Michael Billington wrote:
However, whilst lists of Australian, German or US (and more) topics are mostly blue links, there are lists populated almost entirely by red links, such as [[List of Sudanese singers]]. Unfortunately, very few or no reliable sources will probably be found to warrant articles about these singers (at least not on the internet), and the only way to get coverage of a large portion of them would be through original research (which we can't do obviously), or to find print sources. So does anyone on this mailing list happen to have access to archives for a Sudanese newspaper?
Larger libraries pride themselves on extensive newspaper subscriptions, anybody in Boston or London should have no problem finding Sudanese papers. I note this particular list is itself unsourced, so there's no way to tell whether the people are articleworthy, even in Sudan.
It's still the case that I can go to my smallish university library, pick a random volume about an obscure country, and find it covering hundreds of topics not mentioned anywhere in WP. If the information is literally sitting on a shelf downtown being ignored, I don't think we're anywhere close to worrying about oral histories and storing interviews - it's more a matter of getting people to use the books that already exist. And on that note, I have three new books to start working from...
Stan