Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Wikipedia: Redefining Research

This is one of the most interesting things I've run across lately:

Wikipedia
Via: Open-Site.org

98% accurate compared to college text books?!  And colleges helping create and maintain content? Color me impressed.  Let's just skip over the depressing statistics on library usage. 'kay. How this make you feel about Wikipedia?   If you hadn't already been won over/worn down by Wikipedia, I think this infographic makes it pretty clear we as librarians can't just reject or ignore it.  So  how should we be talking about it with our patrons?  Do we suggest it as a good starting place?  Do we conditionally offer it as a reliable resource in itself?  And as Wikipedia continues to develop, become more accurate and more accepted, will the database companies start to react?  When will we start seeing changes in format and accessibility?