I give an Internet assignment to my paralegal students, which reuqires them
to research breed-specific legislation, distinguish reliable cites from
others, and come up with a short paper about why it's bad to ban pit bulls.
They're supposed to check ordinances on municode.com and find reliable
websites about the dogs and organizations which prefer dangerous-dog
ordinances to breed-specific ones.
We have a general discussion of how to tell if a website is reliable.
Last spring one of my students cited the pit bull entry on Wikipedia. The
article wasn't bad, but some wit had substituted a picture of the breed with
one of a Libertarian Party candidate for some council seat in California. A
very severe woman in a suit. Not nice.
But a good example of why Wikipedia is not reliable.
Marie Erickson, MLS/JD
Head of Public Services
Law Library of Louisiana
400 Royal St., 2nd floor
New Orleans, LA 70130-2104
504 310-2515
800 820-3038 (Louisiana only)
merickson@lasc.org
________________________________
From: owner-law-lib@ucdavis.edu [mailto:owner-law-lib@ucdavis.edu] On Behalf
Of Ryan, Robert S.
Sent: Monday, August 20, 2007 11:47 AM
To: Scott Burgh; law lib; CALL
Subject: RE: Wikipedia and authority - Appellate cites
There are at least 2 published California appellate decisions and several
unpublished which cite Wikipedia.
Bob Ryan
(I'm back. New Jersey to California. Rte. 80. America is lovely when seen
from a 16 foot truck.)
Hill Farrer & Burrill
Los Angeles
________________________________
From: owner-law-lib@ucdavis.edu [mailto:owner-law-lib@ucdavis.edu] On Behalf
Of Scott Burgh
Sent: Monday, August 20, 2007 8:52 AM
To: law lib; CALL
Subject: Wikipedia and authority
Greetings:
With the internet, I often raise the issue to the patrons of where does the
authority of the information lie regarding issues such as credibility,
currency, and reliability. While I love Wikipedia as a starting point, the
article link here shows that a hacker's program has pinpointed origins of
Wikipedia edits to indicate that alterations to the popular online
encyclopedia have come from the CIA and the Vatican, as well as from
politicians making their entries more flattering.
Check out the story from the Sydney Morning Herald:
http://www.smh.com.au/news/Technology/CIA-and-Vatican-edit-Wikipedia-entries/
2007/08/18/1186857828993.html
Thank you.
Scott Burgh
Chief Law Librarian
City of Chicago Department of Law Library
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