Romancing Wikipedia

Library professionals are appropriately wary of using Wikipedia, since it's not always possible to gauge the source(s) and authoritativeness of articles–at least, not without digging through the editing history.

However, I've gradually developed a tactic for using Wikipedia as a first step toward finding those authoritative online sources.

It's very straightforward. Search your topic, and then check out the External Links.

My latest phone customer wanted online sources for "case study analysis," but she particularly wanted sites which gave examples. I went to the basic article and checked out each of the External Links.

Several of the links were to academic websites whose provenance and authority were very clear...and they had examples.

Neat!