Template talk:Bairds13

One template?

Naraht, would you consider creating a single template called {{Cite Bairds}} rather than having to maintain code and documentation for multiple individual templates? Simple switch statements would provide the correct edition information. I can't put my hands on a great example right now, but {{Cite US Gazetteer}} is similar to what I am thinking of. In this scenario, {{Cite Bairds|13|page=42}} would yield Shepardson, Francis Wayland, ed. (1935). Baird's Manual of American College Fraternities (13th ed.). Menasha, Wisconsin: The Collegiate Press/George Banta Publishing Company. p. 42.. I'll be happy to help you develop it. – Jonesey95 (talk) 17:36, 2 January 2026 (UTC)

Jonesey95 I welcome your help with anything Template related.

However, I gave that a *great* deal of thought when I started this, but there are significant differences among the needs for the various editions. A minor difference between 13th-19th and the 20th is that the 20th using a different paging system, with the entire book put into (mostly) 8 areas labelled with Roman letters, so any reference would instead of pages=100-102, would look like pages=III-49-52. We are still discussing how the 20th would be different. (use chapter?, use at?) Additionally, publisher, editor, location and oclc do change by volume (see Baird's Manual of American College Fraternities near the bottom for the information,)

As an even more complex situation, the editions prior to the 13th are out of copyright and as such any found in hathitrust (which is most of them) will need a more advanced setup. The example given which appears to fit our needs would end up looking like

{{cite book |editor-last=Shepardson |editor-first=Francis W |date=1930 |section=Beta Kappa |title=[[Baird's Manual of American College Fraternities]] |location=Menasha, Wisconsin |publisher=The Collegiate Press |edition=12th |page=64 |hdl=2027/uc1.32106009366557?urlappend=%3Bseq=96}}

Shepardson, Francis W, ed. (1930). "Beta Kappa". Baird's Manual of American College Fraternities (12th ed.). Menasha, Wisconsin: The Collegiate Press. p. 64. hdl:2027/uc1.32106009366557.

with the section, "Beta Kappa", page=64 (or pages=64-65) and doc_page=96 being the expected arguments. (Still need to be sure on how to test for existance and appending the ?urlappend=%3Bseq= if it does).

note, if this still makes sense, is there any way that it could be both ways, using a cite bairds as a complicated behind the scenes template (or even evocation, I think the term is) and having {{Bairds17|arg1|arg2|arg3}} be a pass through to {{cite Bairds|17|arg1|arg2|arg3}}?

(And the fact that we do the ref argument as a pass through to cite book is basically because I copied a complete different template when I started Baird20. Do you have any guidance to how that is used?)Naraht (talk) 18:15, 2 January 2026 (UTC)

Also, if this can be done, I'm not particularly concerned over changing over. even if Bairds20 has to be changed to cite bairds|20, that's what AWB is for. :)Naraht (talk) 18:17, 2 January 2026 (UTC)