Yesterday, on Twitter, a fellow librarian suggested that we use the hashtag #theotherwikipedia during Wikipedia’s SOPA/PIPA blackout protest to increase awareness of library services. Someone on another social network suggested that doing this is opportunistic, and that we’d be better off supporting the protest.
While I can see the truth in that point of view, I think to do nothing would mean missing out on a huge opportunity.
@herpderpedia is retweeting the outraged tweets from the masses who have been inconvenienced by the blackout. Read through these and tell me again how we shouldn’t be taking advantage of this opportunity. Not only for the benefit of promoting ourselves, but we’re always going on about information literacy and improving that in our communities. These folks? They’re floating down a river of information in a leaky canoe.
Cecily Walker
7 replies on “Libraries, Here's Your Opportunity”
Umm, students use Wikipedia for research papers? I thought that was completely outlawed in educational institutions some time ago. There are these things called libraries… where there are books with actual information in them… you know, stuff that people had to spend years and years and years in school studying and doing research on in order to get it published. Why would anyone use Wikipedia as a valid source of info – particularly for a scholastic report/paper? I am baffled and honestly a bit confused. I seriously hope these students are joking in their statements. Even if one is too lazy to actually go to a library, so much of the info is available through library portals these days… or you can reserve online… or… well, you get my point. I had no idea this was such a huge deal, but it’s interesting to know.
And furthermore, anyone who actually says, “i dont get it why are they closed their website?!!!!” needs to visit a library more often. It’s not only a run-on sentence, but isn’t even worded properly.
Wikipedia is a necessary evil, and I think more instructors are starting to understand that no matter how much they tell students not to use it, they will anyway. I think the smarter response is to say “Wikipedia is a great place to start introductory research, or if you’re just formulating your research topic, but it should never be your only source.” Besides, I use Wikipedia every day in the course of carrying out my job. Lots of librarians do.
I don’t think it’s just laziness, either. Yes, this information is available through library portals, but library database vendors have a vested interest in using proprietary interfaces and indexes, and none of them are as easy as typing something into Google and having a Wikipedia resource show up in the first two or three search results. Google Scholar helps, but scholarly publications aren’t automatically included in Google’s index for a whole lot of reasons.
I know and you know the information you’ll get from a library is better. But ease of use and “good enough” trumps jumping through hoops any day.
It’s especially funny/tragic since the explanation is all of three sentences long and they can’t be bothered to read it.
Beyond Wikipedia, these people are ignoring or unaware of the reason for the blackouts/strikes! That’s what kills me.
I am by no means implying that I never look at Wikipedia (nor that others shouldn’t use it), but I have a difficult time imagining using this as a scholarly resource – especially because the information is easily modified. As you state, using it as a jumping off point is a perfect way to utilize Wikipedia as a resource, but I would hope that students would take the time to find better resources of information. It’s difficult never look at it because it’s generally one of the top returns on any Google search, and often the information is accurate (at least one some level), but I know that I rarely trust what I find there as the absolute truth without finding another resource to confirm the info. With that said, I would still certainly hate to see it disappear from the web.
“It’s difficult {TO} never look” Can’t type today (or most days). :O)