Hello Wikisourcerers,
I would like to present a digital library catalogue built for Wikisource
named Sangkalak <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q123617697> (in Bangla
সংকলক), which you can find here - https://sangkalak.toolforge.org . This
tool was primarily built for Bangla Wikisource back in 2023 as a Wikidata's
birthday gift
<https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:Eleventh_Birthday/Presents> and is
widely used in that project since then. It was previously presented at the GLAM
Wiki Conference 2023
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/GLAM_Wiki_2023/Program/Wikisource_and_Wikid…!>
and Wikisource Conference 2025
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikisource_Conference_2025/Submissions/Wiki…!>.
After a presentation at the recent Wikidata and sister projects
<https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Event:Wikidata_and_Sister_Projects> online
event, it was decided to make this tool available for other languages
Wikisources as well and hence it can be used by any language Wikisource
communities from now, if they wish. However, as it was primarily built for
the Bangla community, the default interface language shall be Bangla.
You can search the books using 5 parameters like title, author, translator,
editor and publisher using 4 functions i.e. contains, exact match, starts
with and ends with along with and/or operators. You can query as many times
as possible using these parameters, functions and operators by simply
adding new lines. After querying for results, you can sub-filter the
results again for authors, translators, editors, publishers, places of
publication, dates of publication, forms, genres and main subjects at the
left sidebar. The tool provides the option to get permanent links, so that
you can use them on Wikisource and elsewhere. The tool can be accessed from
mobile also.
The tool is dependent on Wikidata based query and strictly follows the FRBR
data model described at Wikidata:Books
<https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:WikiProject_Books>. So, if any
Wikisource community is correctly storing the descriptive metadata on
Wikidata following this page, their books can be searched in this
catalogue. Please note that, if the data model is not followed properly on
Wikidata, the books may not come in results, for which you can resolve
constraint violations in those relevant items, as necessary.
The tool only queries for those items which use P1957
<https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Property:P1957>. If any item has a sitelink
to Wikisource, the tool links to the corresponding Wikisource main
namespace and gives options to export the books with PDF, Mobi and Epub
formats using the WS-export tool. If the sitelinks have proofread and
validated badges, it displays them. If the item does not have a sitelink to
Wikisource, it links to the index namespaces. The tool also displays QR
codes for mobile users. Support for OPDS
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Publication_Distribution_System> is
underway.
The interface languages of the tool are currently Bangla and English.
However, if you want this tool to be available in your language, you can
translate the strings in the json file attached below, save it and send it
back to us, so that we can include them in the code.
I would like to specially thank Mahir Morshed who has been developing this
tool in his volunteer capacity.
Regards,
Bodhisattwa
Hello everyone,
I'm excited to invite you to the 32nd edition of the DCW Conversation Hour,
featuring Abbad Diraneyya, a long-time Wikimedian, writer, and advocate for
open knowledge. Active in the Wikimedia movement since 2009. He has
authored *The Story of Wikipedia in Arabic*, a Creative Commons–licensed
work that documents the growth of Arabic free knowledge online and is
currently building expertise as a Conversational AI Designer.
In this session, we will explore how artificial intelligence is reshaping
knowledge production and consumption, the risks of AI hallucinations, and
the urgent need for robust fact-checking. Drawing on his experiences across
Wikimedia, authorship, knowledge strategy, and AI design, Abbad will guide
us through critical questions on how communities can safeguard knowledge
integrity in the age of AI.
The Conversation Hour is scheduled for Sunday, 31 August 2025, at 13:30 UTC
(7:00 p.m. IST).
We have integrated registration directly into the event page; the link is
provided below:
https://dcwwiki.org/dc-o8
We look forward to your participation. Please bring along your questions!
Kind regards,
Ariba
Deoband Community Wikimedia
Hello Wikisourcerers,
It gives us immense pleasure and excitement to you that the Wikisource
Reader mobile application
<https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.cis_india.wsreader> is
now released for Android users at the Google Play Store for them to read
books which are completely proofread and transcluded on Wikisource
websites. The Github repo is here
<https://github.com/cis-india/wikisource-reader> and a website for the app
<https://cis-india.github.io/wikisource-reader-app/> is also created.
The metadata of the books are fetched directly from Wikidata and strictly
follows the bibliographical book model
<www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:Books> of Wikidata. So to appear in the
app, any completed book must fulfill the three mandatory criteria mentioned
below. They need to have corresponding:
- Wikidata items
- Wikisource sitelink with proofread or validation badges
- P1957 <https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Property:P1957> property linked
in the items.
A sample Wikidata item of one such book is here
<https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q51614301>. A sample SPARQL query to list
the books to be displayed in the app for one specific language is here
<https://w.wiki/F4Av>. A detailed documentation can be found on this Meta-Wiki
page <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikisource_reader_app/Selection>.
The app currently supports 22 language Wikisource editions like Assamese,
Bangla, Catalan, Czech, Danish, English, French, Hindi, Indonesian,
Italian, Javanese, Marathi, Malay, Polish, Punjabi, Spanish, Sundanese,
Swedish, Tamil, Telugu, Ukrainian and Vietnamese. More languages will be
added in next releases as and when they fulfill the mandatory criteria in
due course for at least 1-5 books as a start.
The app has the following features
1. Clean and beautiful user interface
2. Dark and Light theme
3. Option to browse free e-books in multiple languages
4. Option to import books from non-Wikisource external sources
5. Option to filter books in different literary forms
6. Option to download books for offline access
7. Option to store, read and delete books from library
8. Option to jump through chapters
9. In-built e-book reader
10. Customization of font color, size and weight
11. Light, Dark, Sepia and customized color mode for reading
12. Adjustment of page margins
13. RTL and LTR support
14. System default typeface along with options for Literata, Sans Sarif,
IA Writer Duospace, AccsiibleDfa and OpenDyslexic typefaces
15. Option to choose among left, right and justified text alignments
16. Customization of line height, paragraph indent, paragraph spacing,
word spacing and letter spacing
17. Options to highlight, underline and annotate texts
18. Option to bookmark
19. Text to Speech in different languages with customizable speed and
pitch
The app is dependent on
- WSindex API <https://wsindex.toolforge.org/books/>, which was built
specifically to fetch books for the app. The source code is here
<https://codeberg.org/ph4ni/wsindex>.
- WS export <https://wikisource.org/wiki/Wikisource:WS_Export> tool to
generate Epubs
- Myne app <https://github.com/Pool-Of-Tears/Myne/> by Shivam
<https://krsh.dev/> for user interface
- Readium mobile <https://github.com/readium/kotlin-toolkit> by The
European Digital Reading Lab (EDRLab)
<https://www.edrlab.org/software/readium-mobile/> for the actual reading
experience.
The development of the app was initially financially supported by Centre
for Internet and Society <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/CIS-A2K> until
March 2025, who also host the app on Google play store now. The app is now
developed and maintained in volunteer capacity and we welcome all open
source developers and experienced Wikisource contributors to contribute to
the development of the app for the future.
We sincerely thank everyone who was involved in supporting the app in
different ways, without whom this app could not have been developed.
Regards,
Sai Phanindra and Bodhisattwa
(both as volunteer capacity)