Collaborate/Wikisource

Wikisource is an ever-growing library of freely reproducible texts

The Wikisource community scans, proofreads and checks texts to produce definitive electronic versions. These can be linked or cited from Wikipedia or anywhere else, or copied onto other sites or media (respecting the relevant free licence).

As well as English, Wikisource is available in dozens of other languages, gradually building an archive of their literature and scholarship.

Cover of Francis Bacon's Instauratio Magna

Examples of texts

• Out-of-copyright or freely licensed reference materials, such as the Dictionary of National Biography
• Literary works from authors including Shakespeare, Austen, Dickens, and Wilde
• Personal papers of notable figures, such as the FDR/Churchill correspondence
• Official papers, such as Acts of the English Parliament
• Journals and periodicals, such as the earliest issues of the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society or newly published research

What could you do?

• Upload digitisations of historic books and documents, with a description of the physical location.
• If you produce research or official documents, release the outputs such as papers or theses under a free licence.

Next steps

• If you are in a Jisc-funded project, contact the Jisc Wikimedia Ambassador, Martin Poulter, (martin.poulterwikimedia.org.uk).
• Wikimedia UK can put cultural and scholarly organisations in touch with experienced Wikisource contributors (infowikimedia.org.uk).
• The Beginner's guide to Wikisource is a good starting point

This page has been created as part of the 2013-14 partnership between Jisc and Wikimedia UK