Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Dictionary of National Biography/Missing women

Suggestion for expansion

I welcome this project. I would like to ask for an addition to it, though I am not sure of the correct wording. Would it be possible for one of the robot-tools to go through more recent editions of the DNB, extract the names of women who do not yet have Wikipedia articles, and add them to this list? I realise that their DNB articles will still be under copyright, so the material cannot be taken verbatim, but it would serve as a useful pointer to those women deemed notable by the consensus of scholars. Material can be added at will, as and when. BrainyBabe (talk) 18:30, 1 August 2013 (UTC)

It could be done in a couple of ways. One is simply to find the supplement volumes issued by Oxford every ten years, up to the new edition. The online ODNB itself has roughly twice as many entries, at about 60,000, as are in the current scope of the DNB project. So that would be a lot of combing through, to find the women. It would certainly be worthwhile, but is the sort of task to approach by going through 1000 at a time. (I suspect there are lists, though, the point would be to find someone with one.) Charles Matthews (talk) 07:34, 27 August 2013 (UTC)

Thanks for your reply. I wonder how we might find someone with lists. Does Wikimedia have a working relationship with either OUP or whoever holds the copyright on the C20 versions of the DNB? What would be our next step? Where might we cross-post this request within Wikipedia? BrainyBabe (talk) 10:46, 27 August 2013 (UTC)

Funnily enough I started doing a similar project about 7 or 8 weeks ago. Were I to complete it I would not currently be allowed to "cut and paste" the results to Wikipedia so I abandoned (and deleted) what I had. I believe I am permitted, though, to send such lists by email, or to post them outside en:WP and provide a link. I have done this with lists of other articles/missing articles. All the best: Rich Farmbrough, 00:34, 3 September 2014 (UTC).