1. How to Use
Wikipedia and
Get Away With It
Mandi Goodsett, Reference Librarian
Adapted from presentation by Kathy Fester, Shelton School &
Evaluation Center, Dallas, TX.

2. Plan
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Premise and purpose of Wikipedia
Strengths and limitations of Wikipedia
When to use Wikipedia
Evaluating Wikipedia articles
Practice

3. What is Wikipedia?

4. What is Wikipedia?
A multilingual, Web-based, free-content
encyclopedia project
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:About

5. What is Wikipedia?
Who can make changes to Wikipedia articles?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:About

6. What is Wikipedia?
Who can make changes to Wikipedia articles?
Anyone in the world with access to the
Internet
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:About

7. What is Wikipedia?
Who can make changes to Wikipedia
articles?
Anyone in the world with access to the
Internet
How many active contributors were there as of
Feb. 2012?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:About

8. What is Wikipedia?
Who can make changes to Wikipedia
articles?
Anyone in the world with access to the
Internet
How many active contributors were there as of
Feb. 2012?
77,000
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:About

9. What is Wikipedia?
How many unique viewers of Wikipedia were
there as of 2012?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:About

10. What is Wikipedia?
How many unique viewers of Wikipedia were
there as of 2012?
470 million
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:About

11. What is Wikipedia?
How many articles were there in
Wikipedia as of 2012?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:About

12. What is Wikipedia?
How many articles were there in
Wikipedia as of 2012?
30 million articles in more than 285
languages
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:About

13. What is Wikipedia?
How much of Wikipedia is paid for by
advertising?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:About

14. What is Wikipedia?
How much of Wikipedia is paid for by
advertising?
None. No advertising—all donations &
grants
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:About

15. Strengths and Weaknesses
of Wikipedia

16. Strengths of Wikipedia
• Up-to-the minute coverage
• Convenient access
• Self-correcting
• Commitment to neutrality

17. Strengths of Wikipedia
• Can ask author questions
• Source of obscure information
• Hyperlinked information (not linear)
• Many non-Western writers

18. Strengths of Wikipedia
Only source like it in existence:
neutral, objective, encyclopedic coverage of
popular culture

19. Weaknesses of Wikipedia
• Could be in the middle of a rewrite
• Could have false information that hasn’t
been removed yet
• Subtle vandalism

20. Weaknesses of Wikipedia
• Lack of reliability
• Attempts to put a spin on articles
• Edit “wars”

21. Using Wikipedia for
Research

22. When to use Wikipedia
#1) Topic Development
#2) Source of Keywords
#3) References to Outside
Sources

23. When to use Wikipedia
#1) Topic Development
#2) Source of Keywords
#3) References to Outside Sources

24. When to use Wikipedia
#1) Topic Development
#2) Source of Keywords
#3) References to Outside
Sources

25. Practice
1) Choose a topic and find the Wikipedia article for it.
2) On your notecard list:
1) Some sub-topics
2) 2-3 helpful keywords
3) 1-2 solid references
3) Make sure your name and topic are listed on the
notecard and pass it in
4) Was this activity successful for you? Would you find
this useful when doing academic research?

26. Evaluating Wikipedia
Articles
When you decide the use of a Wikipedia article is
appropriate, how do you know if the article you find is
credible?

27. Example: Museum of Bad
Art Article

28. Evaluating the Articles
#1) Talk Tab
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Rating?
Questions raised about article?
Featured
article

29. Featured Articles
• Featured Article = well-written,
balanced, neutral,
encyclopedic, and backed up
by comprehensive, notable, and
verified knowledge
• Good Article = solid, fairly
reliable article

30. Evaluating the Articles
#2) View History Tab
o When created? When last edited?
o How many contributors?
o Evidence of vandalism? (constant changes)
Revised
over 500
times!
Check for
recent
revisions

31. Evaluating the Articles
#3) References, Notes, See also
o Well-cited?
o Good sources? (print and online?)
Great stepping stone to more
reliable sources

32. Evaluating the Articles
#3) References, Notes, See also
o Well-cited?
o Good sources? (print and online?)
Check these sources and evaluate
Non-Wikipedia Online Sources

33. Evaluating the Articles
#4) Quality
o Well-written and organized?
Wellorganized
?

34. Your Turn
• Choose a keyword from the next slide
and look it up in Wikipedia
• Answer the questions on the handout
• We’ll share what we found as a group

35. Choose from this list:
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Sandy Koufax
Tourette syndrome
Mosque
Orion
Sam Houston
Frank Lloyd Wright
Fighting in ice hockey
Coldplay
Final Fantasy
MC Escher
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Golem
Elvis Presley
General Relativity
Tropical cyclone
Do the right thing (film)
2005 Texas Longhorns
football
Remember: Discussion, Notes,
References!

36. Questions?
libref@gsw.edu
See the accompanying library guide here:
http://libguides.gsw.edu/wikipedia

37. References
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Bayliss, Gemma1, g.bayliss@uea.ac.uk. "Exploring The Cautionary Attitude
Toward Wikipedia In Higher Education: Implications For Higher Education
Institutions." New Review Of Academic Librarianship 19.1 (2013): 36-57.
Library & Information Science Source. Web. 20 Feb. 2014.
Calhoun, Cate. "Using Wikipedia in Information Literacy Instruction."
College & Research Libraries News 75.1 (2014): 32-33. College & Research
Libraries News. Association of College and Research Libraries, Jan. 2014.
Web. Feb. 2014.
Fester, Kathy. "Wikipedia-Wise." LibrarymindsActII. Wikispaces, 1 Oct. 2009.
Web. Oct. 2013.
Gray, Andrew1. "Wikipedia And Information Literacy." School Librarian
61.1 (2013): 8-10. Library & Information Science Source. Web. 20 Feb.
2014.
Polkinghorne, Sarah, and Cameron Hoffman. "Crown Jewel Or Pure Evil?
Wikipedia Through An Information Literacy Lens." Feliciter 55.3 (2009): 101103. Library & Information Science Source. Web. 20 Feb. 2014.
Rand, Angela Doucet. "Mediating At The Student-Wikipedia Intersection."
Journal Of Library Administration 50.7/8 (2010): 923-932. Library &
Information Science Source. Web. 20 Feb. 2014.