 | This is a guideline for the structure of museum articles on Wikipedia, as established via successful feature articles and revised and updated by consensus of WikiProject Museums. This guideline was constructed specifically for WikiProject Museums, although could be used on virtually any other disciplines or non-museum 'collections' in the world with some minor modifications. However, as mentioned on the WikiProject Museum main page, museum articles, do not include aquaria, herbaria, zoos and other non-museum 'collections' of other wikipedia wikiprojects. The order of sections is also completely optional, and sections may be moved around to a different order based on the needs of their museum. Editors are strongly encouraged, however, to at least begin with the lead/infobox which summarizes content of each section, followed by history, architecture, curatorial exhibits, and governing body since these sections have some good basic information that might be sought after by readers first. Beyond that, editors working on museum articles are advised to come to a consensus that works best for the museum in question. Please ensure that all changes to this page are discussed on the talk page and reflect consensus. While it is just a guideline and there are no requirements to follow in editing, it contains some of the basic elements of a museum article, as well as useful tips that would help to bring the article to good article or featured article status. |
[edit] Article structure example for a museum
This project page serves as a guideline for writing quality and standardised articles about museums.
Writing about the smallest of museums can be difficult due to the lack of source material, especially when compared with major museums. Some of the smallest museums may form part of a village, town, rural municipality, civil parish, county or council ward. Small notable museums could have their own articles, but if there is no more than a couple of paragraphs that could be said about the museum it may be best practice to merge the museum article into the location article.
Museums may have limited published material about them or little to elaborate on with which to create a comprehensive article. If there is little encyclopaedic material about such places, it may be best to merge these museum articles into those articles about the wider area or settlement.
Please note that this guide is a generally accepted standard that all editors should follow. However, the suggestions on this page are merely guidelines, not rules written in stone. They permit the exercise of common sense, and have occasional exceptions. As stated in the Manual of Style, consistency promotes professionalism, simplicity and greater cohesion in Wikipedia articles. An overriding principle is that style and formatting should be applied consistently throughout an article, unless there is a good reason to do otherwise.
NOTE: "Infobox" and "Lead" are not headings in their own right, and should not be included on articles as such. Editors are strongly encouraged, however, to at least begin with the lead/infobox followed by relevant sections such as history, architecture, curatorial exhibits, and governing body. References are a requirement of any article, however, perferably inline citations. Further, alternative headings are listed and referred to as "Optional headings" sections below. Section titles should generally not start with the word The (see WP:HEAD), nor repeat the name used in the title of the article.
Please note that museums may overlap with Wikipedia:WikiProject National Register of Historic Places, Commons Project Architecture, Wikiprojects in Culture and Arts thus require alternative and additional writing and organisational methods than recommended here.
ARTICLE NAMING
The name of the article should be the current, formal title of the museum. Other accepted names can be indicated in the first sentence with bold text. If the article name differs from a listing the listing name should usually appear as one of those bolded alternative names. If there are multiple places with the same name, the article usually should be entitled Name (City, State), or Name (City, Province). For disambiguation of museums, see the Naming conventions.
INFOBOX
{{Infobox Museum}}
{{Infobox Museum |name = |image = |imagesize = 200 |caption = |alt = |map_type = |map_caption = |map_alt = |latitude = |longitude = |established = |dissolved = |location = |type = |visitors = |director = |curator = |publictransit = |website = }} - Usually, as much information as possible should be added to the infobox, and a Reference should be present.
- For Protected areas (National Parks/Landmarks/etc.), use {{Infobox Protected area}} (general protected area template). For all churches, synagogues or other buildings with a religious purpose, use {{infobox religious building}}.
- Combined infoboxes are sometimes possible and desirable.
LEAD
The introductory section should introduce the article about the museum, serving as a concise overview of the article, establishing context, summarizing the most important points, and explaining why the subject is interesting or notable.
This section should follow the guidelines specified under WP:LEAD. Additionally, a couple of items should be included in the lead section for city articles, including:
- Name of museum and location in city, state, county or province and country.
- Contemporary owners, governing body
- Type of museum
- Brief note about historical roots/founding
- Nicknames, if notable
- Primary exhibits supporting the economy, visitors of the museum
- Notable unique characteristics and characteristics commonly associated with it
- Lead section must not exceed four paragraphs.
