Archive for the ‘wikipedia’ Category

Saturday, June 16th, 2012

The Top Books on Wikipedia

We just re-analyzed all of English Wikipedia, looking for citations to LibraryThing works (using ISBNs, OCLC numbers, title and authors, etc.) We found over 1.1 million citations to 412,000 LibraryThing works(1).

Work pages have a “References” section, showing all the links. These have been improved. Links now go to a lightbox, showing all the other pages that link to the page, and of course linking to Wikipedia. I’ve also added a Zeitgeist: Wikipedia page, showing the most frequently cited works and entries.

Here are the top 100 works, by Wikipedia citations, a catalog of pop-songs, decorated German soldiers, politicians, and… fungi!

25 Top-Cited books on Wikipedia

  1. Guinness World Records: British Hit Singles and Albums by David Roberts (3,889 citations)
  2. Ritterkreuzträger 1939-1945 by Veit Scherzer (2,317 citations)
  3. The Billboard Book of Top 40 Country Hits by Joel Whitburn (1,908 citations)
  4. British parliamentary election results 1832-1885 by Fred W. S. Craig (1,747 citations)
  5. Air Force Combat Units of World War II by Maurer Maurer (1,548 citations)
  6. Dictionary of the Fungi by Paul M Kirk (1,464 citations)
  7. The Text of the New Testament an Introduction to the Critical Editions and to the Theory and Practice of Modern Textual by Kurt Aland (1,276 citations)
  8. Andrews’ Diseases of the Skin: Clinical Dermatology (James, Andrew’s Disease of the Skin) by William D. James MD (1,247 citations)
  9. Jane’s Encyclopedia of Aviation: Revised Edition (Jane’s Encyclopedia of Aviation) by Studio Editions Ltd. (1,186 citations)
  10. Elections in Europe : a data handbook by Dieter Nohlen (1,174 citations)
  11. New Zealand mollusca: Marine, land, and freshwater shells by A. W. B. Powell (1,135 citations)
  12. A Plain Introduction to the Criticism of the New Testament (2 volumes) by Frederick Henry Ambrose Scrivener (1,129 citations)
  13. Joel Whitburn Presents Hot Country Songs 1944 to 2008 by Joel Whitburn (1,114 citations)
  14. Handbook of British Chronology (Royal Historical Society Guides and Handbooks) by E. B. Pryde (1,040 citations)
  15. The Directory of Railway Stations: Details Every Public and Private Passenger Station, Halt, Platform and Stopping Place by R. V. J. Butt (1,020 citations)
  16. Port Vale Personalities: A Biographical Dictionary of Players, Officials and Supporters by Jeff Kent (949 citations)
  17. Wrestling Title Histories by Royal Duncan (944 citations)
  18. Dermatology (2 Volume Set) by Jean L. Bolognia (938 citations)
  19. British Parliamentary Election Results by F. W. S. Craig (911 citations)
  20. Civil War High Commands by John Eicher (879 citations)
  21. The encyclopedia of AFL footballers by Russell Holmesby (877 citations)
  22. The Dinosauria by David B. Weishampel (860 citations)
  23. Conway’s All the World’s Fighting Ships: 1906-1921 (Conway’s All the World’s Fighting Ships, Vol 2) by Randal Gray (817 citations)
  24. Kurzgefasste Liste der griechischen Handschriften des Neuen Testaments by Kurt Aland (803 citations)
  25. The Ship of the Line: The Development of the Battlefleet, 1650-1850 (The Ship of the line) by Brian Lavery (778 citations)
  26. Australian Chart Book 1970-1992 by David Kent (760 citations)
  27. Football League Players’ Records 1888 to 1939 by Michael A Joyce (747 citations)
  28. Conway’s All the World’s Fighting Ships, 1860-1905 by Robert Gardiner (738 citations)
  29. Japan Encyclopedia (Harvard University Press Reference Library) by Louis Frédéric (736 citations)
  30. The Profile Method for Classifying and Evaluating Manuscript Evidence by Frederik Wisse (730 citations)
  31. Snake Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference, Volume 1 by Roy W. McDiarmid (711 citations)
  32. British Warships in the Age of Sail 1793-1817: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates by Rif Winfield (647 citations)
  33. The Great Rock Discography by Martin C. Strong (644 citations)
  34. The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (20 Volume Set) by Stanley Sadie (636 citations)
  35. The Book of Golden Discs by Joseph Murrells (633 citations)
  36. The science-fantasy publishers: A critical and bibliographic history by Jack L. Chalker (571 citations)
  37. Air Force combat wings : lineage and honors histories, 1947-1977 by Charles A. Ravenstein (570 citations)
  38. The Concise Oxford Chronology of English Literature by Michael Cox (559 citations)
  39. Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball: The Official Record of Minor League Baseball by Lloyd Johnson (548 citations)
  40. The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium (3-Volume Set) by Alexander P. Kazhdan (541 citations)
  41. The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem by Benny Morris (530 citations)
  42. CRC Handbook: Chemistry & Physics by David R. Lide (525 citations)
  43. Birmingham City by Tony Matthews (519 citations)
  44. All That Remains: The Palestinian Villages Occupied and Depopulated by Israel in 1948 by Walid Khalidi (517 citations)
