Wikisource
URL	http://www.wikisource.org/
Slogan	The Free Library
Commercial?	No
Type of site	Library of source texts
Registration	Optional
Owner	Wikimedia Foundation
Created by	User-generated

Wikisource is a Wikimedia project to build a free, wiki library of source texts, along with translations into any language and other supporting materials. Uniform Resource Locator is an URI which also specifies where the identified resource is available and the protocol for retrieving it A slogan is a memorable Motto or Phrase used in a Political, commercial, Religious and other context as a repetitive expression of A library is a collection of information sources resources and services and the structure in which it is housed it is organized for use and maintained by a public body an institution A source text is a text (sometimes Oral) from which information or ideas are derived The Wikimedia Foundation Inc is a Non-profit charitable organization headquartered in San Francisco, California, United States, The Wikimedia Foundation Inc is a Non-profit charitable organization headquartered in San Francisco, California, United States, _____ __ / ___/ / /_ ____ ____ \__ \ / __/ / __ \ / __ \ ___/ / / /_ A wiki is a page or collection of Web pages designed to enable anyone who accesses it to contribute or modify content using a simplified Markup language. A library is a collection of information sources resources and services and the structure in which it is housed it is organized for use and maintained by a public body an institution A source text is a text (sometimes Oral) from which information or ideas are derived

Library contents

Wikisource collects and stores in digital format previously published texts; including novels, non-fiction works, letters, speeches, constitutional and historical documents, laws and a range of other documents. All texts collected are either free of copyright or released under the GNU Free Documentation License. The GNU Free Documentation License ( GNU FDL or simply GFDL) is a Copyleft License for free documentation designed by the Free Software Texts in all languages are welcome, as are translations.

Wikisource does not host "vanity press" books or documents produced by its contributors. A vanity press or vanity publisher is a publishing house that publishes books at the author's expense Johnathon Clifford claims to have coined the term in 1959

Early history

Wikisource had an eventful early history (2003-2005) that included several changes of name and location (URL), and the move to language subdomains in 2005.

The project was originally called Project Sourceberg during its planning stages (a play on words for Project Gutenberg). Project Gutenberg, abbreviated as PG, is a volunteer effort to Digitize, archive and distribute Cultural works It then began its activity at a mistaken location, when source texts were placed at ps.wikipedia.org. The contributors understood "PS" to mean either "primary sources" or Project Sourceberg, and they erroneously took over the subdomain of the Pashto language's Wikipedia. Pashto ( Naskh: پښتو‎ pəʂ'to also rendered as Pakhto, Pushto, Pukhto, Pashtu, Pushtu, also known as

Project Sourceberg started officially when it received its own temporary URL on November 24, 2003 (http://sources.wikipedia.org); all texts and discussions were moved there from ps.wikipedia.org. Events 380 - Theodosius I makes his adventus, or formal Year 2003 ( MMIII) was a Common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. A vote on the project's name changed it to Wikisource on December 6, 2003. Events 1060 - Béla I of Hungary is crowned king of Hungary 1240 - Mongol invasion of Rus: Kiev Year 2003 ( MMIII) was a Common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. Despite the change in name, the project did not move to its permanent URL (at http://wikisource.org) until July 23 2004.

Within two weeks of the project's official start (at sources. wikipedia. org), over 1000 pages had been created, with approximately 200 of these being designated as actual articles. On January 4, 2004, Wikisource welcomed its 100th registered user. Events 46 BC - Titus Labienus defeats Julius Caesar in the Battle of Ruspina. "MMIV" redirects here For the Modest Mouse album see " Baron von Bullshit Rides Again " In early July, 2004 the number of articles exceeded 2400, and more than 500 users had registered.

On April 30, 2005, there were 2667 registered users (including 18 administrators) and almost 19,000 articles. Events 313 - Roman emperor Licinius unifies the entire Eastern Roman Empire under his rule Year 2005 ( MMV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. The project passed its 96,000th edit that same day.

Language subdomains

A separate Hebrew version of Wikisource (he.wikisource.org) was created in August 2004. The need for a language-specific Hebrew website derived from the difficulty of typing and editing Hebrew texts in a left-to-right environment (Hebrew is written right-to-left). Bi-directional text is used as some Writing systems of the world notably the Arabic (including variants such as Nasta'liq) and Hebrew scripts Bi-directional text is used as some Writing systems of the world notably the Arabic (including variants such as Nasta'liq) and Hebrew scripts In the ensuing months, contributors in other languages including German requested their own wikis, but a December vote on the creation of separate language domains was inconclusive. The German language (de ''Deutsch'') is a West Germanic language and one of the world's major languages. Finally, a second vote that ended May 12, 2005 supported the adoption of separate language subdomains at Wikisource by a large margin, allowing each language to host its texts on its own wiki. Events 1191 - Richard I of England marries Berengaria of Navarre. Year 2005 ( MMV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar of the Gregorian calendar.

An initial wave of 14 languages was set up by Brion Vibber on August 23, 2005^[1]. Events 79 - Mount Vesuvius begins stirring on the feast day of Vulcan the Roman god of fire Year 2005 ( MMV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. The new languages did not include English, but the code en: was temporarily set to redirect to the main website (wikisource.org).