- Avoid images in the lead section, use the infobox instead.
Names of the museum should be given in each of the state or province / countries official languages dependent upon if it is a national, state or provincial museum. Pronunciation of the museum name should be in IPA as per Help:IPA for English, though can also be in the main local language(s) if thought helpful.
- NOTE: The lead should adequately summarize the content of the article. (GA criteria) There should not be anything in the lead not mentioned in the rest of the article. (GA criteria)
[edit] Origins of the name
The section can be named Namesake if the museum was named in honour of a prominent figure. If there is sufficient material to justify a subsection header or section on its own, then it may be titled as etymology or toponymy. If the museum has a nickname, another name or a name in another recognised regional or national language, this can be presented here. If this section is too short, make this prose segment a part of the section named history.
[edit] History
Main article:
History of _This section provides a narrative of the museum's history. Topics that can be covered include, but are not limited to:
- the origin of the museum
- development
- foundation, founding committees,
- original inhabitants (if applicable)
- original surrounding settlements
- occupying owners/transitions of owners
- reasons for settlement/growth/development
- dominant activities
- events that shaped the museum
- religious, sports or military background if applicable
Most libraries will have books on local museum history. Be wary of loose interpretations, especially when using internet or promotional sources.
Note: History sections can easily become very long with more detail than appropriate for a general overview. While there is no strict rule on how long a section may be, as a general rule of thumb, more than 10 paragraphs or the use of subsection headings might indicate that it should be accompanied by a History of _ main article (using the main template). Only describe the minimum of what is required to understand where the community has come from and let the History of _ article give the details.
Second-level headings are to be avoided since they tend to encourage excessive detail and length and can disrupt cohesion.
[edit] Early residents
Early residents or early use if the museum is located in a restored residence or restored building. Notable persons from the settlement if they satisfy Wikipedia:Notability (people), and any notable births, residents in the museum's early history where applicable.
- Do not use a list format in this section. Please write this as prose, reference each person, and do not use the word "famous".
[edit] Architecture
- Refer to the Template:Infobox Modern building or Template:Infobox Historic building for the main architectural points for this section whether the museum is housed in a modern or historic building.
- For example these elements should be elaborated upon or set into prose style within the body of this section... such as architect, architectural style, client, engineer, construction start date, completion date, cost budget, structural system, number of floors, .
- Inaugurated, Height, Diameter, Floor area
- Restoration, reconstructions, remodelled dates, alteration, expansion, modernisation, additions, wings, types of changes or upgrades, cost.
- Above points as applied to additional buildings (outbuildings) on site
[edit] Interior and contents
Use and design of rooms in the museum interior. Plan or layout of rooms as related to exhibits, or historical architectural layout for original building use. May be named Design, Galleries, Interior and exhibitions, Collections, or Exhibitions. Permanent, travelling or rotating, present and past collections can also be mentioned.
[edit] Gardens and the park
If the exterior grounds of the building is also designated and used for the museum, then describe their applicable use appropriately.
[edit] Owners
Board of directors, curator, partners, governance, body or authority responsible for management. Any funding arrangements can be mentioned. How the museum is owned or governed today, is it part of the national government, a non profit organisation, does it have a board of directors? Have there been changes in the owners, and what was the former owner/ status of the museum? Note any grants, or logos adopted by the museum
[edit] Operations
Economic impact, economic expenditures, publications, newsletters, educational, or research programs.
[edit] Visitors
Tours, celebrations, anniversaries, visitors per year could all be in this section.
[edit] Awards
Awards received by the museum, in its current form, or historical use.
[edit] Location
Geography, transportation, public transit, location. Where the museum is located and any relevant connecting infrastructure, geology, topography distance to a notable capital, city or town which made an impression upon the museum historically or currently. Note on transport infrastructure in and around the museum.
- Major highways, street layout (if notable or applicable)
- Mass transit (if applicable)
- Intercity transit including Amtrak, buses, major airports
- Other: are bicycling or walking significant transportation modes?
[edit] Points of interest
Other related points of interest, war memorials, plaques, monuments, natural landmarks can be mentioned here.
