Collaboration of the Week

The current community collaboration is collecting works related to
the Eminent Women Series.

Last collaboration: Slavery in the United States (1837)


The current Proofread of the Month has been completed
Here is a list of small works that need a little help:
or view all works that need validation

Completed this month: The Tower
The next scheduled collaboration will begin in May.



Welcome to Wikisource!
Now that you're here, you're probably wondering...

Welcome! Thank you for joining Wikisource; we'd love for you to stick around and get more involved. We are a small community of approximately a hundred key people, with infinite help from random passersby. You might be wondering which of the two classes we consider you...well, I guess that's going to be up to you.

You'll find we are own our little corner of the Wikimedia Foundation, free from all the drama, arguments and policy violations you may be used to seeing elsewhere. In fact, since we largely just republish exactly what others before us have already written, there is very little concern about "neutrality" for example. After all, if the text of a speech by Adolf Hitler is inflammatory and biased...wasn't that its purpose?

If you're looking for a specific topic, you'll likely find it by navigating through Wikisource:Works, whether it's Portal:Islam or Portal:Mermaids. For overarching categories, you might be better looking at something like Category:Poems or Category:Novels. Of course, if you know the author's name, that's easiest of all, just plug in "Author:Rudyard Kipling" and you'll see everything he ever wrote (or was written about him!).

Chances are, you have a favourite subject we don't cover very well...here's how to change that!

So, your favourite author or subject isn't very well represented on the project? Well as long as you make sure the texts fit the standards of Public Domain, you can add them yourself! (Like all rules, those are basic guidelines, if you want to play with exceptions to the rule, just ask any of the administrators for help)

If the text doesn't already exist, just enter its name below and it will pre-load an editing page for you to set to work! Be sure to add {{no header}} to the top of the page, and then include categories so people can find it.


If you can't think of any particular corners to improve on Wikisource, how about taking a look at Portal:Religious texts, Portal:Wars or Portal:Texts by Country for some ideas? Don't forget to list your contributions on those pages as well so others will find and read them in the future!

Reading when you want, how you want
Places to go, people to meet

Well, if you've clicked all the way to this tab, you might as well plan on spending a few more hours acquainting yourself with our massive library. It's not perfect, sometimes there's an occasional misspelling or you'll see a text sorted incorrectly. So help us out, let us know, or fix it yourself!

If you're bored and just wanting to grab a mop and bucket, then there are plenty of corners that need tidying. Works that need to be split into chapters, Works that need their licensing clarified, Works that need machine-read words corrected, Works that need page-numbers removed and Authors whose full names we don't know would all be a great place to start!

Help us out
Yann (talk) 23:55, 31 January 2009 (UTC)Reply

Can I upload a scan of a PD(?) book and how? edit

The following text was copied from Central Discussion (--Robert.Allen (talk) 02:28, 13 September 2009 (UTC)):Reply

These may be obvious questions, but, as a rather new user to this site, even after much searching, I still do not know the answers:

I am considering whether to scan a 2005 book which is a facsimile reproduction of an older book, which would seems to me to be PD at least in the United States. The original book was published in Trieste in 1907, and the author died in 1924. There is no editing or added material in the facsimile edition, and even the page numbers are reproduced from the original. (The original book does not seem to be available at Google Books, and the facsimile edition is available only in limited preview.)

I would like to scan the book into a multipage file (I know how to do this for PDF format) and would like to upload the file to some place, where it would be available to anyone for download and reading.

Best way to have files is as a DjVu file and there is info at that page about how to prepare. We can offer further advice, so rather than tell you about sucking eggs, read first, and we can progress. Want it to have been OCR'd before it gets converted. Further answers below. -- billinghurst (talk) 07:37, 12 September 2009 (UTC)Reply

My questions are:

1) Would scanning such a book and uploading it violate any copyrights?
If it is an exact facsimile, I don't believe that the newer copy could be copyrighted. There is no violation of the original copyright.
2) Is Wikisource the right place to upload the file?
The preference is that files are uploaded to Commons, if they meet the copyright criteria. They can be directly linked to from Commons to WS. Information at Side by side proofreading.
3) If so, how do I upload the file?
Commons:Special:Upload

Thanks for help! --Robert.Allen (talk) 06:52, 12 September 2009 (UTC)Reply