We can expect our editors to use libraries. (And if you can't or don't want to work that way, there's an immense amount to write on WP. There's a great many topics--academic topics even--that can best be written with available Internet sources. )
Is your goal to produce a WP useful for 2006, or 1996? It would be very interesting to deliberately invent an encyclopedia appropriate for some specific earlier historical period, but many of the users may be more interested in the present.
On 10/25/06, Ray Saintonge saintonge@telus.net wrote:
David Goodman wrote:
and textbooks are not reference material. Most libraries discard them when the next edition comes out (or keep one edition back). Libraries
with
immense amounts of storage space put one copy in storage & throw out the others.
(Nor should old textbooks be cited on WP except for historical interest). "In the 80s, this book was universally used & is therefore of
significance
in the development of ..."
This last bit is not realistic. While it is still preferable to cite the most recent edition, the fact is that people cite the edition that is available to them. We cannot require people to go out and buy the most recent edition before contributing. It's up to subsequent editors to update the information if they have something more recent.
Ec
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