[WikiEN-l] What to do with $1.000.000

Sun Dec 17 20:13:24 UTC 2006

On 12/17/06, phoebe ayers <phoebe.wiki at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> On 12/15/06, MacGyverMagic/Mgm <macgyvermagic at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > I remember a post way back about what the Wikimedia Foundation should do
> > in
> > case it receives a large grant or donation.
> > For the past few days I've been collecting data for a number of new
> > articles, and I realized how lucky I am.
> > A lot of people don't have access to things like Pubmed and LexisNexis
> > and
> > those are particularly useful in citing articles.
> > Buying a set of books and making their contents available is nice, but
> > still
> > growing databases of information are more useful, especially now we
> > should
> > focus more on sources instead of new content as Jimbo said at the
> > Wikimania
> > conference. As soon as I finish my study, my access to those databases
> > will
> > cease to exist. I don't know the numbers, but perhaps a number of
> > Wikipedians, say those in a referencing taskforce, should get access to
> > such
> > services with the help of the foundation...
> >
> > Mgm
>
>
> One note -- for those who don't know, PubMed (in a slightly less fancy
> version) is free!
> http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi
> it's pretty much *the* database to go to for medical research information,
> at least for English speakers. Agricola and Eric, for agriculture and
> education respectively, are also large U.S. government-produced databases
> and are also free:
> http://agricola.nal.usda.gov/
> and http://www.eric.ed.gov/
>
> Sadly, Lexis-Nexis and most other commercially-produced research databases
> are very very very unfree (and take up the bulk of your library's purchasing
> budget, generally).
>
> I think trying to provide source access is a great side project for the
> foundation. However, there's a bit of a problem. Most databases like this
> are priced based on the size of the potential user base -- e.g., a school
> with 50,000 students will pay more than a school with 3000 students; a large
> law firm pays more than a small one. Now someone just has to figure out a
> good formula for the size of the potential user base for WMF-sponsored
> databases... (or a way to restrict the user base to a reasonable number)
> :)  In the meantime, I and others with access will help when we can:
> [[Wikipedia:Newspapers and magazines request service]]
>
> -- phoebe
>

And, of course, having access to a database doesn't necessarily provide
access to the actual full-text of the article or paper itself, just the
citation. Only a handful of databases are full-text, and they tend to not be
the most specialized ones.
Throwing our collective support behind open-access publications and
initiatives is one way to go, but it doesn't solve the problem of getting
contributors good sources *now.* I urge people again to take advantage of
their libraries, and to make sure your library knows what you need as a
researcher.
-- phoebe