General and Specialized Encyclopedias

What is your opinion about established vs. free citizen-built encyclopedias such as Wikipedia? Consider how information environments are evolving and also think about the challenges for developing information literacy skills.

Prior to reading the article by Paula Berinstein Wikipedia and Britannica: The Kid's All Right (And So's the Old Man)I would have said out with the old and in with the new. Print encyclopedias seem highly outdated, our world is changing at a rate faster then seen in generations before. Information that use to take weeks to travel the globe travels in seconds thanks to the internet. It seems hard to believe that encyclopedias such as the Encyclopaedia Britannica have a place in the reference world, but it does along with its online counterpart Wikipedia.

Most people tend to first search for information online, it is true of the saying that information is at your finger tips. For any topic that you search for online using a search engine Wikipedia tends to be in the top ten results returned. The information is compiled from volunteers and the information is updated constantly. Realizing this fact and understanding this issue is what you need to take into consideration when relying solely on Wikipedia for information. When teaching students we need to let them know this and teach them about being media literate.

This is where Encyclopedias like Britannica have the foot up on their free online counterparts. Print encyclopedias entries are written by scholars in the subject area. The scholars are paid for their work and are considered area experts on the topic. Unlike Wikipedia authors which are anonymous print encyclopedia authors are recognized, this leads to authors being accountable for what they write. Wikipedia's authors are unmentioned so it can lead to people not caring what information they give is accurate or correct.

Reading the comments on the class discussion board many of the points I brought up here were also raised by my colleagues. Karin brought up a situation that highlighted how Wikipedia was in fact a better source for information then the print encyclopedia. When looking up information on a topic about a plant Karin found that the print encyclopedias did not contain much information, however after searching for information on Wikipedia Karin found pages of information and pictures of the plant. It just goes to show that print information can be either outdated quickly or not have the print space to provide detailed information. Electronically stored information can be only limited by the storage capacity which in some cases is limitless. This also brings up to mind the fact that print or user paid online encyclopedias are limited by how much money the have in their budget to pay for information. Whereas Wikipedia a volunteer site is relies on free information which means it can be constantly evolving with no cost to the host site for the information it provides.

This being said Wikipedia is free and you need to pay to read encyclopedia's such as Britannica. Who is going to pay for information that can be found online for free? If encyclopedias die out I would bet it will come down to dollars. It will be interesting to see what will happen in the next few years.

The Reference Interview and Cooperative Program Planning and Teaching

Prior to taking this course I had never heard of the research interview. In my own experience when I have sought out of the librarian I have just been told that "what you are looking for is in call number..." I can't recall a time that a librarian has taken me throught the research interview.

I can see the value in being able to use the research interview with students. Most students come to the library knowing that they need to find information, but have no idea how to find the information that they require or they may not fully understand the question that they are trying to answer. The school library media specialist plays an important role in ensuring that the student is sucessful in finding what they need. I can see the reference interview as being a skill that takes time to evolve. First as the text points our "the school library media specialist must have exceptional knowledge of the library media center's collection" (Rieding pg. 92).
This can take time for a library media specialist to get to know the collection in both print and electronic formats. As with good wine it takes time to age and the research interview must take perfect as a librarian becomes comfortable in the process. I just hope one day to actually work in a library so I can try out the research process

Sources
Rielding, A. (2005). Reference skills for the school library media specialist: Tools and tips, 2nd ed. Worthington, Ohio: Linworth Publishing, Inc.