User:DGG/talks/NYPL

Introduction to Wikipedia,  This page will be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:DGG/NYPL     this version, July 7, 2009

Reading and using Wikipedia

 * Wikipedia and other sources
 * What is distinctive about Wikipedia (Five pillars, Simplified ruleset)
 * A free encyclopedia, free to read and to use, free of copyright (except for some Fair Use material)
 * A comprehensive modern encyclopedia, with world-wide coverage, and at least some information about almost anything a person might look for in an encyclopedia; larger than print encyclopedias; extensively hyperlinked and categorized; lists; images & other media; watchlists and other software tools
 * Verifiable, with references for the information, to check for accuracy and to find more material
 * Open content: anyone can contribute – widest range of interests and knowledge; numerous contributors; Wikiprojects encourage collaboration
 * Neutral and factual: all major points of view are covered in proportion, with sources for them (Neutral point of view)
 * Uncensored: with respect to sex, politics, and other difficult topics
 * Open community: self-governing, with minimal structure; everyone is a volunteer


 * Comparison with Other free web sources
 * ask.com for quick basic information
 * IMDb.com for detailed information on movies
 * WorldCat for comprehensive information about books
 * Google News Search: for current events and Google News Archive for earlier ones.
 * Wikia for details on games and hobbies
 * PubMed+ for medical information from the National Library of Medicine


 * Comparison with Library web sources (NYPL, available remotely with a Library card
 * Biography Resource Center, Literature Reference Center
 * Newspapers: National Newspaper Index, New York State Newspapers, Newspaper Source, Custom Newspapers (Gale)


 * Wikipedia's coverage
 * What are the problems?:
 * Accuracy; updating; stability; edit wars/WP:OWNership
 * Fairness; WP:COI
 * Poorly covered areas
 * Uneven depth in even fairly well covered areas
 * Spam


 * Where is it strong:
 * Popular culture: TV, movies, games
 * Computers; Medicine; Sports; Politics
 * United States, Great Britain
 * WP:Featured Topics, WP:Featured Articles, WP:Good Articles


 * Where it is weak or erratic (WikiProject Countering systemic bias)
 * Classic literature and drama
 * History and Religion
 * Africa, most of Asia, Latin America


 * Where it is too difficult for most people?:
 * Mathematics, Linguistics, ...


 * How to use Wikipedia (Researching with Wikipedia)
 * Searching
 * Wikipedia Search box
 * Google and other search engines
 * Browsing Portal:Contents
 * Wikipedia Portals of broad subjects Portal:Contents/Portals
 * Wikipedia Categories & Complete A-Z list of categories, Outlines, and Lists; Timelines,Complete A-Z Index
 * Links in articles


 * Evaluating an article
 * Sourcing (Verifiability; WP:RS); External links (WP:EL)
 * Article history (sometimes an old version contains useful information that has been dropped)
 * Talk page - Wikiprojects rate their own articles; discussion of article improvement
 * Quality and priority designations (Version 1.0 Editorial Team/Assessment)
 * Problem designations: Cleanup, PovCheck, Unreferenced, Tone, Advert, Disputed, Update


 * Examples:
 * The Taking of Pelham 123 (2009 film) (and at IMDB). Compare H.M.S. Pinafore (19th century topic easier to illustrate) and Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
 * Malcolm X compared with Bill Clinton
 * Fairy tale
 * Macintosh
 * Metal umlaut (video on article evolution)


 * Other parts of the system than articles
 * Commons: Pictures and media Files
 * Wikitionary; WikiSource (& related projects elsewhere, such as Project Gutenberg and Internet Archive)
 * other language Wikipedias


 * Getting started (Contributing to Wikipedia)
 * Discussing an article; Wikiquette; Consensus
 * Correcting/expanding an article; WP:CITE; WP:MOS
 * Writing a new article WP:FIRST
 * Researching an article with library and other resources

Writing for Wikipedia

 * 1. Finding an article; disambiguation pages; finding stubs
 * 2. Registering an account; usernames
 * 3. Copy editing (common typo: "occured" instead of "occurred"); grammar changes: WP:MOS; click "minor" edits?; edit summary
 * 4. Content editing: Category:New York City stubs, Recent deaths
 * A. Look over article before editing - The information may already be there
 * B. Look at recent discussions on Talk page
 * C. Get research information and bibliographic reference to source; WP:V; WP:RS; WP:NOR. See, e.g., Newsday?  Google?
 * D. Edit this page tab; Editing sections; Write using your own words - (copyright/plagiarism)
 * E. Formatting your citation; WP:CITE; Reflist
 * F. Provide an edit summary; describe purpose of change on Talk page (sign with four tildes: ~ ); WP:NPOV; WP:CIVIL; WP:CONSENSUS; try commenting about University Village, New York at Peer review/University Village, New York/archive1
 * G. Show preview; when satisfied, save page. SELECT ALL and copy before saving in case of software problem
 * H. Wikify; pipes; Tutorial; Cheatsheet
 * I. History tab - see record of previous edits
 * J. Categories; External links; See also
 * K. Assessment - Stub; GA; FA - Look to Featured articles for good examples; Article development
 * L. Examples

Recent deaths list:


 * Anna Karen Morrow
 * Béla Király
 * Bill Kelso
 * Boubacar Joseph Ndiaye
 * Charles N. Brown
 * Christopher Nolan (author)
 * Dorothy Layton
 * Hortensia Bussi
 * Hui Ki On
 * James F. McNulty, Jr.
 * Molly Bee
 * Robert W. Scott
 * Si Frumkin
 * Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem
 * Victor Smorgon


 * 5. Starting an article
 * A. Naming conventions; Make sure that article does not already exist under different name (Use search)
 * B. WP:Notability; WP:COI; WP:NOT
 * C. Redirects
 * D. Searching and bluelinking your article's name in existing articles
 * E. Layout


 * 6. Uploading images
 * 7. Five pillars
 * 8. WikiProject - Discussion page will show you what projects cover your article. You can join. from:Ssilvers (talk) 19:12, 13 July 2009 (UTC)

Example Stubs to add to

 * Recent deaths list (see above)
 * Category:New York City stubs

Getting Help

 * Reader’s Guide to Wikipedia from The Missing Manual by John Broughton.
 * How Wikipedia Works by Phoebe Ayers, Charles Matthews, and Ben Yates
 * Glossary -- our own jargon; Cheatsheet

Follow-up

 * For the results of the Recent deaths articles experiment, see User talk:DGG/NYPL.
 * All participants are invited to Wiki-Conference New York on the weekend of July 25-26 at NYU.
 * The teachers of the class can be contacted at User talk:DGG, User talk:Pharos and User talk:Ssilvers, and will be glad to answer your questions.