At this point the Wikisource community, through a mass project of manually sorting thousands of pages and categories by language, prepared for a second wave of page imports to local wikis. On September 11, 2005 the wikisource. Events 9 - The Battle of the Teutoburg Forest ends 506 - The Bishops of Visigothic Gaul Year 2005 ( MMV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. org wiki was reconfigured to enable the English version, along with 8 other languages that were created early that morning and late the night before. ^[2]

Three more languages were created on March 29, 2006,^[3] and then another large wave of 14 language domains was created on June 2, 2006. Events 1461 - Wars of the Roses: Battle of Towton - Edward of York defeats Queen Margaret to become King Year 2006 ( MMVI) was a Common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. Events 455 - The Vandals enter Rome, and plunder the city for two weeks Year 2006 ( MMVI) was a Common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ^[4] Currently, there are individual subdomains for Wikisources in 50 languages,^[5] besides the additional languages hosted at wikisource.org, which serves as an incubator or a home for languages without their own subdomains (31 languages are currently hosted locally)

wikisource. org

During the move to language subdomains, the community requested that the main wikisource.org website remain a functioning wiki, in order to serve three purposes:

1. To be a multilingual coordination site for the entire Wikisource project in all languages. In practice, use of the website for multilingual coordination has not been heavy since the conversion to language domains. Nevertheless, there is some policy activity at the Scriptorium, and multilingual updates for news and language milestones at pages such as Wikisource:2007.
2. To be a home for texts in languages without their own subdomains, each with its own local main page for self-organization. ^[6] As a language incubator, the wiki currently provides a home for over 30 languages that do not presently have their own language subdomains. Some of these are very active, and have built libraries with hundreds of texts (such as Esperanto and Volapuk), and one with thousands (Hindi).
3. To provide direct, ongoing support by a local wiki community for a dynamic multilingual portal at its Main Page, for users who go to http://wikisource.org. The current Main Page portal was created on August 26, 2005 by ThomasV, who based it upon the Wikipedia portal. Events 1071 - Battle of Manzikert: The Seljuk Turks defeat the Byzantine Army at Manzikert. Year 2005 ( MMV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar of the Gregorian calendar.

The idea of a project-specific coordination wiki, first realized at Wikisource, also took hold in another Wikimedia project, namely at Wikiversity's Beta Wiki. Wikiversity is a Wikimedia Foundation project which supports learning communities their learning materials and resulting activities Like wikisource. org, it serves Wikiversity coordination in all languages, and as a language incubator. But unlike Wikisource, its Main Page does not serve as its multilingual portal (which is not a wiki page).

Logo and slogan

The original Wikisource logo

Since Wikisource was initially called "Project Sourceberg" in a play on words for Project Gutenberg, its first logo was a picture of an iceberg. Project Gutenberg, abbreviated as PG, is a volunteer effort to Digitize, archive and distribute Cultural works Two votes conducted to choose a successor were inconclusive, and the original logo remained current until 2006. Finally, for both legal and technical reasons – because the picture's license was inappropriate for a Wikimedia Foundation logo and because a photo cannot scale properly – a logo-style iceberg inspired by the original picture was mandated to serve as the project's current logo. The Wikimedia Foundation Inc is a Non-profit charitable organization headquartered in San Francisco, California, United States,

The first prominent use of Wikisource's slogan — The Free Library — was at the project's multilingual portal, when it was redesigned based upon the Wikipedia portal on August 27, 2005 (historical version). Events 479 BC - Greco-Persian Wars: Persian forces led by Mardonius are routed by Pausanias, the Spartan Year 2005 ( MMV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. As in the Wikipedia portal, the Wikisource slogan appears around the logo in the project's ten largest languages.

Clicking on the portal's central images (the iceberg logo in the center and the "Wikisource" heading at the top of the page) links to a list of translations for Wikisource and The Free Library in 60 languages.

Subsequent milestones

On November 27, 2005 the English Wikisource passed 20,000 text-units in its third month of existence, already holding more texts than did the entire project in April (before the move to language subdomains). Events 1095 - Pope Urban II declares the First Crusade at the Council of Clermont Year 2005 ( MMV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar of the Gregorian calendar.

On February 14, 2008 the English Wikisource passed 100,000 text-units. Events 842 - Charles the Bald and Louis the German swear the Oaths of Strasbourg in the French and German 2008 ( MMVIII) is the current year in accordance with the Gregorian calendar, a Leap year that started on Tuesday of the Common ^[7]

Special projects

English:

• 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica
• The New Student's Reference Work (proofreading of scanned texts)
• Annotated Books:
  • The Strange Case Of Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde
  • Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes

German:

All Projects will be proofread by scanned texts.

• Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie
• Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich
• Rechenbuch des Andreas Reinhard
• Zimmerische Chronik

References

See also

• Category:Wikisource templates
  • Category:Wikisource link templates

External links

Wikisource:

• English Wikisource
• Multilingual portal

About Wikisource:

• Danny Wool on Wikisource (Wikimedia Foundation article).
• A personal perspective on the history of Wikisource by Angela Beesley
• Early discussions and plans for the project (Meta)