Template:Subscription or libraries/doc

Sources must be verifiable, although that does not require that they be free or online. When an article has a source, access to the source may require a subscription or contacting a library for access. A reader may try verifying the source but may fail (especially if access via a URL requires authentication that the reader cannot provide) and then the reader may believe that the source is unverifiable. That may lead the reader to decide that the source citation and the content it supposedly supports should be tagged as unverifiable or deleted. It may help Wikipedia's editorial process to inform the reader that a subscription may be required or that access might be available through a library, so that the reader knows that verifiability can likely be checked by getting a subscription or, often, accessing a library.

This template can serve that purpose. When applied and depending on its parameters, it states that a subscription may be required and possibly that content may be available in libraries.

By comparison, the {{Subscription required}} template simply says that a subscription is required. If there is no exception to the requirement that a reader subscribe, it would be the more accurate template to apply. But if a library may have the service or if free service may sometimes be available without subscribing, this template ({{Subscription or libraries}}) is the more accurate one.

Articles with this template will automatically be categorized into Category:Pages containing links to subscription-or-libraries content, a hidden tracking category.

Usage

Place the template preferably within a ref element before the closing "ref" tag (before "</ref>"). In a bundled reference, the template can be placed immediately following any citation within it. More than one template can be applied in an article, if warranted.

Do not space before the template. The template automatically adds a leading space.

Do not substitute (embed "subst:" into) this template.

Parameters

Both parameters are optional. They may appear in either order, except when the "via" parameter is used without an equals sign or a value (and that is an erroneous usage to be avoided anyway). If the "via" parameter lacks an equals sign and a value and precedes the normally anonymous parameter, the template will generate an error message, displayed in red; but if the "via" parameter follows the normally anonymous parameter, the template will execute the normally anonymous parameter and ignore the "via" parameter.

Parameter "via"

Format: |via=example-text

The value may be any text. It will automatically be preceded by the word "via". The text would normally be a URL alone, a URL with additional text, or multiple URLs. A URL need not be that for the source; it may be, for example, a home page or a subscriber login page. What the URL is for may be stated with text in the same parameter's value.

Each equals sign ("=") within the value (but not the equals sign separating the parameter from the value) must be encoded, such as with the {{=}} template. Merely enclosing the sign within double straight quotation marks (like "=") does not prevent misinterpretation.

In a URL, certain characters are not allowed and may be misinterpreted, preventing a reader from following the link into the Internet. Some URLs may violate that restriction and still may work on the Internet but that will not be supported in MediaWiki and thus not in this template; in that case, you may try one of these possible solutions:

• A different URL, in which all of the characters are allowed
• The URL with the disallowed character/s, but followed by a space and then text as part of the same parameter value, the text to explain that the user should not click the link but should instead copy the URL into a browser address bar without going to the destination yet and how the user should edit the copied URL, then going to the destination (such as by pressing the Enter key)

Quotation marks, if straight, whether single or double, whether within a pair of double quotation marks (like "'" or """) or not, will render as entered (including outer quotation marks, if present) without having to be encoded.

Anonymous parameter

Only one anonymous parameter is accepted.

No more than one value may be used or is editorially needed. Attempting to use two or more will result in none being applied, because the value string will be unrecognized by the template.

Values are case-insensitive.

Without a value (in other words, with the default value), the resulting display is this:  (subscription may be required or content may be available in libraries)

These values are recognized:

• sentence converts the default statement from being a sentence fragment into a full sentence:  (Subscription may be required or content may be available in libraries.)
• s is an alias for (meaning it does the same as) the "sentence" value
• no-libraries deletes the libraries from the displayed statement:  (subscription may be required)
• no-libs is an alias for the "no-libraries" value
• no-lib is an alias for the "no-libraries" value
• no-libraries-sentence converts the display for the "no-libraries" value from being a sentence fragment into a full sentence:  (Subscription may be required.)
• no-libs-sentence is an alias for the "no-libraries-sentence" value
• no-lib-sentence is an alias for the "no-libraries-sentence" value
• uk edits the display to be specific to the U.K.:  (subscription may be required or content may be available in libraries that are in the U.K.)
• uk-sentence converts the display for the "uk" value from being a sentence fragment into a full sentence:  (Subscription may be required or content may be available in libraries that are in the U.K.)
• us edits the display to be specific to the U.S.:  (subscription may be required or content may be available in libraries that are in the U.S.)
• us-sentence converts the display for the "us" value from being a sentence fragment into a full sentence:  (Subscription may be required or content may be available in libraries that are in the U.S.)

