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Wikipedia's namesake online web site, which is one of many web sites with information that has raised doubts as to validity, has gotten considerable attention as an example of why Web-accessible information quality debates continue. The Wikipedia collaboration of documents, which is article-packed and is built by a large community of writers, is available in multiple languages. The English version has over 700,000 articles, and Wikipedia's strength and weakness is its editability by anyone. Some information professionals say Wikipedia is totally untrustworthy as an information resource, while others cite it as the most authoritative site online.' Wikipedia, can constantly change each day, so citation is difficult, but Wikipedia does track changes under its History tab. In general, dealing effectively with use of online resources is made difficult by the fact that more library resources are made available on the Web as time goes on, including fee-based aggregator databases, electronic periodicals, and online newspapers. When more online references are purchased, the lines between library resources and the Web continue to blur. Most librarians do not have that problem, but library patrons may become confused as to the source and validity of a resource. Among topics covered are print versus Web, the traditional evaluation approach, and widening evaluation through the use of a community of related pages with evaluative comments from users. A useful way to identify such online communities is to follow the links provided by the original page. The following link search for finding other sites works at Yahoo!, Google, and MSN: <Link:http://site.edu/dir>. The user can then follow links from the other sites.
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