[edit] Future plans
(Optional heading)
(Note: this should not be of a speculative nature, but be referenced from published material as to certain development, regeneration or gentrification is set to occur)
[edit] Filmography
(Optional heading)
- Any appearances in notable television productions, or movies.
[edit] See also
See also (this heading is not mandatory): Include the following:
- Only list articles here that are directly related to the museum.
- Do not list articles that have already been linked in the article.
- A brief alphabetical listing of other Wikipedia articles that might be related to this museum. Links to external websites should not be placed in this section.
[edit] References / Notes
NOTE: Reference sections may follow a number of styles, including separate "Footnote" and "Further reading" sections; please refer to WP:REF for more information. List all sources used in building the article in this section. Instructions for doing this are at Wikipedia:Citing sources and Wikipedia:Verifiability. Either title is acceptable for this section, but not both together (see WP:CITE#How to present citations for details).
- Every article of Wikipedia must provide reliable citation, and thus this section is mandatory per policy.
- Please use {{reflist}} for a standalone "Reference" section.
- Try to avoid over-using citation in lead sections.
- Consider using an approved citation template to better organise and present references.
- When providing a reference, please note that the word or punctuation goes before the reference, with no space inbetween. Full stops should not appear after a reference (e.g., "this is a quote".<ref>Smith J. (1234), Example book</ref>).
- Don't let any wonderful museum articles go to deletion because of little, few or no references.
Some examples can be found in the following featured articles:
[edit] Further reading
A brief listing of books and external sources that are not directly cited within the article (under references), but might be of interest to the reader.
[edit] External links
External links should be added only rarely, and in accordance with the guidelines found in WP:EL. Consequently, this section should only rarely be found in most articles. In particular, the use of links as described in WP:SPAM should always be avoided. Always restrict external links to the WWW to the External Links section, or within an appropriately tagged reference.
A link to some of the official websites should be provided here, such as the official museum home page, if not listed in the infobox itself. Providing links to every commercial, educational, or other entity within the museum exhibits is not appropriate for this section. Information about such entities should actually be written into the article, with links to Wikipedia articles on notable entities. Remember, Wikipedia is not a linkfarm, and excessive lists of links on articles will generally be removed.
If any links are deemed appropriate for this section, they should always be accompanied by an appropriate description of (a) what they are, (b) their justification, and (c) the date on which they were added in the form "Accessed: 7 July 2007" (WP:EL#External links section gives some more information about this).
External links used as a form of verification for facts found in the text of the article should be treated as normal references, e.g., cited by enclosing them in <ref>...</ref> tags and conforming to the style of web-based references, which also includes a "Retrieval date" component. They should not be added to this section (see WP:EL#References and citation). Wikipedia:Citation templates gives useful information about what should be entered and the order in which the separate components of a web-citation should appear.
It is always helpful to provide a link to public domain materials that are available on the web, either as an external link or as an explicit reference, just as it is helpful to link to copyright-protected materials as well.
COORDINATE TEMPLATE
Coordinates, usually in the infobox but sometimes added when there is no infobox, are directly useful to some readers to find a given location and provide data for region maps.
Latitude and longitude should be present only once and linked to the mapping services by using either {{Infobox Museum}} or {{coord|lat|long|type:city(population)_region:ISO3166-code|display=title}} {{coord|41|48|36|N|87|36|58|W|name=Abbott, Robert S., House}} or decimal coordinates, as in {{coord|37.34826|N|79.26495|W|name=Thomas Jefferson's Poplar House}}. For region codes, use either a two character ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country code, or an ISO 3166-2 region code.
To get correct coordinates for a place, if you know it, you can use various satellite view systems. The Geolocator tool, at http://tools.freeside.sk/geolocator/geolocator.html a referenced Wikimapia map is particularly nice for providing a wikipedia-ready coordinates item, ready for cutting and pasting. As far as i can tell, though, it does not allow you to look up a street address. But you may look up a street address in [Google maps for further assistance. See Wikipedia:Obtaining geographic coordinates for tips.
WIKI - SISTERLINKS
You may use {{Sisterlinks}}, or other individual sister project templates, to link to some of wikipedia's sister project sites that might have pertinent information on the museum.
