Wikisource

Wikisource is a project Multilingue of Numeric library, supported by the foundation Wikimedia, free of access, without publicity, freely distributable, built by the voluntary ones which is based on technology Wiki. The project was launched the November 23rd 2003 and was first of all named Projet Sourceberg , before being officially called Wikisource the December 26th 2003.

Wikisource publishes a broad variety of texts: arts persons (Romance S, Poetry S, Tale S…), of History (treated S, Biography S), of Philosophy, the Re-examined S, and much of others still, provided that their license is compatible with GFDL. It uses the leading resources of the wiki what enables him - inter alia - to classify the texts (by kind, times…) ; to provide navigation systems between the chapters; to bind between them references in a text… More original: it makes it possible to publish a document with images of the source of reference in glance, thus guaranteeing thanks to these new tools the reliability of the work of second reading. See the image below.

The principles founders of the project

  • detailed Article: What Wikisource?

Three principles are particularly important to define the realization of this project:

1. the documents placed on Wikisource must be already published elsewhere, on paper ;
Two exceptions to the criterion of the printed edition :
A. the only electronic publications are authorized only if they come from Site S official or editors in line recognized (i.e. who have an obligation of registration of copyright near the National library of their Pays).
B. The Translation S.
2. the documents placed on Wikisource must be in the Public domain or under a free License;
3. the documents placed on Wikisource must be objectively identical to an edition of reference.

Tools of edition

Wikisource installed and puts gradually tools specific to the nature of its project.

The use of a wiki for the text-editing raises the question of the reliability of completed work by Wikisourciens. On the one hand, this work can be easily vandalized, since any person who has access to Wikisource can modify the contents of it, on the other hand the work of edition itself must be able to be checked to ensure the quality of the project.

Validation of the texts

  • Article detailed on Wikisource: Validation of the texts

In order to arrive to a guarantee sufficient for the readers, Wikisource admits the semi-protection of the texts read again by several contributors. Thus, only of the registered people can modify a validated text. The readers under i.p. can announce errors on a page given in bond in all the pages of discussion of the validated texts, pages of discussion where all the relative informations are also given to the edition.

The advance of the validation of a text is announced by the icons following, placed in the miter text : ,

Space page

  • Article detailed on Wikisource: Posting by pages

But the tool making it possible really to make sure of the quality of the edition is the posting of the images compared to the published text (see image opposite). This tool was produced by a contributor of Wikisource.

This tool is used as follows: after having copied from the waiter the image of a text, the contributor publishes a space named page: followed name of the image copied. The image appears then in this space, and the contributor consults it while using the box of edition. The whole of the document can then be reconstituted in text mode on only one page thanks to inclusions.

This tool was installed in August 2006, and its use is not yet general. To consult the first books available in mode page: Books available in page layout view.

Multilingual editions

Division by linguistic field entirely does not separate the sub-projects, since there exist bonds allowing the posting simultaneous of two pages of two distinct fields. Thus, when a contributor of French-speaking Wikisource publishes a translation of an English text, the bond interwiki which binds these two texts makes it possible to create a bilingual edition automatically.

Stages of the edition on Wikisource

Use of Wikisource

  • detailed Article: Assistance with the reader

The first and fundamental utility of Wikisource are the reading. The edition and the organization of the texts endeavor to be as simple as possible for the consultation. Thus, for the research of the texts, Wikisource proposes an index of the authors, classifications per periods, topics, etc

But the comfort of the reader has also his importance, and to facilitate the reading on screen, it is possible to use the Monobook of its account to adapt the text (width of the paragraphs and size of the letters) to the effort which the eyes must provide. Lastly, an extension pdf exists, but not being yet perfectly at the point, it could be available only in one still unspecified future.

The reading on the site is however not the only utility of Wikisource. The quality of the editions must make it possible the project to be used as reference for various work, Collège with the Université. Some texts published on Wikisource are thus given in bond by academic sites; one finds on Internet of the examples of bonds in bibliographies for university courses and in the bibliography of a report of control of philosophy. Wikisource can also be used as source of quotation with the articles of Wikipédia. Syntax to be used is then (within wikipedia) S: name of the text on wikisource . For example S: genesis creates a bond S: genesis which directs towards the book of the Genèse on Wikisource. One can improve appearance of the bond by writing genesis , which gives genesis.

Examples of works in progress

Principal work can be illustrated by texts, such as, for the French texts:

  • Dictionary reasoned of the French architecture of XIe in XVIe century

  • Re-examined of the Two Worlds
  • Encyclopedia, or reasoned Dictionary of sciences, arts and the trades
  • Râmâyana
  • the edition of work S of Nietzsche by Henri Albert.

It is also possible to organize gates, in order to gather texts around precise topics, such as:

  • Gate of Philosophy
  • Gate of the Latin Letters
  • Maritime Gate

Examples on German-speaking Wikisource

“In order to facilitate the work of the German-speaking community of Wikisource, German association provided a budget of 1500€ for the digitalization of books and manuscripts old. The members of the community will decide themselves jointly way of spending this equipment for new projects. ”

  • In May 2006, Wikimedia Deutschland (German association) financed the digitalization of a school manuscript of mathematics entitled “Drei Register Arithmetischer ahnfeng zur Practic. ”

  • “At the beginning of September 2006, the third volume of “Zimmerische Chronik” was transcribed. It is about a chronicle written by the count Froben Christoph von Zimmern in XVIe century and published in 1881 by the German historian Karl August Barack. The transcription of the fourth volume is one of the largest projects of German-speaking Wikisource. The electronic edition was launched by a historian of the university of Freiburg-in-Brisgau, which acts as a scientific consultant for the project. ”

Principal chronological reference marks

  • Pages detailed on Wikisource.org:

    • 2005
    • 2006

A vote took place in April 2005, on the question of the creation of linguistic under-fields. The result was largely favorable to this creation. After the arrival of a new version of Mediawiki allowing a transfer of the pages by preserving the histories, the under-fields were finally created mid-August, and the pages were imported on August 27th, 2005.

In May 2006, whereas a consultation had started to be organized among the contributors of Wikisource for the choice of new a Logo, Jimbo Wales, founder of Wikipédia, decided to change it.

In August 2006, a contributor of Wikisource created a tool of edition allowing the correction of texts with images in glance. See higher in this article Space '' page ''.

Progression of the project

These statistics go back to before division in linguistic fields. The statistics of all these fields are consultable here.



Many pages of the largest linguistic fields in October 2006:

  1. : ()
  2. : ()
  3. : ()
  4. : ()
  5. : ()
  6. : ()
  7. : ()
  8. : ()
  9. : ()
  10. : ()
  11. : ()
  12. : ()
  13. : ()

Bonds interwiki and models

In an article Wikipédia, it is possible to create a bond towards a Wikisource article of the same language by using the prefix S: , for example S: Reception.

There exist also several models which make it possible to announce in the articles of Wikipédia the existence of a page author or of a work in Wikisource:

Another model makes it possible to announce the editions in the course of digitalization:

Principal bonds towards Wikisource

Linguistic fields

  • international Wikisource Gate (access to all the linguistic fields)

  • Wikisource in French

Useful pages

Information and assistance

  • What Wikisource?
  • Manual of Wikisource
  • Introduction to Wikisource
  • Scriptorium (to contact the contributors of Wikisource)

Consultation

For French-speaking Wikisource:

  • the index of the authors
  • List of the gates of Wikisource

Random links:Clayne Crawford | Julien Stevens | Enrique Jardiel Poncela | Jean Visconti | Richard Neville | Histoire_d'Asie_du_Sud-Est