  45. The PFA Premier & Football League players’ records, 1946-2005 by Barry J. Hugman (512 citations)
  46. The Oxford Companion to Wine by Jancis Robinson (491 citations)
  47. Mammal species of the world : a taxonomic and geographic reference by Don E. Wilson (478 citations)
  48. DC Comics Year by Year: A Visual Chronicle by Daniel Wallace (478 citations)
  49. The DC Comics Encyclopedia, Updated and Expanded Edition by Michael Teitelbaum (477 citations)
  50. The New Grove Dictionary of Opera : A-D by Stanley Sadie (476 citations)
  51. Fields of Praise by David B. Smith (474 citations)
  52. The Great Indie Discography by Martin C. Strong (467 citations)
  53. Irish Kings & High Kings: Irish Kings and High Kings (Four Courts History Classics) by F. J. Byrne (460 citations)
  54. The Canadian directory of Parliament, 1867-1967 by James K. Johnson (449 citations)
  55. Oxfordshire by Jennifer Sherwood (443 citations)
  56. The Empire Ships: A Record of British-Built and Acquired Merchant Ships During the Second World War by W. H. Mitchell (437 citations)
  57. Chronology of British History by Alan Palmer (423 citations)
  58. The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy Through 1968: A Bibliographic Survey of the Fields of Science Fiction, F by Donald Henry Tuck (414 citations)
  59. Enzyklopädie des deutschen Ligafußballs 7. Vereinslexikon by Hardy Grüne (406 citations)
  60. Oregon Geographic Names by Lewis A. McArthur (406 citations)
  61. Michigan Place Names by Walter Romig (402 citations)
  62. Squadrons of the Royal Air Force and Commonwealth, 1918-88 by James J. Halley (395 citations)
  63. Who’s Who 2008: 160th annual edition (Who’s Who) by A&C Black (392 citations)
  64. Dictionary of Minor Planet Names by Lutz D. Schmadel (392 citations)
  65. The Norton/Grove Concise Encyclopedia of Music by Stanley Sadie (385 citations)
  66. World Encyclopaedia of Aero Engines by Bill Gunston (363 citations)
  67. Cheshire: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) by Clare Hartwell (357 citations)
  68. The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World by James F. Clements (357 citations)
  69. Collins guide to the sea fishes of New Zealand by Tony Ayling (354 citations)
  70. The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Animals by Douglas Palmer (353 citations)
  71. Fitzpatrick’s Dermatology in General Medicine (2 Volume Set) by Irwin M. Freedberg (352 citations)
  72. Ohio Atlas & Gazetteer by DeLorme Publishing (349 citations)
  73. The Complete Encyclopedia of World Aircraft by David Donald (346 citations)
  74. NFL 2001 Record and Fact Book by National Football League (338 citations)
  75. The Men Who Made Gillingham Football Club by Roger Triggs (336 citations)
  76. The Greenhill Napoleonic Wars Data Book by Digby Smith (335 citations)
  77. The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits by Joel Whitburn (334 citations)
  78. Warships of the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1869-1945 by Hansgeorg Jentschura (329 citations)
  79. The Book of Sydney Suburbs by Gerald Healy (327 citations)
  80. The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows 1946 – Present, Eighth Edition by Tim Brooks (327 citations)
  81. The New Rolling Stone Album Guide: Completely Revised and Updated 4th Edition by Nathan Brackett (327 citations)
  82. Chronicle of Gods and Sovereigns by Chikafusa Kitabatake (327 citations)
  83. Total Television: A Comprehensive Guide to Programming from 1948 to the Present by Alex McNeil (322 citations)
  84. Birds of Venezuela (Princeton Paperbacks) by Steven L. Hilty (322 citations)
  85. The Complete Book of Fighters: An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Every Fighter Aircraft Built and Flown by William Green (320 citations)
  86. Heroic Worlds: A History and Guide to Role Playing Games by Lawrence Schick (317 citations)
  87. Cassell’s Chronology of World History: Dates, Events and Ideas That Made History by Hywel Williams (316 citations)
  88. The New Penguin Opera Guide (Penguin Reference Books) by Amanda Holden (314 citations)
  89. The Oxford Companion to Chess by David Hooper (307 citations)
  90. 328 Outstanding Japanese Photographers by Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography (306 citations)
  91. Conway’s All the World’s Fighting Ships 1922-1946 by Roger Chesneau (303 citations)
  92. U.S. Submarines Through 1945: An Illustrated Design History by Norman Friedman (302 citations)
  93. Blackpool: A Complete Record, 1887-1992 by Roy Calley (298 citations)
  94. The Welsh Academy Encyclopaedia of Wales by John Davies (296 citations)
  95. Historic Spots in California by Mildred Brooke Hoover (295 citations)
  96. The Virgin Encyclopedia of Reggae (Virgin Encyclopedias of Popular Music) by Colin Larkin (295 citations)
  97. Indie Hits: The Complete UK Independent Charts 1980-1989 by Barry Lazell (292 citations)
  98. Encyclopedia of Stoke City 1868-1994 by Tony Matthews (291 citations)
  99. Billboard’s Hot Dance/Disco 1974-2003 by Joel Whitburn (290 citations)
  100. The New Grove Dictionary of Opera: 4 volumes by Stanley Sadie (289 citations)

