View source for Wikibooks

{{Short description|Free resource library of books}}
{{Infobox website
| name = Wikibooks
| logo = [[File:Wikibooks-logo-en.svg|135px|Wikibooks logo from 2009 to the present]]
| screenshot = Wikibooks 2024.png
| collapsible = yes
| caption = Screenshot of wikibooks.org home page
| url = {{URL|https://wikibooks.org/}}
| commercial = No
| type = Textbooks wiki
| language = [[Multilingual]] ({{NUMBEROF|active|wikibooks}} active)<ref name="Sitematrix" />
| registration = Optional
| owner = [[Wikimedia Foundation]]
| author = [[b:User:Karl Wick|User Karl Wick]] and the Wikimedia Community
| launch_date = {{start date and age|2003|07|10}}
| current_status = Active
}}
[[File:Wikibooks growth.png|thumb|right|Growth of the eight largest Wikibooks sites (by language), July 2003–January 2010]]

'''Wikibooks''' is a [[wiki]]-based [[Wikimedia project]] hosted by the [[Wikimedia Foundation]] for the creation of [[free content]] [[digital textbook]]s and annotated texts that anyone can edit.

Initially, the project was created solely in English in July 2003; a later expansion to include additional [[language]]s was started in July 2004.<ref name="WikiStats">{{cite web | url=https://stats.wikimedia.org/wikibooks/EN/TablesArticlesTotal.htm | title=Wikibooks Statistics - Article count (official) | publisher=Wikimedia | access-date=28 January 2018 | archive-date=14 April 2019 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190414141656/https://stats.wikimedia.org/wikibooks/EN/TablesArticlesTotal.htm | url-status=live }}</ref> As of {{CURRENTMONTHNAME}} {{CURRENTYEAR}}, there are Wikibooks sites active for {{NUMBEROF|active|wikibooks}} languages<ref name="Sitematrix">[[Wikimedia]]'s [[MediaWiki]] [[:mw:API:Sitematrix|API:Sitematrix]]. Retrieved {{CURRENTMONTHNAME}} {{CURRENTYEAR}} from [[:c:Data:Wikipedia statistics/meta.tab|Data:Wikipedia statistics/meta.tab]]</ref> comprising a total of {{NUMBEROF|articles|totalactive.wikibooks|N}} articles and {{NUMBEROF|activeusers|totalactive.wikibooks|N}} recently active editors.<ref name="Siteinfo">[[Wikimedia]]'s [[MediaWiki]]  [[:mw:API:Siteinfo|API:Siteinfo]]. Retrieved {{CURRENTMONTHNAME}} {{CURRENTYEAR}} from [[:c:Data:Wikipedia statistics/data.tab|Data:Wikipedia statistics/data.tab]]</ref>  At primary stages it was called ''Wikimedia Free Textbook Project'' and ''Wikimedia-Textbooks''.

== History ==
The wikibooks.org domain was registered on July 19, 2003.<ref>{{cite web|title=Wikibooks.org Whois Record|url=http://whois.domaintools.com/wikibooks.org|publisher=DomainTools, LLC|access-date=22 January 2013|archive-date=23 January 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220123190604/https://whois.domaintools.com/wikibooks.org|url-status=live}}</ref> It was launched to host and build free textbooks on subjects such as [[organic chemistry]] and [[physics]], in response to a request by Wikipedia contributor Karl Wick.<ref>{{cite web|title=Talk:Science Hypertextbook project|work=Wikimedia Meta-Wiki|publisher=Wikimedia Foundation|date=June 23, 2003|accessdate=October 1, 2022|url=https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:PermanentLink/153077}}</ref><ref>{{cite mailing list|title=a spot for WP textbook devel|first=Karl|last=Wick|mailing-list=wikien-l@lists.wikimedia.org|publisher=Wikimedia Foundation|date=June 17, 2003|accessdate=October 1, 2022|url=https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikien-l@lists.wikimedia.org/thread/CYNWNQMHZTBDWXLJEGEARN3AAQAP2V4L/}}</ref> Three major sub-projects, Wikijunior, Cookbook and [[Wikiversity]], were created within Wikibooks before its official policy was later changed so that future incubator-type projects are started according to the Wikimedia Foundation's new project policy.{{clarify|date=May 2022}}

