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Yes, this is the Instruction wiki. I removed the image because it seemed too large for the space. I also added a nifty menu bar up top. Pretty, right? I also added an "Events" page.

http://www.infotoday.com/online/mar08/Badke.shtml

Take One:  February 2, 2009 (on authority)

Two weeks ago President Emeritus Hunter Rawlings gave a talk at the annual Library Appreciation Luncheon in New York City, which was based on his keynote address at the 75th anniversary celebration of the Association of Research Libraries in 2007 Entitled "Information, Knowledge, Authority, and Democracy," Hunter's talk focused on the issue of authority and trust in the Internet age.  Noting that while the Internet offers a remarkably egalitarian means to access information, it lacks the means to assess the quality, authenticity, and value of much of that information. Hunter cited both the work of Cornell Computer Scientist Jon Kleinberg and his seminal 1997 article on "Authoritative Sources in the Hyperlinked Environment,"  which provided the theory behind the power and success of Google, as well as the article by Harvard economist Michael Jensen on "The New Metrics of Scholarly Authority," published in the Chronicle of Higher Education in June 2007. In that article Jensen claimed that "new trends and approaches to authority have taken root in Web 2.0."  While Kleinberg focused on how relevance and popularity based on linkages and hubs can lend authority to information, Jensen suggested that the power of individuals to contribute information and opinions (as in Wikipedia) leads to the "democratization of authority."

Recognizing the problems inherent in these means of conferring authority, Hunter called upon librarians to enable users to exercise critical judgment in evaluating sources of knowledge, "to eschew the fast and the faddish, to identify true authorities in the realm of knowledge, and to use them critically in developing their own authority and eventually autonomy."  

In a world of computational assessment and collective contributions, the role of research libraries remains critical. Just because something is on the net, one can't assume it's good-or bad-without appreciating the context in which the information is conveyed and asking key questions such as: who's the author? what are their credentials? under what conditions are they conveying this information? when?

After all, as one student remarked to me about Web 2.0--- isn't "2.0" a "C" average?