TEMPLATES, CATEGORIES
Use the best sub-category, not the top most category - be as specific as possible. Add appropriate local geographical as well as museum categories, and check for local or museum templates as well to add to the footer of the article.
Add as many other categories that fit. Some categories that are common for museums are:
- [[Category:Museum in ''state'' or ''country'']]
- [[Category:Historic site of country]]
- a subcategory of [[Category:Ships]]
- [[Category:''Y'' County]]
- [[Category:Buildings and structures in ''X city, Z state'']]
- [[Category:1728 architecture]]
- [[Category:Historic house museums]]
- [[Category:Archaeological sites in ''Z'' State]]
- etc. etc. etc. Try to find as many appropriate ones as possible, without any redundant parent categories.
WIKILINKS
- All the WIKILINKS in the museum article need to have their blue links checked, to make sure they are linked to unique articles. Disambiguation is required for a number of articles, especially common names for the local "Post Office" and train stations or churches. Make use of piped links for an existing article with a different name than the title that is officially recognized.
- Click on a red link that appears on the list. From the resulting page, "search for the article in Wikipedia" to possibly locate an existing article with a different name about the building or place. The name on the list should match the officially used name with corrected spelling, as required (Refer to: Other useful links, below). Use a piped link from the existing article name to the redlink on the list. In this way, the Palmer-Perkins House (Boundary Increase) will be linked directly to the Palmer-Perkins House article, for example.
DO'S AND DONT'S
- Per WP:TRIVIA, do not use a "trivia", "miscellaneous" or "other facts" section.
- Per WP:LIST, avoid using lists wherever possible (particularly for "notable people" or "subdivisions"); consider using tables, diagrams or prose.
- Per WP:DATE and WP:CONTEXT, Dates should only be linked if they have an independent significance in the article. The same applies to dates in the footnotes. Dates should not be linked purely for the purpose of autoformatting.
- Avoid one-sentence paragraphs wherever possible.
- If wishing to promote an article to Good article status, it is recommended that it first goes through the Wikipedia peer review process first.
- Avoid orphanage. Find the appropriate place in List of Museums in country and correct spelling and/or format to cause Wikilinking if necessary. Find appropriate the city, town, state, county article and add museum description and a citation to the article's points of interest section.
- DO give appropriate attribution, while using your own words. Please don't cut and paste from copyrighted sources. Copyright violation material is removed via robots and other editors.
- DO add the template to the talk page to include it in the museum wikiproject, as well as the regional city, country template to enlist the aid of other editors interested in articles of these wikiprojects.
- DO show off your newly created article, or 5X expanded articles at Did You Know and be proud of your article.
GRAMMAR AND STYLE CHECKLIST
- Wikilinks should only be made if they are relevant to the context. Common words do not need wikilinking.
- A word only needs to be wikilinked once within each section.
- Links within quotations should be avoided.
- Logical quotation should be used, i.e. final punctuation belongs outside the quote marks, unless the punctuation is part of the quote and the quote starts a WP sentence.[clarification needed] For example – He said, "France is a country". "Paris is a city."
- Dates should not be linked unless there is "reason to do so" per MOS:UNLINKDATES.
- External links that are not references belong only in the External links section.
- It is recommended not to specify the size of images. The sizes should be what readers have specified in their user preferences.
- Text should not be sandwiched between two adjacent images. (GA criteria)
- Left-aligned images should not be placed at the start of subsections.
- All fair-use images need a fair use rationale. (GA criteria)
- Images need succinct captions. (GA criteria)
- An image caption should only end with a full-stop if it forms a complete sentence. (GA criteria)
- Statements that are likely to be challenged and statistics need inline citations. (GA criteria)
- Book references need the author, publishing date and page number. (GA criteria)
- Book references preferably should include the publisher, city of publication and ISBN.
- Web references need the author, publisher, publishing date and access date. (GA criteria)
- Web references preferably should include the language (if not English) and format (if not HTML) e.g. |format=PDF
- References should be consistently formatted, eg. consistent author format, abbreviations for "page number", etc.
