Revision 307360 of "ವಿಕಿಬುಕ್ಸ್" on knwiki

{{refimprove|date=September 2010}}
{{Infobox Website
| name = Wikibooks
| alexa = 2,462<ref>[http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/wikibooks.org "wikibooks.org"], ''Alexa'', retrieved June 15, 2010</ref>
| logo = [[Image:Wikibooks-logo-en.svg|135px|Wikibooks logo from 2009 to the present]]
| screenshot     = [[File:Wikibooks screenshot 2009 - visible.png|250px|border|Detail of the Wikibooks main page. All major Wikibooks projects are listed by number of articles.]]
| caption        = Screenshot of wikibooks.org home page
| url = [http://www.wikibooks.org/ www.wikibooks.org]
| commercial = No
| type = Textbooks wiki
| language = multilingual
| registration = Optional
| slogan = Open books for an open world
| owner = [[Wikimedia Foundation]]
| author = [[b:User:Karl Wick|Karl Wick]] and the Wikimedia Community
| launch date = July 10, 2003
| current status = Active
}}

'''Wikibooks''' (previously called '''Wikimedia Free Textbook Project''' and '''Wikimedia-Textbooks''') is a [[Wiki]] hosted by the [[Wikimedia Foundation]] for the creation of [[free content]] [[b:WB:WIW|textbooks and annotated texts]] that anyone can edit.

In April 2010, Alexa ranked wikibooks.org as the 2,462nd most popular web site in the world.  Compete.com estimates that Wikibooks had 576,838 unique visitors, and Quantcast estimates 646,500 unique visitors, from the United States in that month.<ref>[http://siteanalytics.compete.com/wikibooks.org/ "Site Profile for wikibooks.org"], ''compete'', retrieved June 15, 2010</ref><ref>[http://www.quantcast.com/wikibooks.org "wikibooks.org"], ''Quantcast'', retrieved June 15, 2010</ref>

==History==

Wikibooks was launched on July 10, 2003, in response to a request made by [[Wikipedia]] contributor Karl Wick for a project to host and build free textbooks on subjects such as [[organic chemistry]] and [[physics]]. Two major sub-projects, Wikijunior and [[Wikiversity]], were created within Wikibooks before its official policy was later changed so that future incubator type projects are started according to the Wikimedia Foundation's [[Meta:New project policy|new project policy]]. In August 2006, Wikiversity became an independent Wikimedia Foundation project.

===Wikijunior===

Wikijunior is a subproject of Wikibooks that specializes in books for children. The project consists of both a magazine and a website, and is currently being developed in English, Danish, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Japanese and Spanish. It is funded by a grant from the Beck Foundation.

==Book content==

[[Image:Wikibooks growth.png|thumb|Growth of the eight largest Wikibooks sites (by language), July 2003&nbsp;– Jan 2010]]
While some books are original, others began as text copied over from other sources of free content textbooks found on the Internet. All of the site's content is covered by a [[Creative Commons]] license. This means that, as with its sister project, Wikipedia, contributions remain copyrighted to their creators, while the [[copyleft]] licensing ensures that the content will always remain freely distributable and reproducible.

Wikibooks differs from [[Wikisource]] in that content on Wikibooks is expected to be significantly changed by participants.  Raw source documents such as the original text of [[Shakespeare|Shakespearean plays]] are hosted on Wikisource instead.

The project is working towards completion of textbooks on numerous subjects, which founders hope will be followed by mainstream adoption and use of textbooks developed and housed there.

==See also==
* [[CK-12 Foundation]]
* [[Digital library]]
* [[e-book]]
* [[Free High School Science Texts]]
* [[Global Text]]
* [[ibiblio]]
* [[Open Content Alliance]]
* [[European Library]]
* [[Universal library]]

==Notes==
{{Reflist}}
==References==
* {{cite web |date=2005 |title=All Systems Go: The Newly Emerging Infrastructure to Support Free Books|author=Ben Crowell|url=http://www.lightandmatter.com/article/infrastructure.html|accessdate=June 18, 2006}}
* {{cite web |url=http://www.ednews.org/articles/an-interview-with-curtis-bonk-a-look-at-wikibooks-and-wikibookians.html |title=An Interview with Curtis Bonk: A Look at Wikibooks and Wikibookians |publisher=EducationNews.org |date=2009-07-14 |author=Michael F. Shaughnessy}}

==External links==
* [[b:Main Page|English Wikibooks' Main Page]]
* [[b:Wikijunior|Wikijunior Main Page]]
* [http://www.wikibooks.org/ Wikibooks' multilingual portal]
* [[m:List of Wikibooks|Wikibooks Language Editions: list of Wikibooks for various languages ordered by size.]]
* [[m:Wikibooks|Wikibooks page on Meta-Wiki]]
* [http://news.com.com/Wikibooks+takes+on+textbook+industry/2100-1025_3-5884291.html Wikibooks takes on textbook industry]

{{Wikimedia Foundation}}

[[Category:Internet properties established in 2003]]
[[Category:Digital libraries]]
[[Category:Ebook suppliers]]
[[Category:Wikimedia projects|Books, Wiki]]
[[Category:Wikis]]

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[[ar:ويكي الكتب]]
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[[az:VikiKitab]]
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[[be-x-old:Вікікнігі]]
[[bg:Уикикниги]]
[[ca:Viquillibres]]
[[cdo:Wiki Gáu-kuŏ-cṳ̆]]
[[cs:Wikiknihy]]
[[cv:Викки-кĕнеке]]
[[cy:Wicilyfrau]]
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[[el:Βικιβιβλία]]
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[[et:Vikiõpikud]]
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[[he:ויקיספר]]
[[hu:Wikikönyvek]]
[[hy:Վիքիգրքեր]]
[[id:Wikibuku]]
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[[ja:ウィキブックス]]
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[[zh:維基教科書]]
[[zh-yue:維基書本]]