In August 2006, Wikiversity became an independent Wikimedia Foundation project.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://mentalfloss.com/article/14633/wikipedia-now-serving-k-12-and-over|title=Wikipedia, now serving K-12 and over|date=2006-08-04|website=Mental Floss |language=en|access-date=2019-09-28|archive-date=2019-09-28|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190928193247/http://mentalfloss.com/article/14633/wikipedia-now-serving-k-12-and-over|url-status=dead }}</ref>

Since 2008, Wikibooks has been included in [[BASE (search engine)|BASE]].<ref>{{cite web <!-- Citation bot no --> |url=https://www.base-search.net/Record/a54c9de5aeca8c528f687d1e1d3827e4a5c3eb8638dc57a0557413f8c3206069/|title=Wikibooks: Viquillibres: Portada|website=Bielefeld Academic Search Engine |access-date=15 January 2018|archive-date=28 November 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221128015710/https://www.base-search.net/Record/a54c9de5aeca8c528f687d1e1d3827e4a5c3eb8638dc57a0557413f8c3206069/|url-status=live}}</ref>

In June 2016, [[Compete.com]] estimated that Wikibooks had 1,478,812 unique visitors.<ref>{{cite web |url-status=dead |url=http://siteanalytics.compete.com/wikibooks.org/ |title=Site Profile for wikibooks.org |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100608021108/http://siteanalytics.compete.com/wikibooks.org/ |archive-date=2010-06-08 |website=compete |access-date=July 19, 2016}}</ref>

=== Wikijunior ===
Wikijunior is a subproject of Wikibooks that specializes in books for children. The project consists of both a magazine and a website, and is currently being developed in English, Danish, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Spanish, Arabic and Bangla. It is funded by a grant from the Beck Foundation.{{citation needed|date=January 2023}}

== Book content ==
[[File:Development of "Mathe für Nicht-Freaks" from Sep 2009 to June 2016.webm|thumb|Visualization of the development in the German Wikibook project [[b:de:Mathe für Nicht-Freaks|Mathe für Nicht-Freaks]]]]
While some books are original, others began as text copied over from other sources of free content textbooks found on the Internet. All of the site's content is released under a [[Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike]] license (or a compatible license). This means that, as with its sister project, Wikipedia, contributions remain copyrighted to their creators, while the licensing ensures that it can be freely distributed and reused subject to certain conditions.

[[File:Wikibooks structure.svg|thumb|How English Wikibooks is structured]]
Wikibooks differs from [[Wikisource]] in that Wikisource collects exact copies and original translations of existing free content works, such as the original text of [[Shakespeare|Shakespearean plays]], while Wikibooks is dedicated either to original works, significantly altered versions of existing works, or annotations to original works.

== Multilingual statistics ==
As of {{CURRENTMONTHNAME}} {{CURRENTYEAR}}, there are Wikibooks sites for {{NUMBEROF|languages|wikibooks}} languages of which {{NUMBEROF|active|wikibooks}} are active and {{NUMBEROF|closed|wikibooks}} are closed.<ref name="Sitematrix" /> The active sites have {{NUMBEROF|articles|totalactive.wikibooks|N}} articles and the closed sites have {{NUMBEROF|articles|totalclosed.wikibooks|N}} articles.<ref name="Siteinfo" /> There are {{NUMBEROF|users|totalactive.wikibooks|N}} registered users of which {{NUMBEROF|activeusers|totalactive.wikibooks|N}} are recently active.<ref name="Siteinfo" />

