Wikipedia

I would hazard a guess that only the most remote and/or poorest people on Earth have not heard of Wikipedia.

Created in 2001 by Jimmy Wales, it is a free online encyclopedia to which anyone can contribute. It has had it's share of criticism over the years, and I would  be remiss as a librarian in an academic institution not to spout the party line of 'don't trust or cite Wikipedia in your assignments'. In fact their very own 'About Wikipedia' page does warn that the site can be prone to vandalism and misinformation as can newer articles recently created.

However, Wikipedia does have some useful points in its favour, besides being free. One is that articles are continually updated, so the most recent information will be included in a wiki entry. Another is that it is a kind of peer review process - if the information is not of high enough quality, the admin for that page will pull it down. Even the newness of some entries are a mark in its favour.

Anecdotally speaking, I remember not long after a college shooting in the States, people were updating an entry into the shooting as it was happening. [citation needed] (ha ha). Readers were saying it was more up-to-date than the news in reporting the events.

Another anecdote I am unable to cite as it was part of a presentation into teaching I attended last year, a lecturer at Macquarie University related how she used Wikipedia with her students. Their assignment was to get information ONTO Wikipedia by editing a specific entry. There was some sort of prize for anyone who was successful. They almost invariably raged at how they weren't successful.

When I teach classes, I do suggest to my students that if they need background information, then Wikipedia is okay, but to confirm that with other readings. However, there are a few pages that can be used in library instruction, although some of them are more in-depth than I would want to use with neophytes.

These are:
- Library Reference Desk
- Research
- Boolean
- Databases
- Evaluating sources
- Referencing

If I think of any way in particular I could use Wikipedia in my classes, I will update this post.