Worldcat is a catalog of the works available on 57,000 physical libraries around the world. The catalog is now freely available online. It is far and away the largest such resource. They have recently add a usable "identities" feature. I got interest in worldcat through the work User:Dsp13 did. I have added a template: template:worldcat id
To use this template, first do a worldcat identies lookup. Enter the person's name (e.g, Samuel Phillips.) This will often lead to a list of possible matches. Select the correct link (e.g., "Phillips, Samuel 1752-1802") and click on it. This will lead to the correct page on worldcat. The id is the string after the last slash in the URL, e.g., lccn-n85-221132. Now, fill in your template as follows:
This yields
Here is the question: should we encourage the use of this template? User:Dsp13 tried to introduce worldcat links a year ago and got a lot of push-back from the folks who worry about link spam. I think that worldcat links are perhaps the most useful links there are, and are not by any means spam. I see this as part of a "grand unification" of two major web resources. but I would like to see a consensus before proceeding.
I feel that the justifications for worldcat are clear:
If we reach a consensus that worldcat links should be encouraged, It should be relatively easy to use a semi-automated technique to add the templates to the articles. Based on User:Dsp13's lists, we have articles on all but 37 of the 1500 subjects with the largest library presence, and I suspect a very large percentage of our pre-1990 biographies have worldcat bibliographies.
About myself: I've been editing for about 1.5 years. I spend a fair amount of time adding links to Project Gutenberg, and I have created a modest number of biographies of PG authors, but I never joined the bio project because I'm a lone wolf. - Arch dude 13:59, 21 October 2007 (UTC)
Collegues:
Wikipedia:WikiProject Biography/A-class review could use some more reviewers. Anyone willing to do so is more than welcome. John Carter 16:00, 24 October 2007 (UTC)
Edward Teller is currently being subjected to a Featured Article Review. If you want to contribute to this discussion, please do. Regards, Daimanta 20:28, 27 October 2007 (UTC)
Edward Teller has been nominated for a featured article review. Articles are typically reviewed for two weeks. Please leave your comments and help us to return the article to featured quality. If concerns are not addressed during the review period, articles are moved onto the Featured Article Removal Candidates list for a further period, where editors may declare "Keep" or "Remove" the article from featured status. The instructions for the review process are here. Reviewers' concerns are here. SandyGeorgia ( Talk) 00:05, 28 October 2007 (UTC)
Anne Frank has been nominated for a featured article review. Articles are typically reviewed for two weeks. Please leave your comments and help us to return the article to featured quality. If concerns are not addressed during the review period, articles are moved onto the Featured Article Removal Candidates list for a further period, where editors may declare "Keep" or "Remove" the article from featured status. The instructions for the review process are here. Reviewers' concerns are here. -- linca linca 04:42, 29 October 2007 (UTC)
When changing articles on minor figures to redirects, what should be done with the workgroup box and the categories on the article talk page? I just now changed Thomas Rindom and Philip Rindom to redirect to the article on their mother, Countess Desirée of Rosenborg and do not know if I should remove the categories and box altogether. —Preceding unsigned comment added by DGG ( talk • contribs) 17:11, 30 October 2007
These departments are very disorganised. I propose merging A-class review and Peer review into one department. There's no need for two pages. See here and here for other project organisations. I also suggest doing away with Vandalism entirely. There's no need for it because of the number of RC patrollers we have. Maybe it could be turned into a task force in conjunction with WP:CVU-- Phoenix-wiki ( talk · contribs) 15:00, 31 October 2007 (UTC)
Hi there. The Preity Zinta article has recently achieved A-class status. Due to the wealth of support I have decided to now nominate for an FA class article which I believe and judging by the comments of others is pretty much up to. In my view it is better than some existing FA actor articles. I would therefore be very grateful if you could give it a final review in your own time and leave your comments and views at Wikipedia:Featured article candidates/Preity Zinta. Thankyou, your comments are always valuable. ♦ Sir Blofeld ♦ "Talk"? 10:57, 1 November 2007 (UTC)
What is Tag & Assess MMVII? It's part of a Wiki-wide call for volunteers. A month or so back, we ran a script to list all the articles in categories related to military history. This gave us about 165,000 articles. Some of these are already tagged and assessed as military history; some are military history but not yet tagged and assessed; some are not military history articles at all. This huge project — working thorough 165,000 articles — is called Tag & Assess 2007. To make it manageable, the list has been broken down into 330 ranges each of 500 articles. This is where youcan help.
