Week Five - Wikis

I was really interested in the article What to Do With Wikipedia. Although Badke relates this as a discussion revolving around academia, the points he raises have also been discussed (and continue to be discussed) in a library/librarian context. Accuracy, reliability, validity – all issues that librarians debate in relation to the use of Wikipedia. His final conclusion is the ‘if you can’t beat them, join them’ response, and I think that’s been my conclusion too, in terms of using Wikipedia. Are librarians making a leap to create and/or edit wikipedia entries? Can we? Should we? How much are we contributing to our own library wikis like the Library Success Wiki? Plenty of rhetorical questions here!

As someone who has developed procedure manuals, particularly in relation to cataloguing, using a wiki for this purpose would ensure that everyone has access to the most recent information and contributors can update their section as required. To maintain overall consistency, it may be necessary to have the manual edited or overviewed by one person/coordinator. There are other online options for collaborative editing, but wikis seem to be so open and simple to use.

The Library Success Wiki’s update information at the top of the screen highlights the problem of vandalism, another issue that librarians (or anyone) needs to be aware of when using wikis.

Book Lovers Wiki from Princeton Public Library looked good, but I thought it may be a little out of date – they refer to 2006 and 2007 for reading club. A wiki, just as a website or blog, needs to be reviewed and refreshed, or at least glanced at, indicating the last time it was updated.

I love Wookieepedia – I’m not particularly a Star Wars fan but I can see how this is a great way for SW nerds to communicate and display the depth of their SW knowledge! Even a quote of the day is featured, plus a date clearly indicated for when the last edit was made.

PB Wiki plugin options are great – I didn’t realise you could add photos, calendar etc.
I assumed wikis were just a text based system.

As a cataloguer the examples of possible next generation catalogues gave some practical illustrations of the possibilities. Being a wiki, readers can participate by posting their examples.
I had seen the Tasmanian site before, but none of the others. The Danbury Public Library’s example of Bridget Jones’s Diary demonstrates innovation with tags and links to similar books. Good stuff!