While he claims to get his information from books and not Wikipedia, French philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy, is in some trouble for citing a fake philosopher, Jean-Baptiste Botul, in his most recent book. Botul, unfortunately, is nothing more than a creation of journalist Frédéric Pagès, though a creation complete with his own Wikipedia page (in French), a Facebook profile, a name for his philosophical ideas (Botulism), and a fan club that meets monthly.
At USF Library, we’d just like to use this story to highlight the “Dependability” and “Credibility” aspects of evaluating your resources when doing research on any topic. Be sure to not cite Wikipedia as a resource, and if you can’t find the information you got on Wikipedia or any other free Google-able website anywhere else, don’t use it. Have questions on what makes a resources a good one? Check out the library tutorials on evaluating resources and websites.
- Evaluating Resources
- Evaluating Websites
- Five Criteria for Evaluating Websites– from Cornell University
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