Wikipedia talk:The Wikipedia Library

Gale

Tracked in Phabricator
Task T410134

Trying to access Gale through the Wikipedia Library portal gives me a "403 Forbidden" error on both my primary desktop computer and on mobile, regardless of the database (Power Search, Academic OneFile, In Context...). Logging off and on again did not fix the issue. DigitalIceAge (talk) 03:36, 14 November 2025 (UTC)

Same here. Timur9008 (talk) 03:42, 14 November 2025 (UTC)

Likewise. Nick Number (talk) 16:10, 14 November 2025 (UTC)

There appears to be a change to the username used by TWL to access Gale, from a separate one for Wikipedia, to a joint one with the Florida Center for Library Automation. It is not clear to me if this is intended or not, but I have experienced the same issue when accessing the product directly through the library page I bookmarked ([1]) which directs to something like [Gale Wikipedia OCLC domain]/[path]?u=wikipedia (e.g. [2]) but using the login.wikipedialibrary.idm.oclc.org proxy (e.g. [3]) works but takes you to a page with ?u=fcla_main. Changing the ?u=wikipedia to ?u=fcla_main in the URL also appears to work for me. Alpha3031 (t • c) 16:32, 14 November 2025 (UTC)

It is a known issue (T410134) that Gale access is currently not working. I hope to have an update at that Phabricator ticket soon. Samwalton9 (WMF) (talk) 14:35, 17 November 2025 (UTC)

Gale... any update?

Trying to access Gale for using their archives of The Times and I'm getting a '403 Forbidden' error. How come there is no longer access to Gale, and when will this be resolved? AA (talk) 21:03, 16 November 2025 (UTC)

@AssociateAffiliate: Please see the brief update above. Also, merging this with the other section :) Samwalton9 (WMF) (talk) 14:37, 17 November 2025 (UTC)

Try changing the bit where it says u=wikipedia in the url to u=fcla_main. Not sure why that works but it seems to be working for me. Alpha3031 (t • c) 13:39, 18 November 2025 (UTC)

Doesn't work for me, asks me for my FCLA password :( AA (talk) 23:47, 22 November 2025 (UTC)

Just a thought as an innocent bystander, try it in an incognito window. That should eliminate any possible issues with caches or stale cookies. File this under "Not a lot of confidence it'll make any difference, but easy enough to try so worth giving it a shot to see what happens". RoySmith (talk) 00:04, 23 November 2025 (UTC)

Looks like it's fixed now. Timur9008 (talk) 17:01, 26 November 2025 (UTC)

Nevermind. Now it says "Max challenge attempts exceeded. Please refresh the page to try again!"

The Gale links that are used in articles work though. Timur9008 (talk) 17:08, 26 November 2025 (UTC)

Tight now,read and it is misunderstanding, proof will explian. ~2025-38736-74 (talk) 04:27, 6 December 2025 (UTC)

Re: Emerald

Hello. I was just wondering if there was an update regarding the access of Emerald documents. I had previously started a discussion five months ago at Wikipedia talk:The Wikipedia Library/Archive 11#Emerald due to this document being inaccessible, which has not changed, compared to another document that I am able to access. Thank you. Aviationwikiflight (talk) 11:46, 14 November 2025 (UTC)

Huh. I kinda just assumed that we didn't have a subscription to all Emerald content, but now that I check the entry for Emerald at wikipedialibrary.wmflabs.org it does say we're supposed to have "Premier journals collection" which certainly sounds like the one that's supposed to have everything. It seems like there's no easy way to check what Emerald is giving us access to as a user either, unlike with ProQuest, Gale etc. which all clearly show the database you're subscribed to and/or searching. I do have access to that specific article through another subscription though so let me know if you'd like me to send it to you somehow or something. Alpha3031 (t • c) 17:06, 14 November 2025 (UTC)

Well that's unfortunate as I had assumed that all documents on Emerald would be available via the Wikipedia Library. Though would it be possible for you to send me the document? Aviationwikiflight (talk) 16:37, 15 November 2025 (UTC)

