More on Wikipedia and Information Literacy

So, Middlebury College has banned Wikipedia as a cited reference source, according to the New York Times, based on its lack of authoritative status.

Interestingly, Jimmy Wales of Wikipedia agrees with decision, in this quote from the NYT article:

Jimmy Wales, the co-founder of Wikipedia and chairman emeritus of its foundation, said of the Middlebury policy, “I don’t consider it as a negative thing at all.”

He continued: “Basically, they are recommending exactly what we suggested — students shouldn’t be citing encyclopedias. I would hope they wouldn’t be citing Encyclopaedia Britannica, either.

“If they had put out a statement not to read Wikipedia at all, I would be laughing. They might as well say don’t listen to rock ’n’ roll either.”

Here at Oregon State we say about the same thing: You can start by looking at Wikipedia, but then you must find more scholarly sources.