Talk:FAQ For Librarians

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I added some clarification to the faq relating to offensive content - and I commented out this bit;

It's also true that the internet is generally rife with offensive material of all kinds, and there is nothing on Wikipedia that isn't also easily available via search engines. If you don't want children accessing inappropriate material on Wikipedia, it may be that the issue is best addressed via a solution that encompasses the entire internet, rather than any solution that's specific to Wikipedia.

because I feel it's a bit weak, and rather self-evident - it comes across badly in my view. Privatemusings 00:53, 28 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

As a former teacher, and recent MLS graduate, I feel this page would benefit from:

  • A more sophisticated discussion of information literacy/media literacy/transliteracy, which are huge topics in library science right now, and how Wikipedia fits into that.
  • More detailed information on how to critically evaluate wikipedia articles. My library school classmates, e.g., did not necessarily realize that there are discussion or history pages which provide important context for pages.
  • In general, a tone which is less...outreach-y (for all that this is an outreach page) and more geared around specific cites buttressing claims, or examples of how you can use this in your everyday professional life.

Mind you I have never made a substantial Wikipedia edit so I do not necessarily know where to find these things, or how to contribute them in a way which would not be immediately smacked down. --66.30.15.162 14:43, 1 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

All good ideas, we will work on them. There is a detailed chapter on how to evaluate an article step-by-step in the book How Wikipedia Works (which is currently offline but should be back up soon). -- Phoebe 18:26, 3 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

This page lacks information on how librarians can integrate metadata to/from Wikipedia with library metadata (i.e. from repositories)

This page lacks citations (an essential component of Wikipedia, if I may say so!) to the studies that have "proven" Wikipedia to be reliable! Could someone please point me to these studies so that I can update it (I do not know the specific studies in question) or do so?--70.194.6.84 19:40, 12 August 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Hi there 70.194.6.84 - you might be a little confused. This page is not Wikipedia, but a page of the parent organization, Wikimedia. As far as I can see, the page does not talk about integrating metadata from Wikipedia with library metadata. Beyond providing a link to Wikipedia in library catalogs and Wikipedia pointing to library catalogs and things like the VIAF template, I don't know of any such efforts, since metadata from libraries and Wikipedia are differently structured. As far as reliability of Wikipedia, there is a Wikipedia page devoted to that subject. -- Kosboot (talk) 20:16, 12 August 2012 (UTC)[reply]