Natalie SapkarovLIS 590 NFJune 20, 2007

Assignment #1: Wiki vs. the World

I assumed that I had never heard of “hobbits in Indonesia” for this

search, as this would most likely be the case in a real-life situation. I

searched World Book Online first, an advanced Boolean search with the

keywords “Hobbits” AND “Indonesia,” including all types of articles and

media. I retrieved only one result, a Special Report titled “Tiny People Amaze

Anthropologists.” Regarding content, the text is broken up into smaller

paragraphs with a decent vocabulary for a fifth grade student. Where

technical terms are used, there is usually a parenthetical, simple definition.

Although there are no source notes, specific universities and professors are

mentioned, so that a further search may be conducted, if necessary. For an

extra credit assignment, where only basic information is needed, this article

succinctly summarizes the “hobbits.”

As for Wikipedia, the results were not as great. I searched “hobbits and

Indonesia,” and was confronted with a bold “No page with that title exists.”

However, the first article on the results list was titled “Homo floresiensis,” so

I browsed the first paragraph and found both of my key words. I would

certainly not recommend this particular page to a fifth grade student,

though, as the vocabulary was a bit too scientific and scholarly, the

sentences were long and complex, and the paragraphs were dense. It is

sourced considerably, but if the student cannot understand the text, what’s

the point? If I absolutely had to use Wikipedia, I would print the “Flora and

fauna” section of “Flores” (the second search result), as it briefly talks about

the “hobbits” in a way that is much more kid-friendly, even though it is not

as descriptive or balanced in points of view as the World Book Special

Report.