There is a general perception out there that wikis are bad for research. I know for sure that I was always told not to use them as cited sources. It wasn't until much later in my education that I was taught how to use them as a great research tool for finding sources. I know that my nephews have also been told not to use them in high school.
Yet, I truly believe that wikis could be useful for libraries. The number of ways they could help are endless: homework help, literature reviews, looking up historical records, genealogy, etc. How do we remove this barrier and change public perception? I think education is the answer. A workshop in wikis at the local public library or academic library is a great place to start! :)
I think we need to be clear about what wikis can and cannot do. They can. as you said, provide leads when it comes to a topic in which accuracy is critical; but they cannot be relied upon for accuracy themselves, for many reasons. When it comes to opinions or hobbies, like Buffy fandom for example, a wiki can be an amazing tool for aggregation of collective wisdom.
ReplyDeleteThe problem I see with teaching school kids that wikis are great resources is that they don't have enough underlying understanding of how to differentiate a reliable source from any other. It's like teaching poetry - free-form poetry isn't the best idea until one has worked through the standard forms and understands the rules enough to then break them wisely. They gotta learn the basics first, and copying/pasting wiki pages is pretty much all they understand, from what I see at my workplace.
I think WIKIs can be a useful tool. If the source is not reliable, Wikis can be used to get n idea about the topic. As, researchers we know where to find reliable sources, younger students copy and paste all day from Wikipedia and use Google not Google Scholar as the go to article database of choice. I see the good in Wikis and I do understand where you would not rely on some of the information.
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