Examples

• Without any parameters:
  • Can be copied: {{Subscription or libraries}}
    • Result: (subscription may be required or content may be available in libraries)
      • The same, after a hypothetical citation: Bookworm Blast Oblast, p. 2 (subscription may be required or content may be available in libraries)
• With the "via" parameter only:
  • Can be copied (but insert a value for the "via" parameter): {{Subscription or libraries|via=}}
    • Result with a non-URL value filled in: – via example.com (subscription may be required or content may be available in libraries)
      • The same, after a hypothetical citation: Bookworm Blast Oblast, p. 2 – via example.com (subscription may be required or content may be available in libraries)
    • Result with a URL value filled in: – via https://example.com (subscription may be required or content may be available in libraries)
      • The same, after a hypothetical citation: Bookworm Blast Oblast, p. 2 – via https://example.com (subscription may be required or content may be available in libraries)
• With the anonymous parameter value as "sentence" and no other parameter:
  • Can be copied: {{Subscription or libraries|sentence}}
    • Result: (Subscription may be required or content may be available in libraries.)
      • The same, after a hypothetical citation: Bookworm Blast Oblast, p. 2 (Subscription may be required or content may be available in libraries.)
• With the anonymous parameter value as "sentence" and with the "via" parameter:
  • Can be copied (but insert a value for the "via" parameter): {{Subscription or libraries|sentence|via=}}
    • Result with a non-URL value filled in: – via example.com (Subscription may be required or content may be available in libraries.)
      • The same, after a hypothetical citation: Bookworm Blast Oblast, p. 2 – via example.com (Subscription may be required or content may be available in libraries.)
    • Result with a URL value filled in: – via https://example.com (Subscription may be required or content may be available in libraries.)
      • The same, after a hypothetical citation: Bookworm Blast Oblast, p. 2 – via https://example.com (Subscription may be required or content may be available in libraries.)
• With the anonymous parameter value as "no-libraries" and no other parameter:
  • Can be copied: {{Subscription or libraries|no-libraries}}
    • Result: (subscription may be required)
      • The same, after a hypothetical citation: Bookworm Blast Oblast, p. 2 (subscription may be required)
• With the anonymous parameter value as "no-libraries" and with the "via" parameter:
  • Can be copied (but insert a value for the "via" parameter): {{Subscription or libraries|no-libraries|via=}}
    • Result with a non-URL value filled in: – via example.com (subscription may be required)
      • The same, after a hypothetical citation: Bookworm Blast Oblast, p. 2 – via example.com (subscription may be required)
    • Result with a URL value filled in: – via https://example.com (subscription may be required)
      • The same, after a hypothetical citation: Bookworm Blast Oblast, p. 2 – via https://example.com (subscription may be required)
• With the anonymous parameter value as "no-libraries-sentence" and no other parameter:
  • Can be copied: {{Subscription or libraries|no-libraries-sentence}}
    • Result: (Subscription may be required.)
      • The same, after a hypothetical citation: Bookworm Blast Oblast, p. 2 (Subscription may be required.)
• With the anonymous parameter value as "no-libraries-sentence" and with the "via" parameter:
  • Can be copied (but insert a value for the "via" parameter): {{Subscription or libraries|no-libraries-sentence|via=}}
    • Result with a non-URL value filled in: – via example.com (Subscription may be required.)
      • The same, after a hypothetical citation: Bookworm Blast Oblast, p. 2 – via example.com (Subscription may be required.)
    • Result with a URL value filled in: – via https://example.com (Subscription may be required.)
      • The same, after a hypothetical citation: Bookworm Blast Oblast, p. 2 – via https://example.com (Subscription may be required.)
• With the anonymous parameter value as "uk" and no other parameter:
  • Can be copied: {{Subscription or libraries|uk}}
    • Result: (subscription may be required or content may be available in libraries that are in the U.K.)
      • The same, after a hypothetical citation: Bookworm Blast Oblast, p. 2 (subscription may be required or content may be available in libraries that are in the U.K.)
• With the anonymous parameter value as "uk" and with the "via" parameter:
  • Can be copied (but insert a value for the "via" parameter): {{Subscription or libraries|uk|via=}}
    • Result with a non-URL value filled in: – via example.com (subscription may be required or content may be available in libraries that are in the U.K.)
