[Wikimedia-l] More opportunities for you to access free research databases!

[Ocaasi Ocaasi]

A few additional thoughts:

This is not just a problem with paywalled sources, but *any* source which is not available free *and* online.  Not all of the sources that have been donated are solely pay-for-access; some of them, for example, you would just need a good university library reference section to access.  Yet I don't know if the same concerns would be raised about editors using library reference desks, any printed content for that matter.  Much print content is just as difficult for readers to verify, whether it is available somewhere in the brick-and-mortar world free, or not.  

A second consideration is that editors are instructed as part of these partnerships to use a free version if available, and to always provide the original citation information so that a reader can seek it out on their own.  Some information, for example newspaper archives, may be available nowhere else but paywalled sites.  If we don't have access to them, then not only will our readers not be able to look up the source, they won't be able to read about the content in the first place.


Jake Orlowitz
Wikipedia editor: Ocaasi
http://enwp.org/User:Ocaasi
wikiocaasi at yahoo.com