Encyclopedia vs Wikipedia

For our IM 204 class we have to compare an encyclopedia and Wikipedia to each other and talk about their pros and cons.  Then we were to describe how we used the Miller Library catalog to find an encyclopedia in the library on the topic we are searching for.  

When it comes to encyclopedias the pros of using them are they can contain information that focuses solely on the topic you are researching, which gives you lots of information valuable information if you choose the right encyclopedia.  Even if the topic you are researching is not the sole focus of the encyclopedia it can still give you useful information about the topic and possibly at the same time help you understand other aspects which are related to what you are looking for.  Encyclopedias can vary widely in what they focus on so it gives you many options to choose from to find what you are looking for.

But the cons of using encyclopedias are that (especially when it came to early editions) they can contain bias information (the opinion of the person who wrote it, so it is not objectively written) that may sway the reader toward a certain view point on the subject the encyclopedia is about.  Also as soon as an encyclopedia is printed it is already outdated because the world changes every single moment of everyday and those changes and new findings cannot be accounted for in the encyclopedia after it has been printed.

The pros of Wikipedia are it allows people to collaborate with one another by combining their knowledge of/on subjects and sharing it with those who have access to the internet.  It is free.  Since it is updated constantly, it is for the most part current with events and is not as dated as encyclopedias are.  And if you do not agree with the information on the site you can always change it.

But the cons of Wikipedia are that the writers of the articles are anonymous which makes it hard to identify if the author is knowledgeable on the subject and has creditable information about it.  Also while it can be constantly updated that does not necessarily assure that what information is given is indeed factual because people are able to insert false information as well as true information into the articles.

While searching for encyclopedias on alcoholism in the Miller Center Library catalog I found 10 print books on Alcoholism located in the library.  I found them through going onto the Miller Center Library homepage and clicking the advanced search option and typing in Alcoholism in the first search category and then encyclopedia in the second search category.  And then it popped up 13 results, 10 of which were print books.

Then to find an E-encyclopedia on alcoholism all I had to do after I had used the advanced search option and typed in Alcoholism and encyclopedias is separate search boxes was look at the refine the topic further option on the left had side on the page and click on E-Books/ Electronic books and it yielded 2 E-encyclopedias on alcoholism.

I think that the encyclopedia I found in the library: Alcohol Expectancy Theory vol 2 was more appropriate for my research presentation than the Wikipedia article on alcoholism I found because it better explained why it was that people where more likely to start abusing alcohol and provided me with other crucial facts that I wanted to know about alcoholism.  While the article on alcoholism in Wikipedia had many interesting statistics and facts on alcoholism I am always leery of using and citing it as a source of information since the material on it is not always trustworthy, while with an encyclopedia if it is a fairly current edition you for the most part don’t have to worry about the validity of the facts in the articles.  I will say that the one pleasant thing about the Wikipedia article though was that the information was focused on important key facts which had to do with alcoholism. So all of the important information on alcoholism is just in that one page, while in the case of the encyclopedia if you do not know what you are looking for, it could take a while to find what you need since there is so much material covered on the subject in the book.