Wikipedia:Public domain resources: Difference between revisions

There are many resources available on the net that are in the public domain, and therefore freely usable without restrictions for Wikipedia content. There are also many copyrighted resources whose licensing terms are liberal enough that they can generally be used as well. Below is a list of some of each; please add to this if you discover new resources.

See also: Public domain image resources

Please don't data dump!

The resources below are valuable, but many are very old, context-dependent, written from biased points of view, and otherwise are not in themselves good encyclopedia articles. The 1911 encyclopedia discussed below is a good example of this - it contains some useful information, but also antiquated writing style and innumerable errors of fact. So please, if you copy material from these sources, make sure you take some time to edit, update, introduce, or otherwise produce a good article out of it rather than just dumping it here verbatim. We don't want Wikipedia to become shovelware.

Hot news: The Creative Commons initiative may become a valuable new resource for Wikipedia authors -- please write more about this here as things develop.

Tools for discovering public domain resources

Here are some web searches which may help discover U.S. Federal Government and other public domain documents. Please note that you must still manually verify that documents are in the public domain. Please note that not all sites in the .gov domain are U.S. federal government sites: some may be U.S. state or other local government sites.

• This Google search for '"not copyrighted" site:.gov' finds documents on websites in the .gov domain that contain the text "not copyrighted".
• This Google search for '"public domain" site:.gov' finds documents on websites in the .gov domain that contain the text "public domain".

Google searches for exact phrases:

• "this document is in the public domain" (estimated 2500+ hits)
• "this page is in the public domain" (estimated 1000+ hits)
• "this information is in the public domain" (extimated 1000+ hits)
• "this text is in the public domain" (estimated 2000+ hits)

True Public Domain Resources

These resources are completely free of copyright restrictions, and can therefore be used and modified at will for any Wikipedia page. Some (such as Project Gutenberg texts and the public domain dictionary) are in the public domain either because the author has renounced their copyright or because they are very old and their copyrights have expired. (Care should be taken to bring such texts up to date.)

Keep in mind Wikipedia is not a dictionary, though entries should begin with a good definition.

• Project Gutenberg See in particular The Project Gutenberg Encyclopedia (although only Vol 1 of this seems to be available). Note that not all of the Project Gutenberg text are fully in the public domain. Read the license of the respective texts carefully.
• 1911 Encyclopedia A complete scanned version of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica. The OCR quality is not very high. Some articles end in the middle and continue on the next page. The writing style is antiquated, and the material contains many factual errors. Anything taken from here needs fact-checking and editing.
• Most publications of the United States Federal Government. Under the Federal Copyright Act material that is originated by the Federal government is not subject to copyright. In some cases, material may originate with a private contractor which assigns the copyright to the agency. However, material that is generated by the Federal government which doesn't have a notice can be copied. Note this only applies to the *Federal* government. United States state governments can copyright materials.
  • U.S. Census Bureau Has an enormous range of facts and figures which we will find helpful in fleshing out articles about cities and states.
    • Summary Demographic Data by Country from the US Census Bureau
  • CIA World Factbook Contains basic facts on all the countries of the world.
  • U.S. State Dept.: Background notes on the countries of the world. Also see their copyright notice, which, as you'll see, places material that is not explicitly copyrighted in the public domain.
  • NIST Dictionary of Algorithms, Data Structures, and Problems: Huge, high-quality resource. All entries are in the public domain except for a few that carry an explicit copyright notice.
  • Federal Emergency Management Agency: Not sure how much of this is useful, but anyway it's under the same terms as the U.S. Department of State site: all in the public domain unless it carries an explicit copyright notice.
  • U.S. Environmental Protection Agency: copyright notice here, typical U.S. gov't terms. Does have some good information for people patient enough to find it.
  • US Energy Information Agency - statistics and info on energy industry (mostly US but some stuff for the world) - they appreciate but do not require acknowledgement (copyright info here)
  • U.S. National Toxicology Program: copyright notice here, typical U.S. govt terms.
  • U.S. Navy, Info on specific ships, ** Air Force Link
  • Medline at the NIH copyright terms here indicating materials in public domain unless indicated otherwise
  • NIH public domain publications on urology
  • NIMH Patient education materials (Public Domain)
  • A large collection of public domain information sheets on various neurological disorders
    • Note: This Google search for "nih publication "not copyrighted" site:.gov" should help uncover more NIH public domain documents
  • Federal Standard 1037C, a telecommunications glossary, appears to be mostly in the public domain based on these principles, and is a source of a large number of bits of useful material. A few items are derived from copyrighted sources: where this is the case, there is an attribution to the source. Note: a substantial number of non-trivial 1037C articles are now incorporated into Wikipedia -- please note that only those articles with substantial content from 100% public domain sources are appropriate to be used here
  • DISA site about commercial telecommunications standards From the site: "This site is maintained by the Commercial Standards Division of the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) to provide information about the current status of commercial telecommunications standards."
  • Occupational Outlook Handbook Contains descriptions of a great many occupations such as Physical Therapist.
  • Library of Congress Country Studies information on 101 countries, including detailed histories.
  • NASA glossary of terms - appears to be in the PD, please check
  • NASA GISS glossary of climate terms
  • NASA Earth Observatory Glossary
  • US Forest Service Fire Effects Database Database of current information on a wide variety of tree, shrub, grass, mammal, bird, reptile and amphibian species found largely in North America -- great reference material
  • USGS Mineral Resources Program - "The Mineral Resources Program provides and communicates current, impartial information on the occurrence, quality, quantity, and availability of mineral resources."
  • Voice Of America - All text, audio and video material produced exclusively by the Voice of America is public domain. However, some images and graphics are licensed for use and covered by all applicable copyright laws.
• Bulfinch's mythology from project gutenberg
• Online Book Initiative
• The Household Cyclopedia
• The Jargon File Eric S. Raymond's definitive work on geek-speak.
• Physics for Free has two public domain physics books by a Yale professor: one about basic physics, one about groups and particles.
• Public domain lecture notes: "Introduction to Computer Science", "Data Structures" and "Analysis of Algorithms"
• Hypertext Webster Gateway A searchable interface to a 1913 public-domain Webster's dictionary, downloadable here: Public Domain Dictionary
• Biblical dictionaries: Some late nineteenth century Biblical dictionaries; these might need work to render unbiased and up to date.
• Public Domain Biblical references
• Christian Classics Ethereal Library: A project similar to Project Gutenberg, but focusing on Christian texts.
• The Online Books Page: A comprehensive index of books available on the Internet. Most are public domain, but not all; check for copyright restrictions.
• Public Book Shelf
• British History Historical Public Domain Documents
• UNESCO Public Domain Resources and Virtual Library at this URL
• Public domain databases of interests to scientists
• PD photos of famous psychologists
• Public domain works done for NASA by Don Davis: high-resolution scans of space-related paintings.
• Alexandrian Book of Shadows
• The Choral Public Domain Library describes itself as 'A Free Sheet Music Archive'
• Mutopia: a collection of public domain sheet music.
• Asthma genetics - Public domain data
• Writings by Greg Goebel: Science, technology, military history, introductions to classical and relativistic physics.
• Infoanarchy: a weblog dedicated to copyright issues. All original material is in the public domain, although some redistributed articles may be under copyright.