The top ten Wikibooks language projects by mainspace article count:<ref name="Siteinfo" />
{| class="wikitable sortable" style="text-align:right"
|-
!No.!!Language!!Wiki!!Good!!Total!!Edits!!Admins!!Users!!Active users!!Files
{{for nowiki|<!-- Caution: do not remove this linebreak --> 
|<nowiki>
|-
| {{{i}}}
| {{Mw lang|{{Wikipedia rank by size|{{{i}}}|wikibooks}}}} 
| [[:b:{{Wikipedia rank by size|{{{i}}}|wikibooks}}:|{{Wikipedia rank by size|{{{i}}}|wikibooks}}]]
| {{NUMBEROF|articles|{{Wikipedia rank by size|{{{i}}}|wikibooks}}.wikibooks|N}}
| {{NUMBEROF|pages|{{Wikipedia rank by size|{{{i}}}|wikibooks}}.wikibooks|N}}
| {{NUMBEROF|edits|{{Wikipedia rank by size|{{{i}}}|wikibooks}}.wikibooks|N}}
| {{NUMBEROF|admins|{{Wikipedia rank by size|{{{i}}}|wikibooks}}.wikibooks|N}}
| {{NUMBEROF|users|{{Wikipedia rank by size|{{{i}}}|wikibooks}}.wikibooks|N}}
| {{NUMBEROF|activeusers|{{Wikipedia rank by size|{{{i}}}|wikibooks}}.wikibooks|N}}
| {{NUMBEROF|files|{{Wikipedia rank by size|{{{i}}}|wikibooks}}.wikibooks|N}}</nowiki>|count=10 }} 
|}
For a complete list with totals, see Wikimedia Statistics.<ref name="Wikimedia Statistics">{{cite web |url=http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikibooks#Statistics |title=Wikibooks Statistics |work=[[WP:Meta|Meta.Wikimedia.org]] |access-date=11 September 2020 |archive-date=13 September 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200913025953/https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikibooks#Statistics |url-status=live }}</ref>

== Reception ==
Meng-Fen et al suggested that while there isn't much social connection between contributors of Wikibooks, the contributors had no major issues coordinating to write books.<ref>{{Cite journal |title=Wikibooks and Wikibookians: Loosely Coupled Community or a Choice for Future Textbooks? |journal=IEEE Transactions on Learning Technologies| date=October 2011 | volume=4 | issue=4 | pages=327–339 | doi=10.1109/TLT.2011.12 | last1=Lin | first1=Meng-Fen Grace | last2=Sajjapanroj | first2=Suthiporn | last3=Bonk | first3=Curtis J. |bibcode=2011ITLT....4..327L }}</ref>

== See also ==
* [[CK-12 Foundation]]
* [[Digital library]]
* [[European Library]]
* [[Free High School Science Texts]]
* [[Global Text]]
* [[ibiblio]]
* [[LibreTexts]]
* [[LibriVox]], an online digital library of free public domain audiobooks.
* [[Open Content Alliance]]
* [[Open textbook]]
* [[Project Gutenberg]]
* [[Universal library]]
* [[WikiToLearn]]

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== Further reading ==
* {{cite web |year=2005 |title=All Systems Go: The Newly Emerging Infrastructure to Support Free Books|author=Ben Crowell|url=http://www.lightandmatter.com/article/infrastructure.html|access-date=June 18, 2006}}
* {{cite web |url=http://www.ednews.org/articles/an-interview-with-curtis-bonk-a-look-at-wikibooks-and-wikibookians.html |title=An Interview with Curtis Bonk: A Look at Wikibooks and Wikibookians |publisher=EducationNews.org |date=2009-07-14 |author=Michael F. Shaughnessy |access-date=2009-08-02 |archive-date=2016-08-29 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160829233835/http://www.ednews.org/articles/an-interview-with-curtis-bonk-a-look-at-wikibooks-and-wikibookians.html |url-status=dead }}

== External links ==
{{Commons category}}
* {{Official website}}
* [[Wikipedia:List of Wikibooks's]]
* [[metawiki:Wikibooks/Table|Wikibooks Language Editions: list of Wikibooks for various languages ordered by size.]]
* [[m:Wikibooks|Wikibooks page on Meta-Wiki]]
* [https://www.cnet.com/news/wikibooks-takes-on-textbook-industry/ Wikibooks takes on textbook industry]
* [[b:Wikibooks:What is Wikibooks?|What is Wikibooks?]] (Wikibooks)
* [[v:Wikibooks|Wikibooks]] (Wikiversity)

{{Wikimedia Foundation}}
{{E-book digital distribution platforms}}
{{ebooks}}

[[Category:Ebook sources]]
[[Category:Ebook suppliers]]
[[Category:Internet properties established in 2003]]
[[Category:Multilingual websites]]
[[Category:Wikimedia projects]]
[[Category:Textbooks]]