Wiki

When I was working on my MLS last year we had to make wikis for some of our assignments. While doing this we found that the old saying “two heads are better than one” remains true. Wikis allow you to find the truth in numbers. People can disagree and “fix” each other’s posts. This form of technology can really be utilized in the library.
The two main wikis I explored were the Book Lovers Wiki from Princeton College http://booklovers.pbwiki.com/Princeton%20Public%20Library and the ALA 2006 New Orleans Wiki http://meredith.wolfwater.com/ala2006/index.php?title=Main_Page. The Book Lovers Wiki is a great idea that all libraries can utilize. It allowed for people to post reviews of the books they read for the summer reading program book club. This is something we could easily do here at VB. I know that some of the branches had adults post reviews of books on slips of paper which were hung on a bulletin board. This same idea can be turned into a wiki. This can then be used as a reader’s advisory tool after the SRP ends. For example, while I was looking at the Book Lovers Wiki from Princeton College I found a few titles that I really want to read. This type of wiki works like Amazon reviews, only they are coming from others in your own community. I like the idea of receiving reviews generated from friends and neighbors, iIt allows the library to generating a reading list based on its specific community.
The ALA wiki was good because it allowed for members traveling to New Orleans to post what was really happening as opposed to what was advertised to be happening. I liked that this wiki gave a real word view of the city and the conference. It was strong in that people with differing experiences were all represented and there was a good usage of links for further outside research for the most up-to-date information. You could differentiate easily between posts because of the use of headings such as “another contributor notes” and “yet another contributor notes”. I think that this style of wiki could be used to promote library programs. For example people from computer or genealogy classes could post about what they are learning, what they wish they were learning, and their general feelings and ideas. This would allow others to see if they would be interested in the classes as well as allow us to see what changes or additions we could make.

I think that these are just two of the ways in which wikis can be used within the library.