- Blogs and personal websites are not reliable sources, unless written by the subject of the article or by an expert on the subject. (GA criteria)
- Dead web references should not be removed, unless replaced.
- Inline citations belong immediately after punctuation marks. (GA criteria)
- Portal links belong in the "See also" section. (GA criteria)
- "Further info" links belong at the top of sections. (GA criteria)
- Lists should only be included if they can't be made into prose or their own article. (GA criteria)
- Lists within prose should be avoided. (GA criteria)
- Rather than hyphens, en dashes should be used for ranges, eg. 5–10 years, and unspaced em dashes or spaced en dashes should be used for punctuation, eg. The building—now disused—was built in 1820.
- Page ranges in the footnotes, and sports scores should use en dashes.
- "
" (non-breaking space) should be typed between numbers and units, and other numerical/non-numerical components, e.g., "10 miles", "Boeing 747" - Imperial measurements should be accompanied by the metric equivalent in brackets, and vice versa. If possible, use a conversion template, eg. {{convert|5|mi|km|0}}.
- Whole numbers under 10 should be spelled out as words, except when in lists, tables or infoboxes.
- Sentences should not start with a numeral. The sentence should be recast or the number should be spelled out.
- Only the first word in a section heading needs a capital letter (except in proper nouns).
- Short sections and paragraphs are discouraged. (GA criteria)
- Ampersands should not be used (except when in a name, eg., Marks & Spencer)
- "Last few years" has ambiguous meaning; "past few years" is preferable in some contexts.
- "Within" has a different meaning to "in". "Within" should only be used when emphasing that something is inside something, eg. "the museum is in the city", "the museum is within the city boundaries"
- Periods and spaces are needed after initials in people's names, e.g., P. G. Wodehouse
- Compound adjectives need hyphens.
- A hyphen shouldn't be placed after an -ly word if it is an adverb, e,g., widely used word; except if the -ly word could be mistaken for an adjective, e.g., friendly-looking man.
- "Century" doesn't need a capital, e.g., "15th century" rather than "15th Century"
- "While" should only be used when emphasising that two events occur at the same time, or when emphasising contrast. It shouldn't be used as an additive link.
- Using "with" as an additive link leads to wordy and awkward prose, e.g. "the museum has ten directors, with one being the exhibit curator" → "the town has ten directors; one is the exhibit curator"
- Beginning a sentence with "there", when "there" doesn't stand for anything, leads to wordy prose, e.g. There are ten exhibits in the museum → The museum has ten exhibits. The same applies to "it".
- The words "current", "recent" & "to date" should be avoided as they become outdated. (GA criteria)
- Avoid using "not" unnecessarily, eg. "songs previously not heard" → "songs previously unheard"
- Avoid contractions, such as "can’t", "he's" or "they're".
- Avoid abbreviations. Although abbreviations for Street (St.), Road (Rd.), Saint (St.), and two-character state abbreviations are allowable on Wikipedia, given that place names are so crucial to this project, the articles will have a more professional look if most abbreviations are avoided.
- Avoid weasel words, such as "it is believed that", "is widely regarded as", "some have claimed". (GA criteria)
- Avoid peacock terms, such as "beautiful", "famous", "popular", "well-known", "significant", "important" and "obvious". (GA criteria)
- Avoid informal words, such as "carry out", "pub", "though", "tremendous" and "bigger".
- Avoid vague words, such as "various", "many", "several", "long", "a number of", "just", "very" and "almost".
- Avoid using overly formal words or wordy phrases, such as "circa", "utilise", "whilst", "upon", "commence", "the majority of", "whereas", "generate", "due to the fact that" and "prior to".
- Avoid phrases with redundant words, such as "is located in", "the two are both", "they brought along", "they have plans to", "they were all part of", "the last ones to form", "both the towns", "outside of the town", "all of the towns", "received some donations", "still exists today", "it also includes others", "many different towns", "near to the town", "available records show", "to help limit the chance", "christian church", "in order to", "first began", "joined together", "future plans" and "in the year 2007".
The above is a compilation from a variety of wikipedia guideline sources on other wikiprojects (such as WP NRHP, WP NRHP SG, WP UK, WP US, WP Arch ) adapted for use by WP Museums
