Wikipedia:Forward to Libraries
 | This is an information page. It is not one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines; rather, its purpose is to explain certain aspects of Wikipedia's norms, customs, technicalities, or practices. It may reflect differing levels of consensus and vetting. |
 | This page in a nutshell: Forward to Libraries finds books on a subject at your local library (the reader's local library) |
 Wikimedia Labs logo | |
| Owner | Wikimedia Foundation |
|---|---|
| Created by | Wikimedia community |
| URL | tools.wmflabs.org/ftl/cgi-bin/ftl |
| Commercial | No |
| Registration | none |
| Launched | May 15, 2013 |
Content license | Free license |
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 Labs and complies with the Wikimedia Foundation's privacy policy.
Usage
For a reader viewing an article on Wikipedia, when they click an FTL link, they are taken to a landing page on Wikimedia Labs which has automatically formatted links to search various libraries for the article's subject. Clicking one of those links will display a search of that subject in that particular library.
The reader can choose a library of their choice—their local library—by clicking the set a preferred library for future searches link when visiting the landing page. The preferred library is set using a cookie in the readers' web browser. The next time they click an FTL link, it will take them directly to a search of their local library, listing books on that subject.
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 Dr. 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, Dr. Ockerbloom modified the software to run on Wikimedia Labs, released it under a public license and ensured it complied with the Wikimedia Foundation's privacy policy per mw:Wikimedia Labs/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}}
See also
- March 2013 Signpost article
- Doctorow, Cory. "Wikipedia and libraries: a match made in heaven". Boing Boing. Retrieved May 19, 2013.
- Wikipedia:WikiProject Resource Exchange
- Wikipedia:The Wikipedia Library