Wikipedia - What is it all about (Thing 15)

Are Wikipedia's weaknesses an opportunity for Information Professionals?

As information professionals we constantly advise researchers and students to steer clear of Wikipedia because of the perceived weaknesses in accuracy and lack of citations. Yet, paradoxically most of us use Wikipedia as a starting point for any research project. So, it could be argued that information professionals can be part of the solution rather than continuing to propagate the negative opinions about Wikipedia.

At first glance this seems like a great idea, we the information professionals are placed in the fantastic position of having accurate information at our finger tips so we can actually help fix the problems of Wikipedia. But hang-on, we don't work for Wikipedia, why should we? The lines are starting to get blurred here a little. Wikipedia get their staff to devise a project and promote it to information professionals to help fix the inaccuracies and lack of citations on their website.  Here's a crazy idea, why doesn't Wikipedia employ us instead. Wow! Instead of devising the #1lib1ref project they instead should identify those areas that need attention and employ some information professionals to tackle the discrepancies.

In theory the 1lib1ref project is interesting but unless pages can be fixed/added-to as quickly as they are created Wiki will be always fighting a losing battle. However, I gave it a go. I used the citationhunt.org website to identify some pages that needed citations. I looked at the suggested how-to-videos on making changes to a Wiki page, signed up to Wiki (JohnTheCaptainRyan) and got updating.

My first was a page about Alfred Butts (creator of Scrabble) and I added a citation on how he came-up with the letter distribution. My source was from the Hasbro website (who own Scrabble). Here is how my update appears (red circle and no. 5 in the reference)...

I then looked for a page from Wexford that needed updating and came to the Ballyedmond page. It previously had census details for 2011 with no citation. I added the 2016 census figures and a citation as follows:

Finally, I remembered our Thing 7 (creating an exhibition) and correctly assumed that the Wiki for Tintern Abbey and it's foundation may need some updating:

After a few attempts I figured out how to update the citations but I wouldn't mind attending a workshop to learn more about Wikipedia. My first attempt still has a field highlighted in red for the URL so I'm going to keep playing about until I get it right.

The 1lib1reg team also ask you to put #1lib1ref into the Wikipedia Edit Summary field but I couldn't find that field anywhere.

That's my Thing 15 complete.

Enjoy

John The Captain Ryan