# Talk:Old Main Library (Cincinnati)

What ever became
Of the older
Books that were in readable condition ? How does one
Go about inquiring what the titles were ?  173.26.248.208 (talk) 23:35, 20 June 2024 (UTC)

This review is transcluded from Talk:Old Main Library (Cincinnati)/GA1. The edit link for this section can be used to add comments to the review.
Nominator: WikiFouf (talk · contribs) 14:57, 16 December 2024 (UTC)
Reviewer: An anonymous username, not my real name (talk · contribs) 04:42, 16 January 2025 (UTC)
I would be interested in taking a look at this. Just note that this is a somewhat busy week for me, so please forgive me if the review is a little drawn-out. Anonymous 04:42, 16 January 2025 (UTC)

Thanks and no worries! WikiFouf (talk) 12:40, 16 January 2025 (UTC)
Here's what I found that could be improved:

As part of the Ohio Common Schools act, passed on 14 March 1853, Board of Education president Rufus King founded a central public library in Cincinnati's Central School. Act should be capitalized. Furthermore, and this might be nitpicky of me, but it doesn't sound like the library was explicitly included in the act's provisions. Rather, it laid the groundwork for the establishment of a public library, per source 2. Indeed, the source credits King's "tireless efforts" for the procurement of adequate tax money and the hiring of a librarian.
Ref 1b passes spot-check.
It was just a shell when it was purchased... I don't think "just a shell" should be in wikivoice. If a source describes it as such, attribute it directly.
There isn't internal consistency with the usage of serial commas. We have busts of William Shakespeare, John Milton and Benjamin Franklin and insufficient lighting, poor ventilation, lack of seating, and elevator and fire safety.
Check out WP:CITEDENSE. I notice that every sentence seems to have its own inline citation, whether needed or not. For instance, look at these three sentences: The front building was the first building of the Old Main to open, on 9 December 1870.[1] The other two buildings opened more than three years later, on 25 February 1874.[1] George H. Pendleton, a past Democratic candidate for vice president, gave a speech at the inauguration.[1] As they all reference the same source, only the last inline citation is necessary to support this chunk.
The "New Main" Library (referred to in most sources as simply the Main Library) appears to also be notable, and therefore probably deserves to be redlinked. Perhaps writing an article for it can be your next project.
He also suggested that the demolition contract was the largest of Cincinnati's history at that time. What is meant by "suggested"? I can't access the source, so I can't see the original context.
"Rooms" could probably be subsumed within "Construction and design", rather than being a standalone section.
1p passes spot-check.
The four-story building was intended to be an opera house before the company, owned by Truman B. Handy, went bankrupt in 1868. The wording comes across as slightly ambiguous. Just to clarify, the company were the ones who wanted to build an opera house? Did it have a name? Also, the sentence does not explain why Truman B. Handy is important or why his name needed to be brought up in the first place.
We don't really need to know the abbreviation OMI since the organization is mentioned exactly once.
I tend to be a stickler for consistency across Wikipedia (within reason), so I wasn't sure at first about an entire "Challenges" section (not a particularly standard section for an architectural article). However, it contains quite a significant amount of text, enough that it feels more appropriate as it currently is.
The main hall was the subject of architectural praise, with admirers praising... I see some repetition of "praise" here. Also, can these admirers be more specifically identified? Ref 1 says these are modern-day people, and that the praise comes from observing photographs.
Ref 4, which is cited for the above statement (in addition to ref 1), doesn't appear reliable, so while the statement can be kept, I would advise rewording it altogether so that it is only based on ref 1. As this is the only use of ref 4, it can be easily removed afterwards.
Ref 6 cites ref 1 as its source, so it is somewhat redundant and should probably be removed.
The images get a little cluttery on desktop view (the final three in particular are sticking out rather conspicuously). I would advise creating a gallery section if you want to keep those three (and if you do, it wouldn't hurt to move one or more additional images there to further organize and declutter).
Earwig detects no significant potential copyvios.
Almost all images are sufficiently old for copyright to not be an issue. The only recent one has already had its license reviewed.
Looking back, this review is obviously not the most organized, but hopefully, I was at least clear in what to improve and where. I must say, this is overall quite a well-written article on a local gem that I doubt many outside of the Cincinnati area (perhaps even within it) are aware of. Kudos to you for expanding Wikipedia's coverage of such places. Anonymous 05:24, 18 January 2025 (UTC)

@Anonymous hey, thanks so much for the kind words and some really good tips as well!:) I'll get to it right now, though it's a busy week so it might take a couple of days WikiFouf (talk) 17:55, 23 January 2025 (UTC)
@Anonymous Hey! I addressed all of your comments, here's a rundown:
I added a gallery + spent a lot of time toying with the image layout. Let me know what you think (and feel free to look at the edit history to see other versions if you want to see alternatives)
About "suggested", here's the original quote: "Mr. Hymon said he could not disclose the terms of the contract, He added, however, that he was pretty sure it was the largest contract ever given in Cincinnati on a wrecking project." Basically I chose that word because he said he was "pretty sure", but I'm open to alternatives
I only didn't remove Ref 6 (now 5) because the specific bits of info it provides ("two blocks away" and "office building") aren't in Ref 1
"just a shell" became "still unfinished"
I changed and moved the sentence about the architectural praise, which on a second look wasn't close enough to the ref. I adjusted the lede to match
red-links, serial commas, "OMI", redundant inline citations all fixed
rephrased Ohio Common Schools Act part, good catch thank you:)
this wasn't from your notes but I also added a "Further reading" section because I found the original Harper's Weekly article about the main hall opening and it's a great read
Let me know if you have any other notes:) WikiFouf (talk) 20:35, 26 January 2025 (UTC)
Looks just about perfect now. I made a couple of very minor tweaks, but your work was great, especially with the gallery (I'm shocked by the number of images that you were able to compile). I'm passing the article now. — Anonymous 04:06, 27 January 2025 (UTC)