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The Wikipedia Library: Books & Bytes
Issue 67, January – February 2025

• East View Press and The Africa Report join the library
• Spotlight: Wikimedia+Libraries International Convention and WikiCredCon
• Tech tip: Suggest page

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Sent by MediaWiki message delivery on behalf of The Wikipedia Library team --18:47, 19 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

The Wikipedia Library: Books & Bytes
Issue 68, March–April 2025

In this issue we highlight two resource renewals, #EveryBookItsReader, a note about Phabricator, and, as always, a roundup of news and community items related to libraries and digital knowledge.

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Sent by MediaWiki message delivery on behalf of The Wikipedia Library team --10:18, 13 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

The Wikipedia Library: Books & Bytes
Issue 69, May–June 2025

In this issue we highlight a new partnership, Citation Watchlist and, as always, a roundup of news and community items related to libraries and digital knowledge.

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Sent by MediaWiki message delivery on behalf of The Wikipedia Library team – 13:10, 1 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]

@Alarob: I'm in the process of rewriting the article on the Battle of Burnt Corn. I know you've done some work on some Creek articles and you've given some suggestions on some of my Creek War forts articles and was wondering if you'd look over my revisions and offer any criticisms/suggestions? It's in one of my sandboxes, at this link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Dofftoubab/sandbox2#Prelude. Let me know if this would be something I need to ask someone else or contact you in a different way! Thank you! Dofftoubab (talk) 03:12, 17 August 2025 (UTC)[reply]

@Dofftoubab: Hey, thanks for notifying me. I have already begun reading the draft. Glad you have taken the initiative to do this. — ℜob C. alias ALAROB 14:00, 17 August 2025 (UTC)[reply]

@Dofftoubab: A general comment: The account of the battle should be less minutely detailed. I suggest removing details that rely on Weir’s book A Paradise of Blood. His method is to follow secondary literature back to primary sources, or the oldest secondary sources, and then paraphrase those in adjective-heavy prose, using his imagination to assign motives and emotions to characters. Imagination is essential when writing history, but it should be led by understanding of context. I don’t think this book succeeds.

Weir makes naive use of sources, especially the first-hand accounts collected decades after the battle by Albert J. Pickett. I’ve read these manuscripts at the Alabama state archives and consider them unreliable, like many retold tales that grew in the telling. The most credible details, like the name of someone who died at a certain point in the battle, are probably overly specific for an encyclopedia article. Our audience is global, and many readers need broad context but will be impatient with minute details. Descendants of those involved will want to dig deeper anyway and don’t need their ancestors named in Wikipedia.

The Sam Dale memoir should also be used with caution. The author (as you know) is not Dale but John F.H. Claiborne, the son of Ferdinand Claiborne, governor of Mississippi Territory and commander of its militia during the Creek War. John’s motives in writing the Sam Dale book were (I believe), first, to publish a pot-boiler, and second, to vindicate his father’s reputation and silence any remaining critics. A good deal of the book is devoted to quoting his father’s letters or to testimonials to Gov. Claiborne’s character and competence. The latter suggest to me that John pleaded and called in favors from every influential figure he could persuade or who had known him fondly as a boy. John also provided his father’s papers to the Mississippi state archive, but those papers have significant gaps that suggest pruning by a devoted son. Sam Dale is a unique character and his life story deserved a less agenda-driven author. But it could have been worse. At least John had lived in the region he was writing about, unlike the hired illustrator who dressed Sam Dale like a character from Robin Hood. ;-)

My views are not definitive, of course.

I should state that I wrote one of the chapters from Tohopeka (2012) in your list of sources; I’m Robert P. Collins. It’s always pleasant to see your work cited. Your source list is very good, despite my criticism, though I would omit A Paradise of Blood. An older work I would include is Sacred Revolt: The Muskogees’ Struggle for a New World by Joel Martin (Boston: Beacon Press, 1991). — ℜob C. alias ALAROB 17:52, 17 August 2025 (UTC)[reply]

@Alarob: Thank you so much for reading over it! I know you've looked at my Canoe Fight article in addition to some of my Creek War forts articles, and I feel I've continued to learn more about the Creek War overall. I had to email the AAS last year to ask a question about my subscription and got a response from Dr. Waselkov (who, unawares to me, is an officer of the AAS). In my replying, I asked if he would read over some of my articles. He said he would if he had time, but that was last October. I don't want to bother him since I know he is involved with many things.

