Funny enough, by the time I reached college, my professors were all extremely positive about Wikipedia. Though they emphasized that, as an encyclopedia, it was not valid to use as a source, they all praised it for its breadth, accessibility, and providing citations to valid sources that often could be used in an academic context.
Not an insignificant fraction probably would be tickled pink if some of their students worked to improve articles about their field. I’m reminder of a quote from Small Gods by Terry Pratchett in which a philosopher named Didactylos warns against defacing scholarly works with scribbles unless the scribbles improve the reader’s ability to understand the work (bold added):
“I’ve got Abraxas’s On Religion,” he said.
“Old ‘Charcoal’ Abraxas,” said Didactylos, suddenly cheerful again. “Struck by lightning fifteen times so far, and still not giving up. You can borrow this one overnight if you want. No scribbling comments in the margins, mind you, unless they’re interesting.”
“This is it!” said Om. “Come on, let’s leave this idiot.”
Brutha unrolled the scroll. There weren’t even any pictures. Crabbed writing filled it, line after line.
“He spent years researching it,” said Didactylos. “Went out into the desert, talked to the small gods. Talked to some of our gods, too. Brave man. He says gods like to see an atheist around. Gives them something to aim at.”
Funny enough, by the time I reached college, my professors were all extremely positive about Wikipedia. Though they emphasized that, as an encyclopedia, it was not valid to use as a source, they all praised it for its breadth, accessibility, and providing citations to valid sources that often could be used in an academic context.
Not an insignificant fraction probably would be tickled pink if some of their students worked to improve articles about their field. I’m reminder of a quote from Small Gods by Terry Pratchett in which a philosopher named Didactylos warns against defacing scholarly works with scribbles unless the scribbles improve the reader’s ability to understand the work (bold added):
It’s a good place to start and usually has a decent source list that can be used to find better sources for each topic.