User:LadybugAZ/Evaluate an Article

Evaluate an article

This is where you will complete your article evaluation. Please use the template below to evaluate your selected article.

• Name of article: Clara Stanton Jones
• Briefly describe why you have chosen this article to evaluate. I chose this article because she was mentioned in our Historical Background Unit as one of the important female librarians who rarely get mentioned when people are discussing the history of libraries. She was an African American trailblazer, and was both the first woman and first African American to serve as the Director of the Detroit Public Library. She went on to become the first African American President of the American Library Association.

Lead

Guiding questions

• Does the Lead include an introductory sentence that concisely and clearly describes the article's topic?
• Does the Lead include a brief description of the article's major sections?
• Does the Lead include information that is not present in the article?
• Is the Lead concise or is it overly detailed?

Lead evaluation

The Lead does include an introductory sentence that concisely and clearly describes the article' topic, as it's a biography of Clara Stanton Jones. It does not include any information that is not present in the article. However, the Lead does not include any descriptions of the article's major sections.

Content

Guiding questions

• Is the article's content relevant to the topic?
• Is the content up-to-date?
• Is there content that is missing or content that does not belong?

Content evaluation

Everything included in the article is relevant to the topic. However, the line about her "dying peacefully in her sleep" and being survived by her family members should be moved out of the Major Achievements section, and put either in the biography section or at the end of the article. More information about her marriage and family life should also be included, since only her parents and early life are mentioned, as well as more details about her career in libraries. This could also include a reference to the Albert D. and Clara Stanton Jones Scholarship at the University of Michigan's School of Information that the couple's three children created in their parents' honor.

Tone and Balance

Guiding questions

• Is the article neutral?
• Are there any claims that appear heavily biased toward a particular position?
• Are there viewpoints that are overrepresented, or underrepresented?
• Does the article attempt to persuade the reader in favor of one position or away from another?

Tone and balance evaluation

The article is definitely pro-Clara Stanton Jones, as nothing about her detractors' complaints about her are given, merely that they harassed her and tried to undermine her. Her fight with the American Library Association's Intellectual Freedom Committee over the "Resolution on Racism and Sexism Awareness" is briefly touched on, but there is no detailed information given as to the Committee's issues with the Resolution, or what they thought should be done instead. The arguments of both sides did not seem to be equally represented in the article.

Sources and References

Guiding questions

• Are all facts in the article backed up by a reliable secondary source of information?
• Are the sources thorough - i.e. Do they reflect the available literature on the topic?
• Are the sources current?
• Check a few links. Do they work?

Sources and references evaluation

The sources cited and the Reference section overall are a major problem in this article. All of the articles cited, with the exception of the short online biography, are pro-Clara Stanton Jones. They include sources such as a column in the Library Journal remembering her after her death, as well as a newspaper article also reflecting back on her life after her death. Another source cited is an article written by Clara Stanton Jones herself, and a fourth source is from the University of Michigan on the occasion of her children creating a scholarship in honor of their parents. These are not likely to be the type of sources to mention anything bad about her. There are eight references cited, but the links only work in five of them. One of the working links goes to an online biography of Clara Stanton Jones, but it does not contain the information that it is being cited for in the article. Another working link goes to the Library Journal article, but it has been changed from what is actually in the source. For example, the Journal article states that when asked about what Clara Stanton Jones really thought about the injustices she faced, Stanton's secretary Carolyn Moseley said that Stanton "didn't discuss those kinds of things in the presence of her staff". However, the Wiki article on Stanton Jones changes this to "Carolyn Moseley recalled how Jones never discussed these obstacles because that would effect how people perceived her". The second part of that sentence is not supported by the Journal article that is referenced as the source for it. In the three other other references, the links either do not work at all or go back to Wikipedia.

Organization

Guiding questions

• Is the article well-written - i.e. Is it concise, clear, and easy to read?
• Does the article have any grammatical or spelling errors?
• Is the article well-organized - i.e. broken down into sections that reflect the major points of the topic?

Organization evaluation

The article is clear and easy to read. The sections that are present are laid out chronologically and move briefly through the course of her life. However, there are typos, spelling errors, and missing words. It is also unclear why the line about her death is included in the Major Accomplishments section rather than with the Biography section. The Biography section itself needs to be broken further into sections, and with more sections added to fill in the rest of her life history, as well as more of her career highlights.

Images and Media

Guiding questions

• Does the article include images that enhance understanding of the topic?
• Are images well-captioned?
• Do all images adhere to Wikipedia's copyright regulations?
• Are the images laid out in a visually appealing way?

Images and media evaluation

The only image or media included is a photo of Clara Stanton Jones from circa 1970. It does enhance the topic, and is visually appealing, as it is at the top of a box giving the highlights of her personal life and career.

Checking the talk page

Guiding questions

• What kinds of conversations, if any, are going on behind the scenes about how to represent this topic?
• How is the article rated? Is it a part of any WikiProjects?
• How does the way Wikipedia discusses this topic differ from the way we've talked about it in class?

Talk page evaluation

The talk page for this article lists it as a C-class article of low importance. It is a part of four different WikiProjects though- Biography: Science and Academia, Women's History, Libraries, and United States. There are only two previous edits on the talk page. One is from 2017 and fixed one of the links to a reference. However, the other is undated and is by an unnamed user who merely claims that they are editing the page for a school project and to please not change it, despite the fact that the Wiki Training specifically said not to do this. So there basically is no discussion about the article on the talk page. This unfortunately does not differ from the way we have discussed the history of women in libraries in class, as they were often seen as unimportant or to be given only the lower positions within a library. African American women in the history of libraries tend to get even less attention than White female librarians do. Clara Stanton Jones was an African American woman who dared to move up into library administration, and even became both the head of the Detroit Public Library and a President of the American Library Association, yet the article about her life is fairly short and is marked as being of low importance, just as when the history of libraries is discussed.

Overall impressions

Guiding questions

• What is the article's overall status?
• What are the article's strengths?
• How can the article be improved?
• How would you assess the article's completeness - i.e. Is the article well-developed? Is it underdeveloped or poorly developed?

Overall evaluation

My overall impression of the article is that it was a good first step in attempting to create an article about an important figure in Library History, Women's History, and African American History. The information that is present gives a clear and concise, but brief, history of Clara Stanton Jones' early life and impressive career. However, many sections need to be expanded and redone, particularly the Reference section. The links to the references need to be fixed, the correct sources need to be attached, and some more balanced sources need to be used. The Biography section could also be improved by splitting it into a personal life section, with more information about her life and marriage, and a career section, which could also be expanded. As it stands now, the article is underdeveloped, but it could be improved relatively easily.

Optional activity

• Choose at least 1 question relevant to the article you're evaluating and leave your evaluation on the article's Talk page. Be sure to sign your feedback

with four tildes — ~~~~

• Link to feedback: