Wikipedia:Forward to Libraries

Forward to Libraries (FTL) is a service provided to Wikipedia readers to find books on an article's subject. The service links an article's subject to a search of books at that reader's local library in their city. It is configured by the reader using cookies and can be set to any library in the FTL database. Forward to Libraries runs on Wikimedia Toolforge and complies with the Wikimedia Foundation's privacy policy.

Usage
The first time a reader clicks on a "resources in your library" FTL link from a Wikipedia article, the reader is taken to a landing page on Wikimedia Toolforge which has automatically formatted links to search various libraries for the article's subject. On the landing page, the reader can choose a preferred library to search. (Usually this would be the reader's local library, but they can choose another if they wish.) If they do not wish their preferred library to be remembered, there is also a link provided to choose a library only for the reader's current query.

When the reader chooses a library, they will be sent to a search for the Wikipedia article's subject in that library's catalog, discovery search, or website. If remembered, the preferred library is recorded in a cookie in the readers' web browser. The next time the reader clicks a "resources in your library" link in a Wikipedia article, they will be taken directly to a search in their preferred library, and see what books and other resources the library has on the subject of the article.

Readers can also search in any other library known to the system, by choosing "resources in other libraries" links instead of "resources in your library" links. Readers can also change their preferred library at any time, by clicking on a "resources in other libraries" link and then choosing the "set a different preferred library for future searches" link from the landing page. Users can suggest additional libraries to be added to the system, or request an update of an existing library's configuration, via a request form.

The FTL searches can also search by author, so when a reader is viewing the article about the author Dean Koontz, they can search for books about Dean Koontz or search for books written by Dean Koontz.

In addition to finding books at a reader's local library, the service can also find free-licensed books online about a subject by using data from the Online Books Page.

Adding libraries
Libraries are regularly added to the FTL database. Users can request a specific library be added by using the request form at onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu.

Overview
The software was developed by John Mark Ockerbloom, a digital library architect at the University of Pennsylvania. The original service was run on servers at the University of Pennsylvania, but in May 2013, Ockerbloom modified the software to run on Wikimedia Toolforge, released it under a public license and ensured it complied with the Wikimedia Foundation's privacy policy per wikitech:Wikitech:Cloud Services Terms of use.

Software
Forward to Libraries uses the online public access catalog of multiple libraries to find books on a subject. To determine the article's subject, the software makes use of Virtual International Authority File (VIAF) data from the Online Computer Library Center (OCLC), Authorities and Vocabularies datasets from the Library of Congress Subject Headings, metadata from the Online Books Page and metadata from Wikipedia's database. When the software can't determine the article's subject using the above methods, it will search using the article's title.

The software is available on GitHub at github.com/JohnMarkOckerbloom/ftl.

Templates
The service is currently used on Wikipedia through the following templates.
 * Library resources box
 * Library resources about
 * Library resources by
 * Library link about
 * Library link by