The Background

• Wikipedia came under fire in November 2005 in what became known as the Seigenthaler controversy after an article on John Seigenthaler, Sr., which linked him to the assassinations of John F. Kennedy  and Robert Kennedy, had remained on the site for more than four months.
• The December 15, 2005 issue of Nature included a study finding that Wikipedia had about the same error rate on scientific articles as Encyclopedia Britannica.
• In August 2006, comedian Stephen Colbert was banned from Wikipedia after he encouraged viewers of the Colbert Report to edit particular articles on Wikipedia and adding false information. Colbert fans ended up crashing Wikipedia's servers.
• Wikipedia continues to be controversial with many saying that Wikipedia should not be trusted because anyone can edit information, while others say that the community behind Wikipedia protects that information from being mishandled.

Can Librarians Play a Role?

• Look up your community on Wikipedia and add information to make the entry more informative.
• Is your library included in that entry? If not, add it. Don't just add a link to your library's Web page. Talk about the history of the library and how it plays a role in your community.
• Does your library have digital collections? Follow the example of the University of Washington Libraries and link to your digital collections from relevant Wikipedia articles.