Should I use Wikipedia?
09/18/2009 (research)
A month ago, Wikipedia passed the 3 million article mark. Shortly after this milestone, Wikipedia announced that it will launch page controls. These page controls would require an editor to review changes to entries on individuals before they appear to the public, eliminating instances of untrue and often slanderous “facts” being added to these pages. There is also the development of something called “WikiTrust” which will color code the information in the entry according to the author’s credibility.
So what does this mean for you and your research? It is good that Wikipedia is working to eliminate bad information and provide better tools in which to determine an entries accuracy, however this is not the place to go for serious scholarly research.
Check out the librarie’s tutorial on Wikipedia for more details (and a catchy tune).
http://library.camden.rutgers.edu/swf_files/wikipedia/
As always…we are here to answer your questions and help you find the right sources for your research!