Natalie Sapkarov
LIS 590 NF
June 20, 2007
Assignment #1: Wiki vs. the World
I assumed that I had never heard of “hobbits in Indonesia” for this search, as this would
most likely be the case in a real-life situation. I searched World Book Online first, an advanced
Boolean search with the keywords “Hobbits” AND “Indonesia,” including all types of articles
and media. I retrieved only one result, a Special Report titled “Tiny People Amaze
Anthropologists.” Regarding content, the text is broken up into smaller paragraphs with a decent
vocabulary for a fifth grade student. Where technical terms are used, there is usually a
parenthetical, simple definition. Although there are no source notes, specific universities and
professors are mentioned, so that a further search may be conducted, if necessary. For an extra
credit assignment, where only basic information is needed, this article succinctly summarizes the
“hobbits.”
As for Wikipedia, the results were not as great. I searched “hobbits and Indonesia,” and
was confronted with a bold “No page with that title exists.” However, the first article on the
results list was titled “Homo floresiensis,” so I browsed the first paragraph and found both of my
key words. I would certainly not recommend this particular page to a fifth grade student, though,
as the vocabulary was a bit too scientific and scholarly, the sentences were long and complex,
and the paragraphs were dense. It is sourced considerably, but if the student cannot understand
the text, what’s the point? If I absolutely had to use Wikipedia, I would print the “Flora and
fauna” section of “Flores” (the second search result), as it briefly talks about the “hobbits” in a
way that is much more kid-friendly, even though it is not as descriptive or balanced in points of
view as the World Book Special Report.