[Yulpub] Fwd: Re: [DIG_REF] Wikipedia vs Britannica

[Suzanne Lorimer]

>  Today is an interview with BusinessWeek, Wales told a reporter that students
>shouldn't cite from Wikipedia OR Britannica.
>http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/dec2005/tc20051214_441708.htm
>
>Q. Do you think students and researchers should cite Wikipedia?
>
>Wales: No, I don't think people should cite it, and I don't think people
>should cite Britannica, either -- the error rate there isn't very good.
>People shouldn't be citing encyclopedias in the first place. Wikipedia and
>other encyclopedias should be solid enough to give good, solid background
>information to inform your studies for a deeper level. And really, it's more
>reliable to read Wikipedia for background than to read random Web pages on
>the Internet.
>
>Interesting to see him go after EB. Not sure if that's a smart move. Also,
>info pros know that an encyclopedia is one of many tools but does the public,
>student, etc. I'm not tellling this list anything when I say that people take
>what they find and that's it. I guess it points to why info retrieval and
>critical info skills are more important know than ever before.
>
>
>Btw, a recent article about the quality of Wikipedia entries was published in
>The Guardian. Entries on specific topics were reviewed by subject experts.
>In most cases entries were from fair to poor.
>http://technology.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,16559,1604185,00.html
>
>Finally, if you're interested in an audio interview with Jimmy Wales. He was
>NPR last week. He said to use Wikipedia and other data found on the web
>should be taken with a "grain of salt."
>http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/blog/051206-164241


  Suzanne Lorimer
Coordinator of Research Services
Research Services and Collections Department
226 Sterling Memorial Library, Yale University
P.O. Box 208240
130 Wall Street
New Haven, CT  06520-8240
(phone) 203-432-8371  (fax) 203-432-8527