Academic use of Wikipedia: All about Wikipedia

“Wikipedia is the first place I go when I'm looking for knowledge... or when I want to create some."

Retrieved from http://stephen-colbert-2008.blogspot.com/2007/10/101-greatest-stephen-colbert-quotes.html

Wikipedia is useful for:

1. Getting background info on a subject, just like any other encyclopedia... just be careful to confirm facts and avoid citing Wikipedia.
2. Getting familiar with the technical language or subject jargon -- perfect for finding terms to use in keyword searches.
3. References at the bottom of the page are a good place to confirm information and find out more. 

Why not Wikipedia?

Academic alternatives to Wikipedia
Credo Reference is huge collection of online encyclopedias!  Great resource!

Wikipedia is a fascinating social experiment.  Hear what Jimmy Wales says about how he started Wikipedia.

"Wikipedia is a project to build free encyclopedias in all languages of the world. Virtually anyone with Internet access is free to contribute by contributing neutral, cited information. Wikipedia started in January 2001, and currently offers more than 24 million articles written in 284 languages. The largest Wikipedia is in English, with more than four million articles..."  - Wikimedia Foundation, 2/18/2013