--- The Cunctator <cunctator(a)kband.com> wrote:
It would if the premises were correct. It is true that
the point of
an
encyclopedia is to be authoritative. But it does not follow that
encyclopedias do not list references. Most do, in fact. They may
call it
"further reading" or somesuch, but they're references.
Moreover, traditional encyclopedias assert authoritativeness by
having known
experts write the entries.
For example, Encyclopedia Britannica's entry on baseball includes
the
following "further reading" (written in paragraph form in EB):
* Lawrence Ritter and Donald Honig, The Image of Their Greatness:
An
Illustrated History of Baseball from 1900 to the Present, updated
ed.
(1984);
* Lawrence S. Ritter (comp.), The Glory of Their Times: The Story
of the
Early Days of Baseball Told by the Men Who Played It, new ed.
(1984).
* Robert Peterson, Only the Ball Was White (1970, reprinted 1984).
* David Quentin Voigt, Baseball, an Illustrated History (1987)
* The Official Baseball Guide, The Sporting News
* Official Baseball Register, The Sporting News
* Joseph L. Reichler (ed.), The Baseball Encyclopedia, 7th rev.
ed. (1988).
* Joe Brinkman and Charlie Euchner, The Umpire's Handbook, rev. ed.
(1987).
* Bill James and John Dewan, Bill James Presents the Great American
Baseball
Stat Book, ed. by Geoff Beckman et al. (1987)
and is written by
Jerome Holtzman, "Baseball columnist, Chicago Tribune. Elected to
the
Writers' Wing, National Baseball Hall of Fame, 1990. Coauthor of
Three and
Two; editor of No Cheering in the Press Box; Fielder's Choice."
Since Wikipedia cannot assert authoritativeness based on the
entries being
written by experts (that's the Nupedia project, more or less), it
can only
do so through listing references.
References other than newspaper articles should generally be
preferred, but
they're better than nothing.
Ok, I hear you.
But then, do they need to be links?
I think the reference should be listed as one might do in a research
paper (do we have a reference style?), and include a link for
convenience only.
=====
Christopher Mahan
chris_mahan(a)yahoo.com
818.943.1850 cell
http://www.christophermahan.com/
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