Wiki time October 11, 2006

Let’s get right to it… So you want to build a wiki? is a fantastic starting point for thinking about Wikis in the context of libraries. I agree that it is crucial to give your Wiki a theme and purpose and to start it off in order to encourage participation. The other article by the same author, Using Wikis to Create Online Communities, provides concrete library wiki ideas: subject guides, annotating the catalogue (patrons add book reviews), community wikis and staff wikis. A specific idea of a library staff wiki comes from Angela Kille, and that idea is for librarians to set up a wiki to share common reference questions. What a great idea! I can’t think of any reason why a library wouldn’t do this!

Oooh, and I can’t belive anyone can start such a clean article by saying the author “grooves on tools that are fast, cheap, and out of control.” But they did, and the article contains content, too. The WhyWiki section holds very practical examples of how some UBC groups are using wikis, which lead me to think that most groups could find a great use for a wiki. But to temper my enthusiasm, the article titled On uses for wikis and gardening states: “The key is to use wikis to fill a need, not to find a need for a wiki because you want to use a wiki.” Good advice.

On a personal note, I’ve been working with myLIS570 group on Google’s Writely to build our presentation. Writely markets itself as “Free web word processor which lets you share and collaborate your work online.” It is pretty much like word crossed with a wiki - it allows for you to see who has updated the documents, the various versions, and to revert to any version, much like a wiki does. It is working really well for us and saves a lot of emailing back and forth.

I’ve been playing with the Wiki group project’s PBwiki and have created my own page: Heather’s Page. It is pretty boring because I was just playing with a template and not adding any real content, but there is one good link in there if you can find it I’ve used this tool before but I was pleasantly surprised to see some new templates in there, especially the group project template which I think is a helpful starting structure.

Taking a look at this week’s case studies, the first thing that struck me was that some of them look really bland. The two best-looking sites are: USC Aiken Gregg-Graniteville Library powered by PMwiki and Bull Run Library powered by PBwiki. But some of the other PBwiki sites look too boring and wiki-ish, so I would consider using PMwiki, so far. I like the simple idea of running a book club on a wiki, like Princeton Public Library did, but I can see it having more ’staying’ power if it includes recommendations from someone really well-known like Nancy Pearl, on her sort-of Wiki WetPaint site. What could libraries do for this? Perhaps the Mayor, the University President, or another quasi-famous person could be talked into contributing a few book recommendations, and of course your local librarians! Maybe you could also include NYT book reviews, but I admit I am not certain on the legality of this. I also like the creative idea of the Wyoming Authors Wiki idea, because I think you would automatically earn the participation of the authors and of some local educators.

Uh… Is anyone else frustrated by the Butler WikiRef - what is it for? I mean, I’ve read the introductory paragraph, but I don’t really see how it serves reference users (at least not in a user-friendly way). I clicked on a few of the links in the ‘directory’ and the ‘complete list’ from the homepage, the only pages I could find useful links to click on, and I was dissapointed by the meagre content. It made me wonder if it was a new resource, or just unpopular, but I couldn’t find a ‘last modified’ date anywhere and therefore left feeling even more frustrated.