I initially included Weir's book since it had a review on the back from Dr. Waselkov. After you pointed all that out in your reply, I can see by the pages I've fully read what you're talking about. I can go back and remove his references, since I can find all of this in Dr. Waselkov's sources or some of the Encyclopedia of Alabama articles. I felt it would be poor form to have some sources cited so much, so that is why I included Weir in the first place.

I will also go back and trim up some of the "battle" section and remove some extraneous details. I'm going to add Martin's book to my Creek War library and then I'll tidy it up some more and may ping you again. Eventually, I want to rewrite the other Creek War battles, get them to "good article" status, and maybe redo Samuel Dale. I've already tackled writing an article on Jeremiah Austill.

Again, thank you for looking over it! Feels like I'm talking with a celebrity after being in contact with someone who authored a chapter of a book I just read. Dofftoubab (talk) 03:04, 18 August 2025 (UTC)[reply]

@Dofftoubab: Ha, I'm no celebrity, but I am pleased that you are tackling significant articles about Creek and Alabama history. For my part I've done nothing for years about drafting a new William McIntosh article, for example, despite feeling it was sorely needed. So I'm pleased and willing to help.

If you don't mind sharing your email address, why not email me from my home page? I am located in Birmingham in case that is convenient. — ℜob C. alias ALAROB 20:24, 18 August 2025 (UTC)[reply]

@Alarob: Hope you're doing well! We're you able to get my email? I've never sent an email via Wikipedia and you've always been quick to respond on here and I wanted to make sure I was sending it correctly. Please don't take this as me rushing you on anything or being annoying. Thanks for your help! Dofftoubab (talk) 03:57, 5 September 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Hi, @Dofftoubab, and thanks for bearing with me. (I’ve been traveling.) If you don’t mind enclosing your email address in your next Wikipedia-originated email, I’ll write you back there. Wikipedia hides the sender's email address, which is smart I guess, but inconvenient. 🙂 — ℜob C. alias ALAROB 20:22, 22 September 2025 (UTC)[reply]

The Wikipedia Library: Books & Bytes
Issue 70, July–August 2025

• New collections:
  • Times of Malta
  • Africa Intelligence
  • Intelligence Online
  • La Lettre
  • Glitz
• Spotlight: Wikimania

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Sent by MediaWiki message delivery on behalf of The Wikipedia Library team – 13:15, 18 September 2025 (UTC)[reply]

(This message was sent to User:Alarob and is being posted here due to a redirect.)

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The Wikipedia Library: Books & Bytes
Issue 71, September–October 2025

• Spotlight: 1Lib1Ref 2025 in Nigeria
• Frankfurt Book Fair
• Tech tip: Wikipedia Library access template

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Sent by MediaWiki message delivery on behalf of The Wikipedia Library team – 15:21, 18 November 2025 (UTC)[reply]

(This message was sent to User:Alarob and is being posted here due to a redirect.)

The Wikipedia Library: Books & Bytes
Issue 72, November–December 2025

• Renewed partnerships
• Spotlight: Strengthening Wikimedia Collaborations with and for Open Science

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Sent by MediaWiki message delivery on behalf of The Wikipedia Library team – 12:43, 29 January 2026 (UTC)[reply]

(This message was sent to User:Alarob and is being posted here due to a redirect.)

I'm contacting users who signed up as participants of the Wikipedia:Help Project, about a discussion on brainstorming and choosing the first help page to draft on editing Wikipedia pages assisted by AI.

If you are interested, I'll see you at Wikipedia talk:Help Project#Planning help for AI workflows.

Sincerely,    — The Transhumanist   12:58, 19 February 2026 (UTC)[reply]