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Wikipedia or bust...

Recently there has been a lot of discussion on LIS-LAW around the use of Wikipedia by students, trainees and fee-earners. The discussions initial focus was on an article about Intestacy which contained incorrect information, this became a much wider discussion about how Wikipedia and other free resources are currently being used...

...it's interesting to see how Wikipedia is being used or not being used by Information Professionals in the Legal Community and how there is some mistrust of Wikipedia but also some good examples of people using Wikipedia to provide overviews of topics or as a place for finding additional resources.

In the US the discussion over Wikipedia as a source for information has been going on for much longer and the following just provide a taster of what people are talking about:

• Just say no to Wikipedia are you crazy?
• Citing Wikipedia - Just say no
• Wikipedia - Useful information or unreliable source?
• Wikipedia clamps down on unreliable editors

So what do BIALL members think, Wikipedia useful source if used critically and carefully or disaster waiting to happen?

Full post as published by The BIALL Blog on June 04, 2008 (boomark / email).