Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/List of books about AIDS

The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was delete. L Faraone 00:26, 31 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

List of books about AIDS[edit]

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Just a list of titles. Wkharrisjr (talk) 19:16, 23 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Note: This debate has been included in the list of Literature-related deletion discussions. • Gene93k (talk) 14:29, 24 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Note: This debate has been included in the list of Bibliographies-related deletion discussions. • Gene93k (talk) 14:30, 24 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Note: This debate has been included in the list of Lists-related deletion discussions. • Gene93k (talk) 14:30, 24 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

A user with no other edits [1] created this as a student project for The New School as referenced in the lead of the article. If there were enough blue links to Wikipedia articles, it'd be useful~~, but since it doesn't I say delete.~~ Dream Focus 14:52, 24 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Decided since nothing gained by destroying it, it not harming anything and could be useful to someone, I'm staying Neutral on it. Anyone know of a way to search for books which were bestsellers and also had AIDS in them? Surely there are some out there. Dream Focus 03:17, 25 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Keep, good educational and encyclopedic value, regardless of amount of bluelinks on the page itself. — Cirt (talk) 02:30, 25 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]
There are thousands of books with something about AIDS in them. Are any of these books bestsellers? Can we find any reviews on them? Are the writers famous? Dream Focus 03:13, 25 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Most definitely. There are books that are bestsellers. There are plenty of reviews on them. There are numerous books with AIDS even in the title of the books, themselves. These things are quite easy to find and research, actually. Here is but one example: http://www.google.com/search?tbo=p&tbm=bks&q=HIV+intitle:AIDS&num=10 — Cirt (talk) 19:16, 25 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Not so easy to find. Your search didn't result in anything. I tried to Google site:http://www.nytimes.com/best-sellers-books/ AIDS and didn't come up with any results for the virus. HIV had no results at all. Dream Focus 20:04, 25 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Respectfully strongly disagree. There are 740,000 results at http://www.google.com/search?tbo=p&tbm=bks&q=HIV+intitle:AIDS&num=10 and you don't think any of them are notable? — Cirt (talk) 06:50, 26 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]
If you can only list the ones that are proven WP:Notable by Wikipedia standards, and nothing else, then the list has value. Dream Focus 16:30, 26 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]
NOTE: New York Times Bestseller. Here is but one example. As requested, above. 7 MILES A SECOND, by David Wojnarowicz and James Romberger. Description by The New York Times: "This is the autobiographical tale of David Wojnarowicz — about life as a hustler on the streets of New York City and living with AIDS." Please note that there are likely other results of bestsellers not searchable on The New York Times website. Please also note that "bestseller" is not the only type of categorization of conferred notability, far from it. — Cirt (talk) 06:57, 26 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Search update: 573,000 results for http://www.google.com/search?tbo=p&tbm=bks&q=AIDS+intitle:HIV&num=10 and, as noted above, for search of http://www.google.com/search?tbo=p&tbm=bks&q=HIV+intitle:AIDS&num=10 there are 740,000 results. Surely among these results there is encyclopedic and educational value in assembling a list for readers and visitors to Wikipedia seeking further assistance in research on this notable topic on the subject of science. Cheers, — Cirt (talk) 06:59, 26 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Existing pages in category: Further, please note that there are 33 total pages listed in Category:HIV/AIDS in literature. Thank you, — Cirt (talk) 07:02, 26 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Delete. Suffers the same problem as many other lists: inclusion is difficult to determine (books in other languages, for instance, are not listed), and the whole thing is better served by using categories. JFW | T@lk 10:59, 26 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Delete: Per reasons by JFW, with my opinion being that inclusion is not difficult, it is impossible. Moreover, I do not see any encyclopedic value for such a list. --Garrondo (talk) 13:35, 26 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Delete: I think the Category:HIV/AIDS in literature is enough, and its entries generally fulfill the Wikipedia:criteria for inclusion. Also, with the google books search already giving 747,000 results, I don't think this list contributes much further to the world of knowledge on the web. With the google engine already sorting such books by relevance, it would require extensive work on this list to sort out the most notable ones and add individual references supporting their notability - more extensive work than I think can be achieved in a foreseeable future. Mikael Häggström (talk) 15:04, 26 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Most of the articles I clicked links to from that category have no references or reception section at all. Anyway, if enough of them are notable books, and the list only linked to books with articles, then it would have value. Right now though, its pretty useless. Dream Focus 16:25, 26 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Note: This debate has been included in the Article Rescue Squadron's list of content for rescue consideration. Dream Focus 16:31, 26 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Delete: The Category:HIV/AIDS in literature suffices for works that are of note. Bmclaughlin9 (talk) 17:18, 26 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Delete. If I want a list of books about the subject I can go to Amazon et al. This is not to say there isn't a good article to be written about HIV/AIDS in literature with a list of examples, but pure lists with neither reference nor references are not useful and should never be encouraged. --Richhoncho (talk) 06:59, 27 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Delete. The books listed all share a common subject element, but that is all. The list is not, and never could be, exhaustive, and therefore falls foul of WP:UNENC. This sort of thing is far better listed in a category rather than a page, and we already have such a category in this case. A1octopus (talk) 14:03, 28 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

There is no requirement that any list should be exhaustive. Many, if not most, of our lists are of topics that pass our notability guidelines. And the policy that you linked is totally irrelevant to this topic. Phil Bridger (talk) 20:58, 28 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I find it very difficult to believe that there are no notable books about AIDS, and, if there are such books, we should list them. Has anyone commenting above actually checked whether there are any before piling on the "delete" opinions? And has anyone taken into account that categories and lists are complementary? Phil Bridger (talk) 20:58, 28 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Delete per JFW. Niteshift36 (talk) 13:47, 29 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Keep This is a very useful list of books, more useful than what you could find on Amazon (where you wouldn't find all these titles by searching for HIV/AIDS literature, etc.). The list, while not complete, is very comprehensive, listing most of the important literary works published that take HIV/AIDS as a central theme in the U.S., and therefore a useful research tool. I'm someone who has worked extensively on the literature of HIV/AIDS and found consulting it useful - sfkruger — Preceding Steven Kruger comment added by Sfkruger (talk • contribs) 14:56, 29 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.