[WEB4LIB] Seeing ourselves as others see us

[Larry Campbell]

Not to get all postmodern or anything, but what I find most interesting 
about the wikipedia as a web phenomenon is the way in which it affects 
the whole idea/ideal of "authority" and "expertise". We all know enough 
to smile at the naivete of those who would cite a newspaper or a TV 
report as evidence of a "fact" (even though such media are screened and 
edited), but have we occasionally been a little simplistic ourselves, in 
info-literacy classes for example, in holding up sources like 
encyclopedias and peer-reviewed journals as guarantors of fact or truth? 
That is, perhaps the wikipedia isn't so much imitating the authority of 
the encyclopedia but rather inducing a more critical awareness of the 
nature and limits of "authority" as such.

Larry Campbell
Librarian, Information Technology Services
UBC Library
Email: larry.campbell at ubc.ca
Telephone: (604) 822-2076


Sloan, Bernie wrote:
> Karen Schneider mentioned that she recently did a blog entry about Larry
> Sanger's critique of Wikipedia. In her blogging she mentioned a 2003
> piece by Clay Shirky. 
> 
> I ran across an article yesterday in which Shirky comments on Sanger's
> critique of Wikipedia. It's interesting as both a follow-up to the
> Web4Lib Wikipedia discussion earlier this week, and as a view of how
> others sometimes see us when we discuss some of the shortcomings of
> technological developments.
> 
> In his writeup, Shirky says things like "Of course librarians, teachers,
> and academics don't like the Wikipedia. It works without privilege,
> which is inimical to the way those professions operate" and "You can see
> the reactionary core of the academy playing out in the horror around
> Google digitizing books...the NY Times published a number of letters by
> people insisting that real scholarship would still only be possible when
> done in real libraries. The physical book, the hushed tones, the
> monastic dedication, and (unspoken) the barriers to use, these are all
> essential characteristics of the academy today."
> 
> Interesting reading: http://tinyurl.com/5nazp 
> 
> Bernie Sloan
> Senior Library Information Systems Consultant, ILCSO
> University of Illinois Office for Planning and Budgeting
> 616 E. Green Street, Suite 213
> Champaign, IL  61820
> 
> Phone: (217) 333-4895
> Fax:   (217) 265-0454
> E-mail: bernies at uillinois.edu
> 
> 
> 
>