Other "Free" and "Semi-Free" Resources

These resources are copyrighted and licensed under terms that allow free redistribution in some form. There may be requirements to credit the original authors, or restrictions on making modifications. Check the license posted on each site for such restrictions. Note well: many of these sources cannot be used directly in Wikipedia. See open content for more details.

• Nupedia.com: Read about adding Nupedia articles to Wikipedia.
• OpenContent.org
• Andamooka.org
• The Anarchist FAQ: Under GNU Free Documentation License. Contains much information on anarchism, but be careful, because a lot of it is biased towards a particular viewpoint.
• Free Online Dictionary of Computing was originally published under a license which required acknowledgements and was therefore not compatible with GFDL. Has recently been relicensed under GFDL and can be used by us. See Free On-line Dictionary of Computing/Status to help with importing articles.
• Planet Math: A collaborately developed math encyclopedia, under the GNU Free Documentation License.
• Trinity Atomic Web Site - uses the non-free Open Content License. Please encourage them to switch to the Open Publication License.
• Uranium Information Centre (Australia) Has educational info on nuclear and uranium industries - bottom of page states that most material on the UIC Web Site (specific exceptions listed) may be used or reproduced freely, with acknowledgement.
• ibiblio.org is a major repository of information, some of which is open content, and has a lot of links to open content resources. (If someone would like to search through the website to find and link to the stuff Wikipedia might potentially use, that would be great.)
  • Lessons in Electric Circuits by Tony R. Kuphaldt: a series of six textbooks about electronics, under the Design Science License.
• Connected: An Internet Encyclopedia was last updated in 1997. Here is their license: "Copying and redistribution of Connected: An Internet Encyclopedia is freely permitted, as is the creation, copying, and distribution of derivative works. The Requests For Comments (RFCs) are covered by a separate copyright, included below." I think we should contact the editor before importing anything into Wikipedia.
• The UK Public Records Office publishes documents that are Crown Copyright This allows "accurate" reproduction with an acknowledgement.
• GNU miscfiles project
• Flags of the World 12,900 pages about flags and view more than 23,000 images of flags (be careful in referring to them, as many of them, minor flags specially and by Jaime Olle', seem completely invented - verify with other sources too)
• Free Music! Recordings of works of classical music in the public domain, released under the EFF's Open Audio License copyleft.
• Internet History Sourcebooks A collection of public domain and "copy permitted" (whatever that means) historical source documents collected by Paul Halsall at Fordham -- note: he claims copyright on some forms of these documents
• Soil and Health Library: A collection of books on holistic agriculture, holistic health, self-sufficient living, and personal development. Some books are in the public domain, others are not.

Public Domain Images

Please see the new article Public domain image resources.

Sources for finding public domain resources

Book:

• The Public Domain: How to Find & Use Copyright-Free Writings, Music, Art & More by Stephen Fishman, ISBN 0873374339

Lists of general resources:

• Unmaintained list of public domain resources by Kevin Savetz
• Banis Associates list of public domain resources
• Public Domain Music website

Lists of U.S. Government resources:

• Index of Federal Specifications, Standards and Commercial Item Descriptions
• Federal Information Processing Standards home page
• DOD Index of Specifications and Standards
• Department of Defense Single Stock Point for MilSpecs and Standards
• NIST Data Resources index
• Catalog of U.S. Government Publications