Wikipedia:Forward to Libraries

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Instructions · What links here · Forward to Libraries (talk: + · bio) · (log) · Copyvios report · reFill · Citation Bot · (Search: Google, Wikipedia) · Submitted 11 years ago by 64.40.54.101 (talk: D · +) · Last edited 11 years ago by 64.40.54.57

Warning: This page should probably be located at Draft:Forward to Libraries (move).

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 title 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 database. Forward to Libraries runs on Wikimedia Labs and complies 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 librarys for the article's subject. Clicking those links will display a search of that subject in that particular library.

The reader can choose a library of thier 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 if reading the article about the author Dean Koontz, they can search for books about Dean Koontz or search for books written by Dean Koontz.

Overview

The software was developed by Dr. John Mark Ockerbloom, a digital library architect at the University of Pennsylvania. The original service still runs 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.

The Forward to Libraries service used on all WMF projects uses the software on Wikimedia Labs and not the University of Pennsylvania's servers because of the privacy requirements.

Software

Forward to Libraries makes use of the Online public access catalog to find books on a subject. The software is available on GitHub at github.com/JohnMarkOckerbloom/ftl.

Templates

The service is currently used through the following templates.

Wikipedia:Forward to Libraries

Contents

Usage

Overview

Software

Templates

See also