Just... adopt-a-range from the available worklists then keep track of your tally on participants' list. The tagging is easy, just follow the simple instructions. Afterwards, as our way of thanking you, you'll be presented with service awards and barnstars based on the number of articles you process. Remember... the ranges are broken down into sub-sections of ten articles, so you work through them at twenty or thirty articles a day if you wish. To make Tag & Assess 2007 a success, we need your help. Please sign up now. Thanks. -- ROGER DAVIES TALK 09:27, 4 November 2007 (UTC)
The is a new bot User:Erwin85Bot that will count article sin a category and output the total into a table. The WikiProjects Australia and Aviation have used it to create Wikipedia:WikiProject Australia/BotStatistics and Wikipedia:WikiProject Aviation/Maintenance. To give you an example of how your project can use this bot, I've created Wikipedia:WikiProject Biography/Maintenance/Backlog. This page will be updated by the bot at 12:00 UTC. If you wish to use this bot, or have any questions on its operation, you can contact the owner, or myself. - Trevor MacInnis ( Contribs) 01:30, 6 November 2007 (UTC)
Karl Dönitz has been nominated for a featured article review. Articles are typically reviewed for two weeks. Please leave your comments and help us to return the article to featured quality. If concerns are not addressed during the review period, articles are moved onto the Featured Article Removal Candidates list for a further period, where editors may declare "Keep" or "Remove" the article from featured status. The instructions for the review process are here. Reviewers' concerns are here.-- Peter Andersen 22:09, 6 November 2007 (UTC)
A minor style dispute has arisen over the correct style to use in a biography of a deceased person, in mentioning his widow and children, over the correct tense to use.
OR
The latter style is the default tense when talking of a deceased person, however it can be argued that, as the wife and children are still alive, they continue to survive the subject, and that the present tense is appropriate, and that it is also the style routinely used in off-wiki obits.
Thoughts?
Mayalld 12:33, 7 November 2007 (UTC)
Is now at Featured Article Review, so please take a look, and help the article keep its featured status! Judgesurreal777 21:32, 7 November 2007 (UTC)
Hi, over at the football wikiproject we have been discussing new notability and deletion guidelines regarding football biographies. The original discussion can be seen here. The current suggestion can be found at here. Any comments from this project would be welcome. Any other suggestions on where to post this would be welcome as well. Thanks. Woodym555 00:47, 8 November 2007 (UTC)
Ludwig Wittgenstein has been nominated for a featured article review. Articles are typically reviewed for two weeks. Please leave your comments and help us to return the article to featured quality. If concerns are not addressed during the review period, articles are moved onto the Featured Article Removal Candidates list for a further period, where editors may declare "Keep" or "Remove" the article from featured status. The instructions for the review process are here. Reviewers' concerns are here. One Night In Hackney 303 16:18, 8 November 2007 (UTC)
Anne Frank has been nominated for a featured article review. Articles are typically reviewed for two weeks. Please leave your comments and help us to return the article to featured quality. If concerns are not addressed during the review period, articles are moved onto the Featured Article Removal Candidates list for a further period, where editors may declare "Keep" or "Remove" the article from featured status. The instructions for the review process are here. Reviewers' concerns are here. -- RelHistBuff 16:54, 9 November 2007 (UTC)
Thomas Mann is in need of additional cites. -- 201.53.4.206 19:52, 11 November 2007 (UTC)
Peter I of Russia needs cleanup and additional cites. -- 201.53.4.206 21:24, 11 November 2007 (UTC)
For the benefit of anyone here who doesn't have WP:BLP's talk page watchlisted, I have proposed an amendment to the policy here regarding the use of appropriate images in biographical articles. In short, I'm proposing a BLP policy to protect against the use of Creative Commons and public domain images that may serve to demean or disparage the subject, particularly images that are so obviously of an unattractive nature (wherein common sense comes into play, not POV). Comments in support or opposing are welcome. 23skidoo 21:08, 12 November 2007 (UTC)
Hey, a newcomer keeps removing the infobox from the Banksy bio. I would appreciate some help from this project in explaining why infoboxes are a necessity in biographical articles. Thanks, VanTucky Talk 01:14, 15 November 2007 (UTC)
I have proposed an amendment to the Subsequent uses of names section of Manual of Style (biographies) to the effect that when an article deals with two or more people of the same surname—for example, married couples and family members—it is acceptable to refer to them by their first or given name. A great many articles already use this approach so updating the guideline is merely reflecting widespread current practice and providing a clear standard to follow for future articles. The proposed text and discussion is here. -- ROGER DAVIES talk 07:57, 18 November 2007 (UTC)
I see that Category:Uncategorised people is, if anything, bigger than ever, without even any attempt to systematically populate it. Anyone have any thoughts of working on these? Would this make more sense if split out by work-group, or would that just be shoving things around to equally little result? Alai ( talk) 20:45, 18 November 2007 (UTC)
I have proposed splitting Category:Year of birth missing and Category:Year of death missing, two categories within the scope of this WikiProject. Please join the discussion at Wikipedia:Village pump (proposals)#Splitting Category:Year of birth missing and Category:Year of death missing?. A ecis Brievenbus 00:35, 19 November 2007 (UTC)
Carl G. Fisher has been nominated for a featured article review. Articles are typically reviewed for two weeks. Please leave your comments and help us to return the article to featured quality. If concerns are not addressed during the review period, articles are moved onto the Featured Article Removal Candidates list for a further period, where editors may declare "Keep" or "Remove" the article from featured status. The instructions for the review process are here. Reviewers' concerns are here. Epbr123 ( talk) 14:06, 20 November 2007 (UTC)