WikiWatchee #16 and 17

I like Wikipedia for one important reason: it's right there to use when I'm on the phone with a customer, or standing in front of a customer at the ref desk. I can start searching while the customer's talking to me, instead of walking away to get a print source or putting down the phone to look something up. What's more, Wikipedia is a one-stop more comprehensive than any print source, containing as it does traditional encyclopedia topics as well as pop-cultural, esoteric and the downright weird.

The layout is beautiful, with a ton information presented clearly and coherently, that lets you clarify questions so that you can doublecheck in a more thoroughly reliable source.

Wikipedia entries are often rounded out with graphics, and sound and video links. The obsessively attentive overlords of the site keep it remarkably well-policed, and the good parts outweigh the flaws. I give Wikipedia a thumbs-up.

For this exercise I edited the Wikipedia article "pop up book," adding to the references and external links. It was extremely easy to do and somewhat gratifying.