User:ZeeCline/sandbox

Assignment 1

The topics I have chosen are:

Haarlem, Natherlands

Sunnyvale, California

Sioux Lookout, Ontario

Almonte, Ontario

Why I chose these topics:

• I chose these topics as they all have a personal connection. They are the hometowns of my immediate family. My sister lives in Haarlem, my father in Sunnyvale, my brother in Sioux Lookout and my mother and I live in Almonte.

• At first I was looking at a number of articles about my favourite authors, such as Terry Pratchett or Jane Austen but I became thoroughly intimidated by those topics as the number and frequency of the edits is remarkable. I felt there was very little I could contribute to those topics. Even the spelling and grammar were impeccable.

• I settled on these topics because there was an interesting variety in terms of the quality of the articles. The one on Haarlem has a banner declaring that its lead section needs cleaning up. The Sunnyvale, California article also has a banner asking for better citation for verification. The Sioux Lookout and Almonte pages, on the other hand, seem to be quite well laid out and well cited.

Additional Research and my process:

• My first source for information was the Encyclopedia Britannica Online, as it was accessible to me from my own home. Access is such an important aspect of research.
  • The article on Haarlem seemed quite small compared to the Wikipedia article but covered much the same information in what one could call a more condensed format.
  • The Britiannica article on Sunnyvale, California is tiny and has no links to outside sources. It does however mention all the major historical and political points, which is what you want from an encyclopedia.
  • There is no article in the Online Britannica about Sioux Lookout and Almonte is only mentioned in an article on the inventor of basketball, Dr. James Naismith, as his birthplace.
  • I quite liked the structure of the Online Britannica, in terms of its links to pictures and outside sources. They were available if you wanted to see them but they weren't set up as a major aspect of the article.

• To find information about the two Canadian cities I chose as topics I decided to try the free online Canadian Encylopedia offered by Historica Canada.
  • Sioux Lookout: Once again there are no articles directely about Sioux Lookout. I was linked to a number of articles that contain the word Sioux, which resulted in a confusing and frustrating half hour of reading through a number of articles that actually had nothing to do with the topic I was researching. I did find a few interesting references to Sioux Lookout. First in an article on the Lac Seul Reserve which is adjacent to the town. And second in an entry on the National Transcontinental Railway which went from Winnipeg, via Sioux Lookout, to Muncton.
  • Almonte: this search resulted in 10 articles. Besides the entry that was solely about Almonte, Ontario there were links to articles about famous Almontians such as James Naismith and the sculptor R. Tait McKenzie. The most interesting of the 10 suggested articles was the Disaster Songs link, which had a little blurb down at the bottom under the heading Train and Air Disasters about a song written by Mac Beattie called "Train Wreck in Almonte" about the 1942 train derailment that took place in this small town in Ontario.

• The Wikipedia articles are obviously written by people with a passion for their subjects and as such have a tendency to over-information. It is therefore important to know what type of information you are looking for before you go to Wikipedia. The Online Britannica articles, while much shorter in general, are easier to dig in to, in terms of their succinctness and structure.
• It is interesting that besides the quite well maintained website of the town itself, Sioux Lookout website, the only online source of information that was easily available and accessible about the town of Sioux Lookout was the Wikipedia article.

Assignment 2: Haarlem, Netherlands

View of the Haarlem weigh house on the Spaarne river.

Wikipedia Summary

The Wikipedia article about Haarlem is quite extensive. This seems to be the case with the majority of Wikipedia articles about cities. A full research paper could be done on why people love to edit articles about cities. This, however, is not that research paper. The article begins with a brief section on the geography of Haarlem; giving it a position in the province of North Holland; naming its river, the Spaarne; and finally, giving some information about its general distance from the major cities of northern Holland, most importantly Amsterdam. The article then presents a very thorough history of the city from the Middle Ages through to the present day. The "History" heading is the largest of all of the sections of the article with information about famous Haarlemmers and the major industries of the city scattered throughout the section under many different subheadings. The article goes on to discuss the cultural aspects of Haarlem at some length, noting that “since the 18th century, Haarlem has historically had more museums per inhabitant than any other city of the Netherlands. It also has the highest number of defunct museums per inhabitant.” It goes on to briefly touch on both religion, in a very general way, and local politics in an even more general way. Down the side of the page there is a table with detailed figures for population and geographic area. This Wikipedia article does provide some links to further reading about the city and seems to be quite thoroughly cited.

Britannica Online Summary

The Britannica Online article on Haarlem is quite small, only 3 paragraphs long. First it very briefly describes the physical location of the city within the Netherlands. It then gives a short outline of the history of the city and some of its most famous citizens. The article has a paragraph dedicated to important buildings and events that take place in Haarlem and references a number of museums in the city as well the the public library. It then goes on discuss the economic and industrial activities that have shaped the city and ends with contemporary information about the city within its municipality and its population figures. This article does have a small list of related articles about the area and some links to other articles that Haarlem is mentioned in but they are very limited in number. However there is an interesting tool in the sidebar called Widgets which allows users to "quickly and easily explore key people, places, and topics" connected to the article that they are currently viewing.

Compare/Contrast

A comparison between these two article must begin with their relative lengths as it would indicate the amount of information that is provided. Then one must look in depth at the content of said articles. The Wikipedia article is significantly longer than the Britannica article and covers all of the same information as the Britannica article but in a lot more detail. However the Wikipedia article is over endowed with too many sections, 14 main headings and and 28 subheadings. The Britannica article is not organized with any headings or subheadings, nor does it really require them as the whole article is no more than six hundred words. In contrast to this, the Wikipedia article is perhaps over abundant with headings and subheadings which leads the reader to think that it is much better organized than it actually is. For example, the beer brewing industry is mentioned and detailed in no less than 4 different sections under multiple subheadings. While there are headings within headings the information in the Wikipedia article is very scattered while the Britannica article is much more concise and to the point.

The Wikipedia article and the Britannica one are both somewhat lacking in terms of their claims on the earliest references to Haarlem. The Britannica article says vaguely: "Haarlem was mentioned in the 10th century and by the 12th century had become a fortified town..." in its introductory paragraph. The Wikipedia article says something very similar and points out that it requires and lacks citation but this has not been fixed. Did both of these articles get this piece of information from the same place, and if so, what is that source?

Map of Haarlem in 1578 after the city fire that wiped out half the city buildings; by Thomas Thomasz.

The Wikipedia article has a lot of neat little details that the Britannica article is lacking, such as an audio clip of the pronunciation of Haarlem and an interactive map that places the city in its physical location and links to its coordinates. There are also a number of images of maps of the city throughout its history, including one that traces the destructive path of the Great Fire of 1577, as in thumbnail image to the left. The Britannica article provides its readers with just two photographs, one of the Town Hall and another of a statue of Laurens Janszoon Coster.

Coster is mentioned in both articles and was an interesting figure. The Britannica article states that Coster "was one of the first medieval printers to use movable type". The Wikipedia article goes into more detail and displays its editors interests when is says:

Most scholars agree that the scarce evidence seems to point to Johann Gutenberg as the first European inventor of the printing press, but Haarlem children were taught about Lau as he is known, well into the 20th century. This legend served the printers of Haarlem well, however, and it is probably for that reason the most notable Dutch history books from the Dutch Golden Age period were published in Haarlem."

However there are no citations linked to this information. Perhaps in the Netherlands it is considered common knowledge and thus not requiring of citation.

References and Contributors

There is a marked difference between these two articles when one is looking at references, contributors and the information that is provided. The following is a detailed look at the individual articles and then a direct comparison of them with regards to the use of references, the breadth and/or dearth of contributors and the relevancy of the articles themselves as reference tools.

Britannica

There is no list of citations at all in the Britannica article and the only links it provides are to other articles that mention Haarlem within Britannica online. There are only three listed contributors for the Britannica article: The Editors of the Encyclopedia Britannica, Adam Augustyn and Michael Ray. The Editors of the Encyclopedia Britannica are reference as contributors for all Britannica articles. Adam Augustyn has no bibliograhpic information listed. Michael Ray, on the other hand, has a written blurb about his B.A from Michigan State and his job as a contributing editor to the Encyclopedia, none of which leads one to believe that he is an expert on this topic. Mr. Ray's listed fields of expertise does include "European history and current events" but it also includes electronic gaming and comic books.

While this article is not over-flowing with details it is succinct and to the point. This could be just what the user is looking for in terms of the information they are desiring.

Wikipedia

This article was created in June of 2002 and has since then been edited 869 by 348 distinct authors. Some of the most prolific editors of this page are [Thayts], [Marek69] and [CRwikiCA]. The information provided by these contributors suggests that Thayts, who has been the most dedicated editor is a Dutch National, as is CRwikiCA, while Marek69 is from the UK but is a member of the Wiki Fact Check Project. None of their profile pages list any sort of academic credentials, although this does not mean that they don't have them, merely that they are not advertising them. The References section of this article is not extensive as there are not a lot of citations within the text of the article. It does include a bibliography and a list of further reading.

One really interesting aspect of Wikipedia is the watch page option that allows a user to have push notifications every time a page they are watching gets edited. This is a kind of peer review as each edit gets viewed by those who are notified. The Haarlem page has 34 people registered to watch it. This kind of subscribed supervision is unique to Wikipedia and allowers users to be confident that the information provided has been fact checks and reviewed.

There is a banner at the top of this Wikipedia page that states: "This article's lead section may not adequately summarize key points of its contents. Please consider expanding the lead to provide an accessible overview of all important aspects of the article. (April 2013)." This is a serious problem with this article as its use of headings and subheadings is scattered and confusing.

"Man in front of a firing squad", memorial by Mari Andriessen to commemorate 15 innocent victims chosen at random who were shot there by German occupational forces on March 7, 1945, Dreef, Haarlem.

There is a lot of very interesting information provided that has no source or citation at all. Much of the most interesting information is actually in the comments below the pictures. An example of this is the picture to the left of the statue by Mari Andriessen, which the content note underneath says is to commemorate an event that is not mentioned anywhere else in the article. This can be confusing and frustrating for users.

Comparison

There are two entries under the Article History tab for the Britannica article, which indicates that these are the only two updates to the original post. The first was a text revision update by Adam Augustyn on the 6th of February 2008 and the second was a media update by Michael Ray on the 18th of May 2012. In contrast to this are the close to 900 edits that have been conducted on the Wikipedia article, the most recent on the 20th of October 2013. While the majority of these edits are indicated as being minor it does demonstrate that there are a number of Wikipedia contributors who are concerned about the city of Haarlem. The fact that neither article is cited and sourced in any significant way is a deterrent to further investigation of the subject.

Concluding Statements

As reference sources both of these articles have positive and negative aspects. The Wikipedia article has a lot of detail about the history and culture of Haarlem, with hyperlinks to many other articles within Wikipedia. While it is lacking in outside sources and citations of facts it does give one an interesting glimpse into the city and its inhabitants. The most eye-catching aspects of the Wikipedia article are its visual aides, such as images of the city, historical maps, paintings of Haarlem and by famous Haarlemmers, and a very detailed information table.

The Britannica article covers much of the same information as the Wikipedia article but in a more concise manner. It provides lists of famous Haarlemmers and culturally relevant buildings and events within Haarlem. It also provides hyperlinks to other articles within Britannica Online and thus is a good general reference source.

If one was looking for a brief and to the point blurb of information then one could do no better than the Britannica article although it does not open up very many avenues for further investigation. If one was interested in a more detailed although somewhat haphazardly organized dive into the history and cultural importance of the city of Haarlem then the Wikipedia article would be the way to go.

Additional Resources

Haarlem Offical website

Fiction

Dodge, Mary Mapes. "Haarlem--The Boys Hear Voices." Hans Brinker; or, the Silver Skates. 58. n.p.: 1909. Publisher Provided Full Text Searching File. Web. 10 Nov. 2013.

Dumas, Alexandre. The Black Tulip. Champaign, Ill: Project Gutenberg, 1990. Internet resource.

Maguire, Gregory. Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister. New York, N.Y: Regan Books, 1999. Print.

Orczy, Emmuska O. The Laughing Cavalier. Thirsk: House of Stratus, 2002. Print.

Art and Culture

Biesboer, P, and Carol Togneri. Collections of Paintings in Haarlem, 1572-1745. Los Angeles: Getty Provenance Index, Getty Research Institute, 2001. Print.

Peereboom, Robert, and A Menalda. Haarlem As It Is: Zó Is Haarlem. Amsterdam: Lankamp & Brinkman, 1951. Print.

Riggs, Timothy A, and Larry Silver. Graven Images: The Rise of Professional Printmakers in Antwerp and Haarlem, 1540-1640. Evanston, IL: Mary and Leigh Block Gallery, Northwestern University, 1993. Print.

Russell, Malcolm. "Haarlem: A Centre Of Organ Learning." Organists' Review 95.2 (2009): 26-31. Academic Search Complete. Web. 10 Nov. 2013.

Biography and History

Hooghe, Romeyn , and Leonard Baskin. To the Burgermasters of Haarlem. Northampton, Mass.: Gehenna Press, 1971. Print.

Linde, Antonius , Jan H. Hessels, and Lourens J. Coster. The Haarlem Legend of the Invention of Printing by Lourens Janszoon Coster. Naarden [Turfpoortstraat 11: Anton W. van Bekhoven, 1968. Print.

Ten, Boom C, John L. Sherrill, and Elizabeth Sherrill. The Hiding Place. Washington Depot, Conn: Chosen Books, 1971. Print.