User:Deborah-jl

'''Note: Deborah is currently on a break from Wikipedia. She hopes to return soon once her Wikiholicism is under control.'''

I'm an occasional visitor, a librarian, programmer, and sysadmin. External home page

Contributions
My baby is the Children's Literature family of pages.

My edits are all over the place, now. I'm trying to branch out into supporting general Wikiness, as well as just my subject specialities. See Special:Contributions/Deborah-jl

While in general I concentrate on articles for which I'm a subject specialist, I often modify pages because I go looking for the resources I need on Wikipedia and find it lacking.

Editing
My focus is on citing verifiable, reliable sources. I've been footnoting the articles I edit like mad and providing bibliographic references with Wikipedia citation templates. I use offline sources whenever I find them appropriate, which is often. As a librarian, I want to tell patrons that one of the great resources Wikipedia has to offer is that it can give a brief overview of a topic and point out where to find more and authoritative information; this only works if articles cite sources.

I'm a believer in using the right tool for the right job. In many topics, the right tool is print material. Don't let the web get too incestuous! Instead, the power of Wikipedia should be in drawing together material from all the right sources and making it available online.

I use inline Harvard referencing or footnotes depending on the needs of the article. All else being equal, I default to MLA style, which is what I know best.

I particularly make a point of citing sources for any controversial points. I won't get in an argument about why my point of view is right and NPOV and yours is wrong and POV. Instead, I'll cite sources for my perspective in the article, and, if you have good, wiki-worthy evidence for your perspective, I'll add that, too.