[Foundation-l] Remarks on Wikimedia's fundraiser

[Fred Bauder]

> On Tue, Mar 8, 2011 at 11:50, aude <aude.wiki at gmail.com> wrote:
>> On Tue, Mar 8, 2011 at 11:51 AM, Andreas Kolbe <jayen466 at yahoo.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> --- On Tue, 8/3/11, Fred Bauder <fredbaud at fairpoint.net> wrote:
>>> > From: Fred Bauder <fredbaud at fairpoint.net>
>>> > Fred Bauder <fredbaud at fairpoint.net>
>>> > I guess I would like editors to have access to archives and
>>> > databases
>>> > such as those ProQuest sells. Not sure how that would fit
>>> > into our
>>> > budget.
>>>
>>>
>>> I would like to second that as well -- this is a very important way in
>>> which
>>> the Foundation could support high-volume content contributors, and
>>> which
>>> would make a significant difference to article quality.
>>>
>>> This should be a part of university outreach as well. Many university
>>> students have log-in IDs enabling them to log into academic databases
>>> from
>>> their homes. Please tell universities who would like to support
>>> Wikipedia
>>> that this is a really important way in which they can support the
>>> project,
>>> by allowing established content contributors access to these
>>> databases.
>>>
>>> And as Sarah says, if numbers are limited, access should be given to
>>> editors
>>> based on merit, based on a history of content work that would benefit
>>> from
>>> such access.
>>>
>> I'm not a university student but for $300/year, could get borrowing
>> privilege at the local university. (
>> http://www.library.georgetown.edu/associates)  I bet as part of our
>> university outreach, from WMF, they might just grant access to some
>> wikipedians.  Access to academic databases would also be super useful.
>>
>
> The nearest university to me will give access to databases for $150 a
> year, but they make non-students and staff travel to the university
> itself to do it; no logging in from home, and that turns into a
> serious hassle over time (travelling there, very high parking fees,
> not being able to browse at leisure).
>
> I think those of us who criticize the Foundation have to take some
> responsibility for not asking for these things. For my own part, I get
> discouraged because the Foundation seems distant, and seems to have
> other priorities. But in fact I've never put together a proposal for
> the kind of thing I'd like to see the Foundation help with, so
> actually I'm criticizing them for failing to be psychic.
>
> Let's get together and try to write something about how the Foundation
> could help more Wikipedians gain access to good databases. It's
> something that would definitely transform the quality of content.
>
> Sarah

Excellent,

I'll start researching possibilities. My situation is very similar. I'm
good friends with the folks that run the local college library (even to
the point I might get a password) but it is 50 miles away and not driving
all over is very much one of my goals these days.

I'm going to check out the possibilities. There might be some
opportunities we're not aware of. To say nothing of expanding our
listings of free databases.

Fred