User:Netherzone/Search tips

I feel strongly that both creation and deletion is a part of the "natural ecosystem" of building an encyclopedia. I'm a regular at AfD (my stats are roughly balanced between Keep and Delete). But in my early days I sometimes took deletion as some sort of personal loss, however I think about it very differently now, and understand that it is a very necessary component to maintain the integrity of the encyclopedia. This may sound harsh but deletion keeps promotional junk, self-serving autobios, memorials, undisclosed paid editing, blatent COI advocacy/advertising, and trivial use of WP as a "free website" necessarily in check. If someone or something is truly notable, it will eventually have an article (even if deleted as WP:TOOSOON.) Wikipedia is not a race to an arbitrary finish line, nor should everything/person have an article - it's not social media. I also deeply believe in the WP:HEY principle of article improvement. Here are some ways I go about searching:

My search methods for people: 1. Memorize or keep handy WP:N, WP:GNG, and the appropriate WP:SNG for various disciplines. 2. When searching for women, I always also do a search under their maiden names. This is especially important for women born before the 1960s or 70s. So, for example if Jane Smith is an architect whose maiden name was Jones, I'd first search for "Jane Smith" + "architect", then "Jane Jones Smith" + "architect", then "Jane Jones" + "architect", then (ahem) "Mrs. Henry Smith" + "architect". If her architectural firm was located in Chicago, I'd search all of the above but add + "Chicago". If she was married more than once I'd repeat that with other variations on her name. It's important to deeply read the search results to insure it's the correct person; double check birthdates, etc! Do the same with complicated family names or hyphenated last names, or names that originate in cultures, such as some of those in Asia, where the last name comes before the given first name. 3. When searching for artists or other specific professions, I've memorized the SNG and do a search for "Jane Smith" + "museum collections"; "Jane Smith" + "exhibitions", "Jane Smith + "awards" (or "grants" or "fellowships", "reviews" etc). I also do a search on JSTOR, and the WP Library, paying particular attention to dictionaries and encyclopedias of artists. Lastly, I do a Google image search for the artist's name which often finds images of artists' works in museum collections (one must discard auction records). 4. A good resource: WikiProject Resource Exchange/Resource Request shortcut is WP:RX; and of course the Wikipedia Library WP:Library for access to journals, books, encyclopedias/dictionaries of National Biography --- the one for historical (mostly European artists) is Benezit, 5. I always look for a byline in sources, because usually when there is not a byline, it's just a regurgitated press release. 6. Keep an eye out for Native advertising as some sources are simply PR mascarading as articles. (They are usually paid for by the person or their PR agent. 7. Be wary of pay-to-play sites that are just paid listings for the person within their profession. One can pay an annual fee to be listed in these sites. I try to check the "About" link of sites that look questionable to see if there is anything that looks like they are soliciting for "content" or "stories." 8. Google Books and JSTOR are great resources. 9. For artists I usually do an image search to see if anything turns up that is in museum collections. I also usually do a general search with the name of the artist in quotes, and the words "museum collection". This has helped save numerous articles on artists if several notable permanent collections turn up.

My search methods for places which I learned from user Hog Farm: 1. The first step is to look on GNIS for the location. If the location existed after 1910 and isn't in GNIS, there's a good chance it's not notable. 2. Then, using the coordinates I pulled from GNIS, I search the coordinates in the USGS topographic maps database. The maps and GNIS aren't enough to show a place as notable, but they can identify a lot of the non-community features. I've been able to diagnose stubs as non-community features such as railroad sidings, individual ranches, and in a couple cases natural features such as ponds or canals misentered into GNIS as communities. 3. I have access to newspapers.com through WP:LIBRARY, so I use that as the third step. In places where there are old newspapers on the site (some going back into the 1800s), you can generally figure out what something is. 4. Step four is checking the google books preview of Gudde's California Place Names, which generally only lists significant features. Gudde also has a book about gold camps, which is useful to check for supposed mining features. (Note: if not California, check other historical place-name books). 5. The last step is to run a standard WP:BEFORE, with Google books generally being a better bet than Google search, as Google search is almost hopelessly polluted with clickbait and mirrors of both GNIS and Wikipedia. I also do an image search and map search for places, which can lead to archives and newspaper articles.