Wikipedia and Scholarpedia: A Comparative Case Study and Its Implications for Information Literacy

Abstract

The free online Wikipedia receives increasing attention from academic librarians; however, its counterpart Scholarpedia seems neglected. This case study selected two articles bearing the same title Intentionality from Scholarpedia and Wikipedia and brought them under scrutiny of their microstructure and macrostructure. Both microstructure and macrostructure analysis indicated that the addressed readership of the two encyclopedic articles is understandably different in terms of readability and content. The comparative case study concluded that both online, free encyclopedias provide academic librarians with pedagogical instruments to help students engage in authentic knowledge construction.