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Wikisource (http://en.wikisource.org)–The free library–is a growing free content library of source texts, as well as translations of source texts in any language. Wikisource is material not published by the Wiki project and can be viewed as a library of public domain works.

Wikibooks (http://en.wikibooks.org)–While Wikisource focuses on collecting material published outside of the Wiki projects, Wikibooks is a collection of open content text books, annotated texts, instructional guides, and manuals written by the projects contributors themselves. These materials can be used in a traditional classroom, an accredited or respected institution, a home-school environment, as part of a Wikiversity (http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Wikiversity:Main_Page) course or for self-learning.

Other Wikimedia projects include

  • Wikispecies–(http://species.wikimedia.org)–Info on all forms of species, animals, plants, fungi, bacteria, etc.
  • Wikinews–(http://en.wikinews.org)–News written by Wiki Authors
  • Wikiquote–(http://en.wikiquote.org)–Quotes
  • Wikiversity–(http://en.wikiversity.org)–Self learning tools and courses

4–Wikipedia and its reliability

Wikipedia has the reputation of being an un-reliable source for information. However when referencing, research students should never use information on Wikipedia (or any other online encyclopedia) for formal purposes (such as school essays) until they have verified and evaluated the referenced sources. For this reason, Wikipedia, like any encyclopedia, is a great starting place for research but not always a great source for information itself. The reliability of a Wikipedia article is dependant on its external references. As you will learn though this manual only new Wikipedia articles with well sourced, reliable references get approved to go live. There are also multiple ways Wikipedia editors can monitor articles and revert edits which helps remove vandalism quickly. Having the ability to be edit articles also makes Wikipedia’s content as up to date as it can be, especially compared to published sources of information. This project is another example of how Wikipedia is trying to make its content more reliable by encouraging subject specialist and those with local knowledge to become Wikipedia authors and contribute information and external sources to articles. More information, including results of studies done on Wikipedia’s reliability can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reliability_of_Wikipedia and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:FAQ/Schools.

Wikipedia Training Manual
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