See the rest on Zeitgeist: Wikipedia page.


1. This is a 120% more than 2009.

Labels: citations, wiki, wikipedia

Sunday, November 22nd, 2009

The Books of Wikipedia

UPDATE: I’m going to take another swipe at the data here. I’ve found too many places where it looks like citations aren’t registering. I’ll update when I can. Meanwhile, I’m moving the Secret Santa post to the top again. (Tim)

I’ve added a new “References” section to work pages, and within that a list of the Wikipedia articles that cite the work.

This feature comes from a complete parse of the English Wikipedia data dump, looking for citations and other references to books.

All told, the data covers 251,911 pages and includes 540,000 citations. They cover some 227,852 works. This is a marked improvement over 2007, when a similar effort found citations to LibraryThing works on only 90,136 pages. It’s not perfect. I don’t try to capture non-ISBN references in running text.* But it’s interesting.** Come talk about it here.

Here are the top 100 books:

Top 100 Most-Frequenty Cited Books in the English Wikipedia
1. 2,122 Guinness World Records: British Hit Singles and Albums
2. 1,313 Andrews’ Diseases of the Skin: Clinical Dermatology (James, Andrew’s Disease of the Skin)
3. 1,231 Air Force Combat Units of World War II
4. 1,184 Jane’s encyclopedia of aviation
5. 839 British parliamentary election results, 1918-1949
6. 764 The Ship of the Line: The Development of the Battlefleet, 1650-1850 (The Ship of the line)
7. 603 Handbook of British Chronology (Royal Historical Society Guides and Handbooks, Volume 2)
8. 603 Conway’s All the World’s Fighting Ships, 1860-1905
9. 591 The science-fantasy publishers: A critical and bibliographic history
10. 560 Civil War High Commands
11. 539 Wrestling Title Histories
12. 514 A Plain Introduction to the Criticism of the New Testament (2 volumes)
13. 504 The Concise Oxford Chronology of English Literature
14. 464 The Dinosauria
15. 463 The DC Comics Encyclopedia, Updated and Expanded Edition
16. 460 The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem
17. 452 The Canadian directory of Parliament, 1867-1967
18. 442 All That Remains: The Palestinian Villages Occupied and Depopulated by Israel in 1948
19. 419 Air Force combat wings : lineage and honors histories, 1947-1977
20. 415 The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy Through 1968; Volume 1: Who’s Who A-L
21. 414 The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians
22. 406 Fields of Praise: Official History of the Welsh Rugby Union, 1881-1981
23. 403 Birmingham City
24. 398 The New Grove Dictionary of Opera : A-D
25. 377 Kurzgefasste Liste der griechischen Handschriften des Neuen Testaments
26. 371 Fitzpatrick’s Dermatology In General Medicine (Two Vol. Set)
27. 362 NFL 2001 Record and Fact Book
28. 356 The Marshall Illustrated Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs & Prehistoric Animals: A Comprehensive Color Guide to Over 500 Specie
29. 348 The Pimlico Chronology of British History: From 250, 000 BC to the Present Day
30. 347 Michigan Place Names (Great Lakes Books)
31. 345 The Directory of Railway Stations: Details Every Public and Private Passenger Station, Halt, Platform and Stopping Place
32. 342 The Oxford Companion to Wine, 3rd Edition
33. 341 Collins Guide to the Sea Fishes of New Zealand
34. 334 The Book of Sydney Suburbs
35. 331 The Men Who Made Gillingham Football Club
36. 331 Register of Ships of the U.S. Navy, 1775-1990: Major Combatants
37. 315 Oregon Geographic Names
38. 305 日本写真家事典―東京都写真美術館所蔵作家 (東京都写真美術館叢書)
39. 296 U.S. Submarines Through 1945: An Illustrated Design History
40. 294 Chronicle of Gods and Sovereigns
41. 289 The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy Through 1968: A Bibliographic Survey of the Fields of Science Fiction, F
42. 281 Reed New Zealand Atlas
43. 277 Music in the Renaissance
44. 277 Ohio Atlas and Gazetteer (Atlas and Gazetteer)
45. 273 Enzyklopädie des deutschen Ligafußballs 7. Vereinslexikon
46. 271 The Text of the New Testament an Introduction to the Critical Editions and to the Theory and Practice of Modern Textual
47. 268 Blackpool (Complete Record)
