Wikipedia, 3.5 Million Articles & Counting: Using and Assessing the People's Encyclopedia

Digital and Information Literacy

by Heather Hasan

Wikipediathe massive, ever-expanding, and entirely free online encyclopedia largely written, edited, and managed by volunteershas transformed the way people seek information, especially students. It has also been scorned of many teachers and librarians administrators due to its entries' frequent errors and biases. This book seeks to take an even-handed and realistic approach to Wikipedia, acknowledging its serious flaws and shortcomings as a research tool, while also explaining what is valuable about it and how it can be used carefully to gain a grounding of a subject that will then be researched in greater depth and with more reputable sources. The book addresses how users can lodge complaints about a Wikipedia entry, how entries are corrected, and how one goes about writing an entry. Finally, the latest thinking of teachers, librarians, and school administrators regarding Wikipedia will be discussed, as will their suggestions for how best to use the online encyclopedia as a legitimate research tool.

48 pages, Library Binding

First published December 15, 2011