The Wikipedia Library

The Wikipedia Library

The Wikipedia Library helps editors access reliable sources to improve Wikipedia.

We also help knowledge professionals share their collections with the public.

Global branches
Arabic • Catalan • Chinese • English • Persian • Finnish • French • Greek • Kurdish • Norwegian • Simple English • Spanish • Turkish • Vietnamese

About the library

The Wikipedia Library is an open research hub, a place for active Wikipedia editors to gain access to the vital reliable sources that they need to do their work and to be supported in using those resources to improve the encyclopedia. We aim to make access and use of sources free, easy, collaborative and efficient.

The Wikipedia Library is run by a team of Wikimedia Foundation staff and global volunteers. We operate on a community-organized satellite model: we administer the global project but work with local coordinators in local Wikipedia projects to help each community set up their own libraries.

Get in touch
email: wikipedialibrarywikimedia.org • twitter: @wikilibrary • facebook: The Wikipedia Library • mailing list: Wikipedia-Library

Our goals

Partner to provide free access to paywalled publications, databases, universities, and libraries

Facilitate research for Wikipedians, helping editors to find and use sources

Build relationships among our community of editors, libraries, and librarians

Connect editors with their local library and freely accessible resources

Promote broader open access in publishing and research

What we do

Journal access: Arrange donations of free journal access which editors can sign up for.

Book purchases: Help editors buy books that will help them do research.

Visiting scholars: Get editors university researcher staff status to access an entire online library collection.

Source sharing: Create resource sharing pages where editors can request a source from other editors.

Reference desk: Set up reference desks for editors to ask research questions and get help and answers.

Research tools: Build tools that help editors do research and connect to sources

How you can get involved

Set up a local branch: We support your community to help build its own Wikipedia Library. Contact us!

Become a coordinator: Work on our team in account, partner, reference, metrics, communications, outreach, and technical support

Donor outreach: Contact publishers and potential donors. You can help.

Help us with tech projects: Help complete technical tools, tasks, and changes to improve research on Wikimedia projects.

Read the newsletter: Read about and stay up to date on our recent and ongoing activities.

“	My library Was dukedom large enough.	”
— William Shakespeare

“	I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library.	”
— Jorge Luis Borges

“	People can lose their lives in libraries. They ought to be warned.	”
— Saul Bellow

“	The only thing that you absolutely have to know, is the ___location of the library.	”
— Albert Einstein

“	You build a thousand castles, a thousand sanctuaries, you are nothing; you build a library, you are everything!	”
— Mehmet Murat ildan.