      • The same, after a hypothetical citation: Bookworm Blast Oblast, p. 2 – via example.com (subscription may be required or content may be available in libraries that are in the U.K.)
    • Result with a URL value filled in: – via https://example.com (subscription may be required or content may be available in libraries that are in the U.K.)
      • The same, after a hypothetical citation: Bookworm Blast Oblast, p. 2 – via https://example.com (subscription may be required or content may be available in libraries that are in the U.K.)
• With the anonymous parameter value as "uk-sentence" and no other parameter:
  • Can be copied: {{Subscription or libraries|uk-sentence}}
    • Result: (Subscription may be required or content may be available in libraries that are in the U.K.)
      • The same, after a hypothetical citation: Bookworm Blast Oblast, p. 2 (Subscription may be required or content may be available in libraries that are in the U.K.)
• With the anonymous parameter value as "uk-sentence" and with the "via" parameter:
  • Can be copied (but insert a value for the "via" parameter): {{Subscription or libraries|uk-sentence|via=}}
    • Result with a non-URL value filled in: – via example.com (Subscription may be required or content may be available in libraries that are in the U.K.)
      • The same, after a hypothetical citation: Bookworm Blast Oblast, p. 2 – via example.com (Subscription may be required or content may be available in libraries that are in the U.K.)
    • Result with a URL value filled in: – via https://example.com (Subscription may be required or content may be available in libraries that are in the U.K.)
      • The same, after a hypothetical citation: Bookworm Blast Oblast, p. 2 – via https://example.com (Subscription may be required or content may be available in libraries that are in the U.K.)
• With the anonymous parameter value as "us" and no other parameter:
  • Can be copied: {{Subscription or libraries|us}}
    • Result: (subscription may be required or content may be available in libraries that are in the U.S.)
      • The same, after a hypothetical citation: Bookworm Blast Oblast, p. 2 (subscription may be required or content may be available in libraries that are in the U.S.)
• With the anonymous parameter value as "us" and with the "via" parameter:
  • Can be copied (but insert a value for the "via" parameter): {{Subscription or libraries|us|via=}}
    • Result with a non-URL value filled in: – via example.com (subscription may be required or content may be available in libraries that are in the U.S.)
      • The same, after a hypothetical citation: Bookworm Blast Oblast, p. 2 – via example.com (subscription may be required or content may be available in libraries that are in the U.S.)
    • Result with a URL value filled in: – via https://example.com (subscription may be required or content may be available in libraries that are in the U.S.)
      • The same, after a hypothetical citation: Bookworm Blast Oblast, p. 2 – via https://example.com (subscription may be required or content may be available in libraries that are in the U.S.)
• With the anonymous parameter value as "us-sentence" and no other parameter:
  • Can be copied: {{Subscription or libraries|us-sentence}}
    • Result: (Subscription may be required or content may be available in libraries that are in the U.S.)
      • The same, after a hypothetical citation: Bookworm Blast Oblast, p. 2 (Subscription may be required or content may be available in libraries that are in the U.S.)
• With the anonymous parameter value as "us-sentence" and with the "via" parameter:
  • Can be copied (but insert a value for the "via" parameter): {{Subscription or libraries|us-sentence|via=}}
    • Result with a non-URL value filled in: – via example.com (Subscription may be required or content may be available in libraries that are in the U.S.)
      • The same, after a hypothetical citation: Bookworm Blast Oblast, p. 2 – via example.com (Subscription may be required or content may be available in libraries that are in the U.S.)
    • Result with a URL value filled in: – via https://example.com (Subscription may be required or content may be available in libraries that are in the U.S.)
      • The same, after a hypothetical citation: Bookworm Blast Oblast, p. 2 – via https://example.com (Subscription may be required or content may be available in libraries that are in the U.S.)

Spaces

The {{Spaces}} template for a single nonbreaking space (this can be copied and, if the parameter's value is going to be "1", the parameter can be omitted): {{Spaces|1}}

Redirects

• {{SL}} (all capitals)
• {{sublib}}
• {{sublibs}}
• {{subscription or library}}
• {{subscription and libraries}}
• {{subscription and library}}
• {{subscription libraries}}
• {{subscription library}}
• {{subscription likely}}

See also

• {{Subscription required}}
• {{ODNBsub}}
• {{Cite ODNB}}