I understand where you are coming from Mike, but I'm a bit stumped by it at the same time. Do you apply the same logic to editors using expensive print books they happen to have access through to some sort of connection or other privilege? I often think about this in the opposite way, wrestling information from behind paywalls into the open, I don't know how I feel about anything that would discourage that.

On Wed, 26 Jan 2022 at 17:49, Mike Peel <email@mikepeel.net> wrote:
Hi all,

While the Wikipedia Library is definitely great at providing editors
resources to find more information to Wikipedia articles - it does also
have the drawback that it makes it much harder for readers to verify
that information. It can even cause problems for other editors who
haven't opted to join it, when they are working on the same articles as
those that have.

Have the issues this creates for readers been documented/discussed
somewhere by the Wikipedia Library team? Do the tools point towards
where the information might be publicly available outside of the
Library? (I've seen some references being added that I could find
publicly available through some googling.)

I can't complain too much about this, since it's sadly generally how the
world works - particularly coming from the academic side where I don't
even see most journal paywalls from my work internet connection.
However, I think it's also important to have a balanced viewpoint here,
particularly since we're much more on the side of open access than
encouraging links to closed access resources.

Thanks,
Mike

On 24/1/22 15:39:43, Todd Allen wrote:
> Excellent work. Thanks to all who worked on this project and made it happen.
>
> Todd
>
> On Wed, Jan 19, 2022 at 10:10 AM Sam Walton <swalton@wikimedia.org
> <mailto:swalton@wikimedia.org>> wrote:
>
>     Hi all,
>
>     We've just published a blog post summarising the new features and
>     functionality available to active Wikipedia editors in The Wikipedia
>     Library:
>     https://diff.wikimedia.org/2022/01/19/the-wikipedia-library-accessing-free-reliable-sources-is-now-easier-than-ever/
>     <https://diff.wikimedia.org/2022/01/19/the-wikipedia-library-accessing-free-reliable-sources-is-now-easier-than-ever/>
>
>     The Wikipedia Library is a tool providing active Wikipedia editors
>     with free access to otherwise-paywalled resources, including
>     journals, books, newspapers, magazines, and databases. Over the past
>     5-10 years the library has built up a large collection of content
>     from a wide range of publishers.
>
>     In the past couple of years we've been finalising the centralised
>     Wikipedia Library tool used for accessing all this content:
>     https://wikipedialibrary.wmflabs.org/
>     <https://wikipedialibrary.wmflabs.org/>. I'm really pleased to
>     announce that we've finished work on some long-requested and planned
>     features which make it really simple to use!
>
>     The library now has:
>
>       * Proxy-based authentication for direct access of resources
>         without a secondary login
>       * A centralised search feature for browsing multiple collections
>         from one place
>       * An on-wiki notification to let editors know about the library
>         when they have crossed the eligibility threshold (rolling out in
>         stages throughout January)
>
>     As the project I first joined the Wikimedia Foundation to work on
>     years ago I'm personally thrilled that we've finally been able to
>     deploy all these features!
>
>     If you're eligible to use the library (500+ edits, 6+ months
>     editing) you can jump in and start using the library straight away.
>     We're now working on expanding and diversifying the content
>     available in the library, so let us know on the suggestions page if
>     there are collections you want us to make available:
>     https://wikipedialibrary.wmflabs.org/suggest/
>     <https://wikipedialibrary.wmflabs.org/suggest/>
>
>     If the tool isn't currently localised into your language, you can
>     translate it on TranslateWiki:
>     https://translatewiki.net/wiki/Translating:Wikipedia_Library_Card_Platform
>     <https://translatewiki.net/wiki/Translating:Wikipedia_Library_Card_Platform>
>
>     We're planning to host some Office Hours, which will be a chance to
>     get a walkthrough of how to use the library, as well as discuss your
>     research needs and requests for new collections with the team. Look
>     out for more on that in the coming weeks.
>
>     --
>     Sam Walton
>     Product Manager, The Wikipedia Library
>
>     swalton@wikimedia.org
>
>     <mailto:swalton@wikimedia.org>
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