Talk:Michael Witmore

This article must adhere to the biographies of living persons (BLP) policy, even if it is not a biography, because it contains material about living persons. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately from the article and its talk page, especially if potentially libellous. If such material is repeatedly inserted, or if you have other concerns, please report the issue to this noticeboard.

If you are a subject of this article, or acting on behalf of one, and you need help, please see this help page.

Articles for creation

	This article was reviewed by member(s) of WikiProject Articles for creation. The project works to allow users to contribute quality articles and media files to the encyclopedia and track their progress as they are developed. To participate, please visit the project page for more information.Articles for creationWikipedia:WikiProject Articles for creationTemplate:WikiProject Articles for creationAfC articles
	This article was accepted from this draft on 26 May 2017 by reviewer Shadowowl (talk · contribs).

Biography

This article is within the scope of WikiProject Biography, a collaborative effort to create, develop and organize Wikipedia's articles about people. All interested editors are invited to join the project and contribute to the discussion. For instructions on how to use this banner, please refer to the documentation.BiographyWikipedia:WikiProject BiographyTemplate:WikiProject Biographybiography articles

Shakespeare Low‑importance

	This article is within the scope of WikiProject Shakespeare, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of William Shakespeare on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.ShakespeareWikipedia:WikiProject ShakespeareTemplate:WikiProject ShakespeareShakespeare articles
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.

United States: District of Columbia Low‑importance

	United States portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject United States, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of topics relating to the United States of America on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the ongoing discussions. Template Usage Articles Requested! Become a Member Project Talk Alerts United StatesWikipedia:WikiProject United StatesTemplate:WikiProject United StatesUnited States articles
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.
	This article is supported by WikiProject District of Columbia.

Welcome[edit]

This began as my talk page for a draft in my sandbox, "User talk:EFerington/sandbox", about "Michael Witmore" who is the director of the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC. — Preceding unsigned comment added by EFerington (talk • contribs) 14:34, 11 May 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Author's note re Conflict of Interest (COI)[edit]

This is similar to my COI note for Emily Jordan Folger, an article that I produced in 2008. Since then I have also continued to make edits to different articles in Wikipedia that are unrelated to my work. [Again, I am listing this in keeping with the Wikipedia COI guidelines, which encourage full disclosure of any conflict of interest to provide transparency.]

Following Wikipedia's conflict of interest (COI) guidelines, I'm noting here that I have a conflict of interest (COI) because I am a freelance writer and editor who has done work for the Folger Shakespeare Library, including an edit of the Folger Shakespeare Library article to remove public-relations-style language and make it more neutral, as noted on the talk/discussion page for that article, and the creation of the Emily Jordan Folger article, as noted on the talk/discussion page for that article, also in 2008.

The Folger Shakespeare Library asked me to produce a neutral biographical entry on Michael Witmore, the director of the Folger Shakespeare Library. Under Witmore, the Folger just completed many programs and activities related to the 400th anniversary in 2016 of Shakespeare's death and Witmore and the Folger continue to be included in news and feature stories about Shakespeare, Shakespeare in American life (education, theater, research, etc.), "early modern" topics from Shakespeare's era, and modern related topics, as well as the digital humanities.

In preparing this article, I discovered that the "Wikipedia Drawing Board" that I used in 2008, and cited in the notes for Emily Jordan Folger, does not exist anymore. Instead, I have created the article in my User:sandbox and submitted it for approval there. As with the advice I received for the Emily Jordan Folger article, I have tried hard to make the article neutral and made my COI clear in a note (this note) on the talk page. I also think it's clear that Witmore is a "notable" person based on the reference sources I supplied, most of which are cited in this article. — Preceding unsigned comment added by EFerington (talk • contribs) 14:34, 11 May 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Reverting a category change[edit]

I received an email on June 7, 2021, that one of the Categories for Michael Witmore had changed, as follows:

Editor's summary: removed "Category:University of California, Berkeley alumni" and added "Category:UC Berkeley College of Engineering alumni."

I am planning to do a reversion to this change (ie, reverse it and go back to the original Category). Michael Witmore received an M.A. and a Ph.D. in Rhetoric, which is a traditional humanities subject, from the University of California, Berkeley, also called UC Berkeley; he did not attend the College of Engineering. The original Category is correct.

Here is a current link to the Rhetoric graduate program: https://rhetoric.berkeley.edu/graduate-program/

His graduate degrees in Rhetoric from UC Berkeley or the University of California, Berkeley, can be confirmed in multiple public sources, several of which are cited in the entry's References (footnotes), including his Curriculum Vitae, Folger Staff Directory biography, Amherst announcement of his appointment, and others. — Preceding unsigned comment added by EFerington (talk • contribs) 10:31, 8 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Changes and updates to links included in citations[edit]

In early March 2023, a Wikipedia editor made a number of changes that were focused especially, though not exclusively, on the citations and the linked sources in the citations, including updating them. Many of these changes immediately resolved the issues that the editor identified, including replacing older Folger website links with new Folger website links and adding citations to other Folger web pages. Other citations were flagged as having a "dead link" or as having "failed verification." On March 3, 2023, I addressed those citations.

For the "dead link" citations, I typically substituted a new, live link to a different source. For the "failed verification" citations, noted because they had "No mention of Michael Witmore," I found that most were explainer pieces for Folger projects launched in the years after he became the Folger director, but which did not specifically refer to him. In some cases, I deleted the citation. In others, I found and linked to a different source on the same topic that mentioned Michael Witmore, sometimes at length. — Preceding unsigned comment added by EFerington (talk • contribs) 02:45, 5 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Changes and updates to article, April 2023[edit]

The original article was published in 2017. I have just updated the information in the article to the present (April 2023) based on public sources, which I've included in additional citations. — Preceding unsigned comment added by EFerington (talk • contribs) 16:52, 15 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]