Wikipedia Redux

Comparison of Wikipedia to Subscription Resources, or where

should you tell students to look

Joy PileAlec McLaneNEMLA Spring 2008Tufts UniversityMarch 17, 2008

Bizet’s Carmen

New Grove

Death dates

Herbert Callhoff

Dora Pejacevic

Dub (Music)

Dub (Wikipedia article)

So what to tell the students?

• Evaluate resources

• When using Wikipedia – fact check it with other sources

• Compare all resources – search broadly

What should we ask of commercial databases?

• Links – both internal ones and external ones to bibliographic resources and sound files

• More frequent updates, especially for artist/composer death dates.

• All articles should be signed – demonstrating the responsibility for scholarship.

World music – Biography

World music – Biography

Musical instruments Qin (Guqin) – Garland

Qin (Guqin) – Garland – cont.

Qin (Guqin) – Garland – cont.

Qin (Guqin) – Wikipedia

Musical genres - “Dub” – Garland (in Popular Music in the English-, French-, and

Creole-Speaking Caribbean)

Pansori - Garland

Pansori – Garland (cont.)

Pansori – Garland (cont.)

Pansori – Garland (cont.)

Pansori – Wikipedia

Wikipedia• Strong focus on a mainstream

popular culture framework

• Web 2.0 features enhance learning and research

• BUT: Treat with scholarly skepticism