The Wikipedia Library – Wikimedia Foundation

Wikipedia is one of the most widely used sources of information on the internet, with more than 62 million articles in over 300 languages. All of the information on Wikipedia is curated by a global community of volunteer editors. These editors compile and share knowledge on notable subjects from reliable sources — such as books, newspaper articles, and peer-reviewed journals — in accordance with Wikipedia’s editorial policies, to ensure knowledge remains fact-based.

Today, however, many of the world’s most reliable sources can only be accessed through a paid subscription. Through partnerships with more than 100 of the world’s top subscription-only databases, The Wikipedia Library, a project of the Wikimedia Foundation, gives Wikipedia’s most active editors access to knowledge resources in over 30 languages.

Wikipedia editors use this information to add trustworthy knowledge to the site. Importantly, editors add links to their sources, which brings more visibility to partners’ quality research materials.

To learn more about partnering with The Wikipedia Library, email wikipedialibrary@wikimedia.org.

Wikipedia: A research resource

Every month, people around the world view Wikipedia more than 15 billion times and read its articles in more than 300 languages. Students and researchers often refer to Wikipedia as a starting point and for fact-checking. They discover new academic books, articles, and journals from publishers through the citations used on Wikipedia.

In 2023, The Wikipedia Library was used to add over 165,000 new citations to Wikipedia articles in over 100 languages. This knowledge benefits readers by offering trustworthy information to the world’s largest online knowledge source. It also benefits the publishers who partner with The Wikipedia Library, in that they increase the visibility of their resources and refer readers who are looking for more information.

Become a Wikipedia Library partner

Many of the world’s preeminent publishers share journals, scholarly publications, ebooks, archives, and newspapers with Wikipedia. Wikipedia Library partners include:

Publishers of academic books and journals, such as Oxford University Press, Elsevier, and Perlego.
Research databases, including JSTOR, EBSCO, ProQuest Central, Gale, and the British Newspaper Archive.
Media outlets, such as The Wall Street Journal, The Hindu, Le Monde, and Alexander Street, which are accessible via ProQuest.

“By making our collection of online books available to Wikipedia editors, we are contributing to the democratisation of information and fostering a culture of reliable citation.”

Leuven University Press

“Knowing that Wikipedia is a first stop of discovery for the public, students, and even researchers, this partnership will extend the visibility and impact for the work in our journals.”

SAGE Publishing

“Wikipedia is the first port of call… when we want to find out about a new topic, and Wikipedia editors do an amazing job helping to keep it as accurate and up to date as possible.”

Taylor & Francis

Contact us today to become a Wikipedia Library partner. Email wikipedialibrary@wikimedia.org or schedule a call with our team*.

How The Wikipedia Library works

Only the most dedicated Wikipedia volunteers can access The Wikipedia Library. To gain access, volunteers are required to have made more than 500 edits on Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects over a minimum six-month period. Whenever an editor requests content from The Wikipedia Library, our team does a real-time check to verify that they still meet the requirements. Additionally, partners can control access to their content using proxy-based access, coupon codes, emails, or other methods.

How is misinformation addressed on Wikipedia?

Take a minute to learn how volunteer editors monitor the 350 edits that are made on Wikipedia every minute.

Bring attention to your archive

The Wikipedia Library program is flexible: You decide the length of the partnership, all of your existing terms of service continue to apply, and you get real-time access to data about the links added to Wikipedia articles.

Schedule a call to become a Wikipedia Library partner*

*To book a call, please use this Google Calendar link. For details on how the information you share in this form will be handled, see this privacy statement.