@Alpha3031@Aviationwikiflight We should have access to everything listed here (dead URL at the time of posting due to Cloudflare outage). This includes that journal, but with a 2006 cutoff, so this particular item just happens to not be in our collection. Sorry! Samwalton9 (WMF) (talk) 12:49, 18 November 2025 (UTC)

Right, I can definitely do that. In fact, I've just sent a text copy of it to you via Special:EmailUser. (have not proofread it but I did redo the OCR for the start of column 3 since I noticed that was obviously wrong) Let me know if you'd like the PDF somehow as well (Maybe by replying, I don't think EmailUser has the ability to do attachments? But I should be able to attach it if you reply.) Alpha3031 (t • c) 13:28, 18 November 2025 (UTC)

That won't be necessary. Thanks a lot for sending it. Aviationwikiflight (talk) 16:44, 18 November 2025 (UTC)

Newspapers.com mobile problems

After I do a search on Newspapers.com, any article I click on says "This page is not available: This page is pending publication, has been removed or moved to a new location". It works on desktop though. ~WikiOriginal-9~ (talk) 17:18, 15 November 2025 (UTC)

@WikiOriginal-9 Odd. Can you share the URLs you are on as you go through these steps on mobile? Thanks. Samwalton9 (WMF) (talk) 14:36, 17 November 2025 (UTC)

It happens on every article I click on. It's just https://www.newspapers.com/search/ I can view clippings though. Thanks, ~WikiOriginal-9~ (talk) 14:41, 17 November 2025 (UTC)

Problem on Taylor & Francis

I'm trying to get an article from the Mariner's Mirror ([4]) and the website is denying my request for the full article. I was able to download one article earlier, but now I can't get anything. What going on?--Sturmvogel 66 (talk) 21:42, 16 November 2025 (UTC)

@Sturmvogel 66 I think this might be a similar issue to the one with Emerald, above, where we do have access to this journal, but this article is just not in the date range we have access to. Sorry about that. Samwalton9 (WMF) (talk) 12:53, 18 November 2025 (UTC)

Crap, it is from 1948, so that makes sense.--Sturmvogel 66 (talk) 16:14, 18 November 2025 (UTC)

Wikipedia Library user survey launching soon

This is just a quick notice to let you know about an upcoming survey we plan to send to Wikipedia Library users within the next week. The survey will be sent via email to all users who have logged in to The Wikipedia Library and were eligible to access content from it when they did so. Our current tentative launch date is this Friday, 12th December, but it's possible this could shift to next week. Please let me know if you have any questions. Samwalton9 (WMF) (talk) 15:09, 10 December 2025 (UTC)

British Newspaper Archive is now available (again)

I'm pleased to let you know that British Newspaper Archive is now available once again in the library! BNA now have a proxy configuration that we were able to use, and so access is available immediately for anyone eligible to use The Wikipedia Library. The only caveat to be aware of is that you need to register an account to access content on the site, even though you're accessing via proxy. You'll be prompted to do this, I just wanted to give folks a heads up. Samwalton9 (WMF) (talk) 15:55, 19 December 2025 (UTC)

Splendid news, thank you @Samwalton9 (WMF). Cheers, SunloungerFrog (talk) 16:10, 19 December 2025 (UTC)

Outstanding. Nick Number (talk) 17:56, 19 December 2025 (UTC)

Fantastic. Thank you for making this happen! --Usernameunique (talk) 22:51, 19 December 2025 (UTC)

Thanks @Samwalton9 (WMF) - I'm not sure how to access BNA as I have had a paid account in the past and my email address (I only have one) will probably conflict. Do I sign in, register or subscribe? These are the options when I click on the BNA in the WP Library. Thanks, T. Tony Holkham (Talk) 10:55, 20 December 2025 (UTC)

It's OK, I signed in with my old details and it now tells me I have free access. Brilliant, thanks again. Tony Holkham (Talk) 10:59, 20 December 2025 (UTC)