Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/National Register Information System (2nd nomination)


 * The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review).  No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was   no consensus. This does not mean that the merge discussion can not continue on the article's talk page. J04n(talk page) 11:05, 20 March 2013 (UTC)

National Register Information System

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After the original nomination was closed, the nominator and creator were interaction-banned, so I closed the original discussion. It's not fair to the participants to force them to start all over again, so I'm renominating it procedurally and have copied in the comments from the first discussion by everyone who isn't interaction-banned. I am neutral. Nyttend (talk) 13:13, 12 March 2013 (UTC)


 * Keep Per my gut feeling. I might bring up some more arguments later. Ryan Vesey 23:09, 10 March 2013 (UTC)


 * Merge with National Register of Historic Places. Some of the material in this article verges on WP:NOTHOWTO; the rest should be in the NRHP article.  Unless there's some kind of controversy involving the NRIS specifically, it seems unlikely that there'd be enough material on it to sustain an independent article.  A merger would allow material on NRIS to be accumulated and, if enough builds up to justify it, spun off later as its own article.  Ammodramus (talk) 23:59, 10 March 2013 (UTC)


 * Keep - looks like there are 9 refs there now. I think a small article on a big (but pretty non-controversial) database makes sense. Smallbones( smalltalk ) 02:38, 11 March 2013 (UTC)


 * Note: This debate has been included in the list of United States of America-related deletion discussions. • Gene93k (talk) 02:35, 11 March 2013 (UTC)
 * Note: This debate has been included in the list of History-related deletion discussions. • Gene93k (talk) 02:35, 11 March 2013 (UTC)
 * Note: This debate has been included in the list of Websites-related deletion discussions. • Gene93k (talk) 02:35, 11 March 2013 (UTC)


 * Keep References have been provided to indicate the database's notability. Databases can be notable independently of the organization that runs them (the Geographic Names Information System comes to mind), and most of the refs appear NRIS-specific. TheCatalyst31 Reaction•Creation 02:42, 11 March 2013 (UTC)
 * Keep While I can understand the desire to merge it into the organizations article, and I can see how this article needs a good strong edit, I think the references and extent of the database's use supports a separate (better) article. dm (talk) 02:55, 11 March 2013 (UTC)
 * Comment (sk is no longer timely) Speedy keep  WP:SK The nomination is missing a rationale for deletion, as notability is not defined by articles on Wikipedia, and articles with reliable primary sources with notability arguments need both evidence of an attempt to find secondary sources and analysis as per WP:ATD to explain why the reliable material cannot be merged and the topic redirected.  In this case the nominator is an administrator, and IMO administrators should show leadership in following the WP:BEFORE guideline.  In addition, less than nine hours elapsed between the creation of the article and the filing of the AfD, so the nomination appears to be premature.  Further, this is not a "high priority" topic where the AfD should continue even without community preparation in the nomination.  This nomination needs to be closed today, March 11.  Such a closure should be with no prejudice to a speedy renomination in three to seven days by any editor.  It also seems likely that a speedy closure would tend to protect the SOV/Doncram parties from criticism by ArbCom.  Unscintillating (talk) 03:15, 11 March 2013 (UTC)
 * Merge to National Register of Historic Places. Many of the references appear to be published by the NPS itself, and I question whether they properly establish notability. The existence of the NRIS is bound up in that of the National Register, and treating this as a section of that article seems like the best way to describe it for the time being. For a similar case, consider Chemical Abstracts Service; we don't try to maintain separate articles on that organization and its two databases. Choess (talk) 03:51, 11 March 2013 (UTC)
 * To quantify things: the article as of this writing has 9 footnotes (presumably, the "9 refs" to which Smallbones refers above). One of these (note 6) is an explanatory note with no source given.  Four of them (notes 1, 2, 3, and 7) come from the National Park Service.  Two of them (notes 4 and 5) describe searches that were conducted in the database, but don't discuss the database itself in any detail.  Note 8 is general material about the NRHP, with brief instructions for the use of NRIS to search for properties, but not going into any detail about NRIS.  Note 9 is a library-catalogue entry for NRIS.  None of these meets the WP:GNG standard of significant coverage in independent sources: the significant coverage is in the NPS sources, which aren't independent; the independent sources don't provide significant coverage, either individually or in aggregate.  Ammodramus (talk) 13:51, 11 March 2013 (UTC)


 * merge to National Register of Historic Places which hardly mentions it. This is really an administrative aspect of the NRHP and I don't think we can say much about it beyond what we should be saying in the main article anyway. Mangoe (talk) 18:33, 11 March 2013 (UTC)
 * Keep. I see no difference between this and the National Bridge Inventory, which is the comparable list of bridge for the Federal Highway Administration. 25or6to4 (talk) 01:57, 12 March 2013 (UTC)
 * These cases are not entirely parallel. NRIS doesn't entirely embody the register, but it is very much an implementation of it. The there's no "registry of bridges" that the NBI implements; it is the listing and its implementation in one. Mangoe (talk) 02:28, 12 March 2013 (UTC)


 * Merge to National Register of Historic Places. There doesn't appear to be any significant notability apart from the NRHP. older ≠ wiser 02:39, 12 March 2013 (UTC)
 * Keep NRIS is a critically important federal database used for historical research, as established by the references. It's notable as a stand-alone article. --GrapedApe (talk) 12:09, 12 March 2013 (UTC)
 * Keep per GrapedApe.  Automatic  Strikeout   ( T  •  C ) 21:26, 12 March 2013 (UTC)
 * Merge to National Register of Historic Places. - I concur with GrapedApe that the NRIS is an important US federal database. But it really is just the database implementation for managing the listings of the NHRP.  The justification for a separate article needs to shopw the coverage in reliable sources that make this database distinctively notable from the NHRP.  I don't see that in the current sourcing nor can I find any myself. -- Whpq (talk) 23:01, 12 March 2013 (UTC)
 * Keep. The database is important on its own and not with relation to the National Register of Historic Places. It has a history of its own that deserves its own article. Ducknish (talk) 23:16, 12 March 2013 (UTC)
 * Keep Meets WP:GNG DavidTTTaylor (talk) 18:08, 13 March 2013 (UTC)
 * Question - Can you please identify which sources represent that independent and significant coverage that woudl satisfy the general notability guidelines? I don't see that in any of the sourcing currently in the article. -- Whpq (talk) 20:16, 13 March 2013 (UTC)
 * Keep. We cite this database routinely as WP:RS in articles on individual NRHP sites, so many of those pages link here. K7L (talk) 02:09, 15 March 2013 (UTC)
 * Comment - Being a reliable source does not make it notable. -- Whpq (talk) 02:11, 15 March 2013 (UTC)
 * Comment Special:WhatLinksHere shows that just 21 pages link to this article; bizarrely, it's linked by Winston, Georgia (not particularly helpfully), while all of the other links are user talk pages, WP talk: space pages, this deletion discussion, etc. No article on an individual NRHP site links here as of 3AM on 15 March.  Nyttend (talk) 02:49, 15 March 2013 (UTC)
 * Merge to National Register of Historic Places. The database of the NRHP can easily, and should be, discussed as part of the NRHP main article. Several similar situations are mentioned above where databases and the organizations that the database are discussed together in one article. I do not see the need for distinct articles here. --Polaron | Talk 13:22, 17 March 2013 (UTC)
 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.