Q. Why shouldn't we use Wikipedia for research?

You shouldn’t use Wikipedia for school research because the information in it is not reliable and should not be trusted.

In fact, Wikipedia even states that it should not be trusted:

"We do not expect you to trust us

It is in the nature of an ever-changing work like Wikipedia that, while some articles are of the highest quality of scholarship, others are admittedly complete rubbish. We are fully aware of what it is and what it isn't. Also, because some articles may contain errors, please do not use Wikipedia to make critical decisions."

Taken from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Ten_things_you_may_not_know_about_Wikipedia#We_do_not_expect_you_to_trust_us

Wikipedia is constantly changing (you can watch this in action here: http://rcmap.hatnote.com/#en

As well, there are an incredible amount of errors and hoaxes that are in Wikipedia. We know this because new ones are being discovered every day.

Some examples include: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:List_of_hoaxes_on_Wikipedia

Or several hoax stories from this year: http://www.dailydot.com/lol/amelia-bedelia-wikipedia-hoax/

Or http://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/how-a-raccoon-became-an-aardvark

The best source of information for your research here at GBC is the Library Learning Commons website: https://www.georgebrown.ca/library-learning-commons