Thing 15: Evaluating Information

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Thing 15 looked at critically evaluating information and used Wikipedia as a tool to illustrate this. It is so important not to take information at face value and to always question and evaluate what you find especially in this era of fake news. It involves you to engage in critical thinking, using your ability to reason and develop structured and logical arguments that are backed up with reason and evidence.

 

Wikipedia is an online free encyclopaedia, created and edited by volunteers around the world and hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation. The fact that anyone can edit the site means that it is not always the most reliable source. Since its' launch in 2001, Wikipedia has grown in popularity and appears in the top website listings such as Similarweb. In many universities, lecturers find that some students became overly reliant on Wikipedia and often used it as their only source of information. This Thing sees the value in Wikipedia as a useful starting point for research and as a useful teaching tool to teach critical assessment skills. It also provides a list of references which can be useful for further reading. An interesting article on Wikipedia and worth reading is 'How today’s college students use Wikipedia for course–related research' by Alison J. Head and Michael B. Eisenberg in First Monday, Volume 15, Number 3 - 1 March 2010.

The Thing suggested that as librarians we can add value to Wikipedia by using our skills to contribute to the community. As such, we were introduced to the #1lib1ref campaign ("One Librarian, One Reference"), a Wikipedia publicity drive that asked each librarian on Earth to mark the 15th anniversary of the foundation of Wikipedia, on 15 January 2016, by adding a citation to the online encyclopaedia. As librarians, we are skilled at finding information which can be added as citations to strengthen the reliability of Wikipedia.

 

Wikipedia has two useful tools to help with this - the Citation Hunt Tool and the Visual Editor tool. The task for this Thing involves using the Citation Hunt tool to find a passage where there is a missing reference for you to track down to fill in the gap. It allows you to search on a particular topic. I choose 'general practice' and found a passage from the Wikipedia entry on the 'General practitioner'. 

 

 

 

 

The citation required is from the following passage and comes under the heading of New Zealand -
"There is a shortage of GPs in rural areas and increasingly outer metropolitan areas of large cities, which has led to the utilisation of overseas trained doctors (international medical graduates (IMGs)).^{[citation needed]"}

 

^{I found the following two references:}

^1. Medical Council of New Zealand. The New Zealand Medical Workforce in 2013 and 2014. Wellington: Medical Council of New Zealand; 2014.

2. New Zealand Medical Journal. 2011 Mar 4; 124(1330):14-23. Rural practice and retention in New Zealand: an examination of New Zealand-trained and foreign-trained doctors. Garces-Ozanne A, Yow A, Audas R.

 

As part of the evaluation process, we were asked to apply the CRAAP test, an evaluation tool, to our sources.

 

This is a useful tool as it is easy to remember acronym with a list of questions that help you determine if the sources you found are accurate and reliable.

 

The first criteria is currency - assessing the timeliness of the source. The first source is from 2014 and is the most current workforce statistics available from the Medical Council of New Zealand. The second source is from 2011 but appears to provide good evidence for the statement above.

 

The second criteria is relevance - assessing the importance of the information for your needs. Both of the sources I choose are aimed at a medical audience and are very relevant for the topic at hand.

 

The third criteria is authority - assessing the source of the information. The first source comes from a reputable source, the Medical Council of New Zealand. The second source also comes from a reputable source, the New Zealand Medical Journal and one of the main authors is from the Department of Economics, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand.

 

The fourth criteria is accuracy - assessing the reliability, truthfulness and correctness of the content. The Medical Council of New Zealand collects workforce data from doctors as part of the renewal of practising certificates. The article from the New Zealand Medical Journal focuses on the years 2000-2008 and uses data from the Medical Council of New Zealand. It is also backed up by a good reference list provided at the end of the article.

 

The fifth and final criteria is purpose - assessing the reason the information exists. The purpose of both sources are to inform and are evidence-based. The workforce statistics from the Medical Council of New Zealand are factual and based on data collected directly from doctors. The journal article explores the pattern of health workforce mobility but also points out its limitations.

 

Overall, using the CRAPP tool makes you think about the sources you are using. I can see how it would be particularly beneficial for Internet sources. I would definitely recommend using this easy tool to evaluate any information you find.