48. 266 The PFA Premier & Football League players’ records, 1946-2005
49. 261 The Oxford Companion to Chess
50. 259 Dictionary of Minor Planet Names
51. 256 A Guide to the Birds of Costa Rica (Comstock Book)
52. 251 Saints!: Complete Record of Southampton Football Club, 1885-1987
53. 247 Cassell’s Chronology of World History: Dates, Events and Ideas That Made History
54. 247 The Book of Golden Discs
55. 243 Squadrons of the Royal Air Force and Commonwealth, 1918-88
56. 236 Retreat to the Reich: The German Defeat in France, 1944
57. 236 RAF Squadrons: A Comprehensive Record of the Movement and Equipment of All RAF Squadrons and Their Antecedents Since 191
58. 231 Australian Chart Book 1970-1992
59. 231 The Phoenix Book of International Rugby Records
60. 228 Warships of the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1869-1945
61. 224 US Air Force Air Power Directory
62. 222 Handbook of Inorganic Chemicals
63. 221 Rough Guide to World Music Volume Two: Latin and North America, the Caribbean, Asia & the Pacific (Rough Guide Music Gui
64. 219 In the Nick of Time: Motion Picture Sound Serials
65. 215 A Guide to the Birds of Trinidad and Tobago
66. 212 Encyclopedia of Fishes, Second Edition (Natural World)
67. 208 The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World
68. 205 The Kentucky Encyclopedia
69. 205 Arsenal Who’s Who
70. 205 Guia de Catalunya. Tots els pobles i totes les comarques
71. 204 Armor Battles of the Waffen SS, 1943-45 (Stackpole Military History Series)
72. 203 Sixty Years of Arkham House: A History and Bibliography
73. 203 Indie Hits: The Complete UK Independent Charts 1980-1989
74. 201 The Complete Book of the Summer Olympics
75. 201 The geographic atlas of New Zealand
76. 201 The International Rugby Championship 1883-1983
77. 200 The Virgin Encyclopedia of Reggae (Virgin Encyclopedias of Popular Music)
78. 199 Arkham House Books: A Collector’s Guide
79. 198 Complete Encyclopedia of World Aircraft
80. 196 Conway’s All the World’s Fighting Ships: 1906-1921 (Conway’s All the World’s Fighting Ships, Vol 2)
81. 195 The fighting ships of the Rising Sun: The drama of the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1895-1945
82. 192 Economics: Principles in Action
83. 191 New RHS Dictionary of Gardening
84. 190 Fungal Families of the World (Cabi Publishing)
85. 189 The Vertigo Encyclopedia
86. 188 Dermatology: 2-Volume Set
87. 187 The National Register of Historic Places in Minnesota: A Guide (Minnesota)
88. 187 Minding the House: A Biographical Guide to Prince Edward Island MLAs, 1873-1993
89. 186 Domesday Book: A Complete Translation (Alecto Historical Editions)
90. 186 The Beaulieu Encyclopedia of the Automobile (3 Vol Set)
91. 185 Mit Eichenlaub und Schwertern : die höchstdekorierten Soldaten des Zweiten Weltkrieges
92. 184 The Mountains of England and Wales, Volume 1: Wales
93. 183 The Gangs of New York: An Informal History of the Underworld
94. 183 The Oxford Dictionary of Opera
95. 179 Generals in Blue Lives of the Union Commanders: Lives of the Union Commanders
96. 178 The Arkham House Companion: Fifty Years of Arkham House : A Bibliographical History and Collector’s Price Guide to Arkha
97. 177 David and Charles Book of Castles
98. 175 Encyclopedia of Contemporary Christian Music (Recent Releases)
99. 174 The Simpsons: A Complete Guide to Our Favorite Family
100. 171 Hot Dance/Disco 1974-2003
Source: LibraryThing.com

Here’s the table above, in selectable form, in case you want to put it on your blog:


*The parse used ISBNs, OCLC and LCCN numbers and title/author combinations, in both running text (for ISBNs) and citations. In 2007, I used titles and authors in running text. But this produces some false positives and, basically, would have tied up a server for a week.
**I don’t want to start a fight, but I think the winners suggest alarming unevenness. They look like special cases—a bunch of devotees going citation-mad. While everyone knows Wikipedia is driven by passion, the theory is that large numbers and diverse viewpoints tamp down some of the excesses there. That said, I am going to take another crack at the data, hoping some of these effects diminish.

Labels: new features, references, wikipedia