create verified records for them all, simply because they are used on
Wikipedia.
Back to the ASIN B0000DQ7SP; as far as I can tell, there is only one
online catalogue that has this work listed at present. People are far
more likely to click on an ASIN than they are to ask a librarian about
the book. A bit of babelfish and this ASIN lets me know there is a
good chance that this work has photographs in it.
As an aside, this ASIN entry on amazon.fr is definitely not primarily
for the purpose of generating revenue; it may not be philanthropic,
but it is a public service.
Any call to not link to ASINs because it *may* have incorrect data
should bear in mind that people link to Wikipedia in spite of the
same possible problem. WorldCat also has problems. I don't have much
experience with LOC but I'm sure they have problems too. By linking
to any/all of these resources discrepancies can be easily spotted, and
enquiring minds will usually do some digging and we can expect that
all of these external resources will become more accurate over time.
Also, I feel the need to make a slightly odd objection
here - why are
we citing an English work *and* citing its French translation? Does
the latter contain more information?
My guess is it has been put on the enwiki to ensure all works about
the subject are listed, or perhaps in preparation for a French
translation of the English article.
--
John