Dr Ilene F. Rockman Award

Citation

(2009), "Dr Ilene F. Rockman Award", Reference Services Review, Vol. 37 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/rsr.2009.24037daa.002

Dr Ilene F. Rockman Award

Article Type: 2009 Awards for Excellence From: Reference Services Review, Volume 37, Issue 4

In memoriam and in recognition of Dr Ilene F. Rockman, Editor of Reference Services Review 1985-2005. Dr Rockman was a tireless advocate for integrating information literacy into the higher education curriculum. She was active nationally and locally as a speaker, author and consultant. She held leadership positions within the American Library Association, the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL, and its California chapter), and the Reference and User Services Association.

The following article was selected for this year's Outstanding Paper Award for Reference Services Review

"Comparison of Wikipedia and other encyclopedias for accuracy, breadth, and depth in historical articles''

Lucy Holman RectorLibrary & Instructional Resources, Harford Community College, Bel Air, Maryland, USA

Design/methodology/approach – This content analysis evaluated nine Wikipedia articles against comparable articles in Encyclopaedia Britannica, The Dictionary of American History and American National Biography Online in order to compare Wikipedia's comprehensiveness and accuracy. The researcher used a modification of a stratified random sampling and a purposive sampling to identify a variety of historical entries and compared each text in terms of depth, accuracy, and detail.Findings – The study did reveal inaccuracies in eight of the nine entries and exposed major flaws in at least two of the nine Wikipedia articles. Overall, Wikipedia's accuracy rate was 80 percent compared with 95-96 percent accuracy within the other sources. This study does support the claim that Wikipedia is less reliable than other reference resources. Furthermore, the research found at least five unattributed direct quotations and verbatim text from other sources with no citations.Research limitations/implications – More research must be undertaken to analyze Wikipedia entries in other disciplines in order to judge the source's accuracy and overall quality. The paper also shows the need for analysis of Wikipedia articles' histories and editing process.Practical implications – The research provides a methodology for further content analysis of Wikipedia articles.Originality/value – Although generalizations cannot be made from the paper alone, it provides empirical data to support concerns regarding the accuracy and authoritativeness of Wikipedia.Keywords Encyclopaedias, Reference serviceswww.emeraldinsight.com/10.1108/00907320810851998

This article originally appeared in Volume 36 Number 1, 2008, pp. 7-22, Reference Services Review

The following articles were selected for this year's Highly Commended Award

Lessons from the academy: actuating active mass-class information literacy instruction

Mardi Chalmers

This article originally appeared in Volume 36 Number 1, 2008, Reference Services Review

Mobile learning for the twenty-first century librarian

Jim Hahn

This article originally appeared in Volume 36 Number 3, 2008, Reference Services Review

Values: the invisible "ante'' in information literacy learning?

Benjamin R. Harris

This article originally appeared in Volume 36 Number 4, 2008, Reference Services Review