One Way to Set Higher Expectations
Student: I just handed in a 20 page paper. My professor took a big scissor out of her drawer and cut it up. I have to do it over.
Librarian: She really took out a scissor?
Student: For real. She was like Freddy Krueger. I’ll never use Wikipedia again. Did you know there’s misinformation in there and anyone can contribute to it?
Librarian: I’ve heard that.
Student: I need to find some primary sources and scholarly books and articles.
Later…
Student: You’ve helped me so much. I wish I came here 2 weeks ago, my life would be a lot different right now.
Posted by Marc Meola on May 5th, 2006 under Faculty, Student Issues.
Comments: 4
Comments
Comment from Barbara Fister
Time: May 5, 2006, 10:06 pm
This is classic, Marc! If a bit of a radical approach to critique. I’ve heard seniors say something similar: “I wish I knew this earlier; I’m about to graduate!”
Comment from Marc Meola
Time: May 6, 2006, 7:26 am
Yeah. Earlier in the day I had another senior tell me how the book we found for her paper was great and how she really got into writing the paper and wished she had more than one night to write it. She admitted that she and most of her friends really don’t know how to use the library. So it takes them at least 4 years to learn that they don’t really know what they think they know.
Comment from Megan Adams
Time: May 6, 2006, 3:14 pm
I think this might be my favorite “why you should use the library’s resources” post, ever. Thank you for sharing it.
Comment from Jason Griffey
Time: May 9, 2006, 3:04 pm
I’m glad that others are enjoying this post…I nearly fell over with horror!
There is no reason to assume that Wikipedia is a bad source, any more than to assume that a book is a good source (we all know a myriad of sources that have errors in them…even Britannica, which wikipedia happily corrects for us). The _information_ presented should be judged, not the source.
I fear for the future if many of us blindly disregard sources like wikipedia…
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