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Guide to Wikipedia

Wikipedia does have some advantages, but is it a source you want to use for your school projects? Here are some things to keep in mind about Wikipedia:

  • Wikipedia is generally a popular source. What does "popular source" mean?
  • Wikipedia is an encyclopedia. It's useful for starting your research. Use the "references" in a Wikipedia article to find other (sometimes more appropriate) sources. For more information, Wikipedia provides guidelines about academic use.
  • Wikipedia articles can be written and edited by anyone, not necessarily experts. Please remember the information could be biased or incorrect. For more information, Wikipedia provides a general disclaimer about validity.
  • Wikipedia provides a "researching with Wikipedia" guide about using Wikipedia articles for academic research and documentation about citing Wikipedia articles.
  • Due to issues with Wikipedia's accuracy, if you want to use information from a Wikipedia article in your research project, the librarians strongly urge you to find that information somewhere else such as Encyclopedia Britannica, CREDO Reference, or a print source. The librarians will be glad to help track down resources, such as works referenced in Wikipedia articles.

Learn more about using Wikipedia from Carleton College.

Tuesday December 15, 2009