Making the most of Wikipedia F Crawford WHP Federation Libraries Jan 2010

Wikipedia is often frowned upon as an academic source for 4 main reasons 1. Research projects shouldn’t rely on encyclopaedias F Crawford WHP Federation Libraries Jan 2010 Wikipedia is a general encyclopaedia. As you progress through school and college, your teachers will expect more than just base line information They will expect you to use more scholarly information that you can cite

F Crawford WHP Federation Libraries Jan It‘s not permanent Information on Wikipedia can change from day to day or even hour to hour (However, you can go back to an earlier version of the article using the History tab at the top of the page) You may quote a fact then return to the page another day and find the fact has vanished Help, I’m melting!

F Crawford WHP Federation Libraries Jan 2010 You can click on the Permanent Link in the toolbar and your link will point to a page whose contents will never change. Or you can keep a link from your work to the page which stays the same

F Crawford WHP Federation Libraries Jan You can’t trust Wikipedia. What is their level of expertise? What is their bias? Anyone can contribute anonymously Look hereLook here - ( especially the last few sentences) It was more than 6 months before this article was caught and changed to a non-malicious version Wikipedia can be easily vandalised and false or malicious information can be posted It is edited by anonymous administrators

F Crawford WHP Federation Libraries Jan Wikipedia lacks authority – there is no peer review Articles are not reviewed automatically by experts in the field, as happens with other encyclopedias such as Britannica or World Book The depth of Wikipedia articles is affected by how many devoted contributors there are to the topic. Eg: the entry on Coronation Street is twice as long as the entry on Tony Blair.

F Crawford WHP Federation Libraries Jan 2010 So why is Wikipedia so popular? It is free - subscriptions to more scholarly encyclopedias such as Britannica, cost hundreds of pounds per year It is readily available and easy to search It’s coverage is huge and growing every day. Over 3 million articles on a broad range of topics (August 2009) as opposed to Britannica’s half a million. It can be updated very quickly, so can react to changes in information It is the result of a collaborative effort of thousands of people, who bring different levels of expertise and knowledge to the project

Instead of condemning Wikipedia outright, educationalists need to help students develop new media literacies F Crawford WHP Federation Libraries Jan 2010 Today's digital youth are in the process of creating a new kind of literacy;... In this new media age, the ability to negotiate and evaluate information online, to recognize manipulation and propaganda and to assimilate ethical values is becoming as basic to education as reading and writing." Jonathan FantonJonathan Fanton, president of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation New Media Literacies

F Crawford WHP Federation Libraries Jan 2010

The arguments for and against go on and on..... So here are some top tips on how to make the most of Wikipedia

Use Wikipedia to give you an overview of your topic Give it a brief read until you come to the information you want F Crawford WHP Federation Libraries Jan 2010

Use Wikipedia as a gateway to other sources F Crawford WHP Federation Libraries Jan 2010

Use Wikipedia to help you identify keywords for further research These are often the hypertext links in blue in the main body of the article They indicate that there is further information available that can be explored F Crawford WHP Federation Libraries Jan 2010

Note also the numbers in the articles F Crawford WHP Federation Libraries Jan 2010

These refer to the Notes section at the end of the article These include links to journal articles, pamphlets and to books which you can borrow from a library NB: You can usually cite these as an academic source F Crawford WHP Federation Libraries Jan 2010

Sometimes there will be a link to Google books where you can read part of the text online and decide whether you want to use more of the whole book There are little symbols which will indicate this F Crawford WHP Federation Libraries Jan 2010 PDF file

Google Books F Crawford WHP Federation Libraries Jan 2010

You will also find the References section towards the end of the article These are books you can see if you can find in your County Library catalogue or school library (see link at end of presentation) If they are constantly referred to in the article, they are likely to be key works on the subject F Crawford WHP Federation Libraries Jan 2010

You can use the Further Reading or External Links at the end of the article in the same way These should be useful links but always check their authenticity for yourself F Crawford WHP Federation Libraries Jan 2010

Click on the discussion tab at the top to see if any of the information in this article is under dispute Maybe it is....and you need to know it! F Crawford WHP Federation Libraries Jan 2010

So to summarise.... Use Wikipedia for an overview Use Wikipedia as a gateway Use Wikipedia to help you identify keywords using the Notes References Further reading External links to direct you to other sources Use the Discussion tab to see whether the article is under dispute F Crawford WHP Federation Libraries Jan 2010

Spiro, Lisa. (2008). Is Wikipedia becoming a respectable academic source?. Available: academic-source/. Last accessed 25/1/ academic-source/ References Jenkins, Henry. (2007). What Wikipedia can teach us about the new media literacies (Part One). Available: Last accessed 25/1/2010http:// Further links Guidelines for using Wikipedia Liu, Alan. (2007). Student Wikipedia Use Policy. Available: Last accessed 29/1/2010 F Crawford WHP Federation Libraries Jan 2010 ANON. (2010). Using Wikipedia. Available: Last accessed 25/1/2010http:// Notts County Library catalogue Neil’s toolbox Harvard Reference GeneratorNeil’s toolbox Harvard Reference Generator - I used this to create my references for this presentation Project New Media Literacies (2008).The new media literacies. Available: Last accessed 29/1/2010