[Web4lib] WIKIPEDIA is now politically correct to use as areference resource

[Tim Spalding]

No, I agree that it's something new. There's a lot to say about it. My
point was that the whole debate revolves around this false thing, this
Holy Britannica, which is completely out of touch with what it was and
what it was for. It's an invention of the Wikipedia debate.

Time was when encyclopedias were a scholarly source of some
distinction, but that time is long, long past. This or that study may
conclude Wikipedia is better or worse than Britannica, but college
students who rely on either for their facts are lazy and, if they cite
it, going to get marked down.

Incidentally, I didn't mean that Britannica articles were "middle-brow
furniture." I meant the encyclopedia itself was. Actually, that's less
true now. Time was when Britannica's non-school sales were geared
toward people who thought that long brown line gave their living room
a "touch of class." I don't know if anyone feels that way now. The
six-foot plasma TV hides it.