Thing #16: In which Stacey goes a little Wiki

I am, of course, familiar with Wikipedia and have used it on many occasions. I've found interesting information there, but have also heard the stories about people posting incorrect info. With the librarian mantra of "cite your source!", that worries me a bit. I've decided to use it with a shaker of salt and try and verify information with another source, before completely believing it.

That being said, there are lots of good ways to use wikis in the library. Skimming through the examples, the first thought that came to mind was about the Book Lovers wiki from Princeton Public Library. This struck me as a way we could get customers to post reviews of their favorite books...a great tie-in to the adult summer reading program. We could also use it as a place for staff to recommend titles/provide reviews.

The other wiki I liked was Library 2.0 in 15 minutes per day. This one seemed a little less wiki-ish, but it seemed easy to navigate and a good structure for independent training. This might be an interesting way to create a training page for customers.

I also had the opportunity to look at some wikis posted on another library system's intranet. They used wikis for a variety of purposes, including their staff update newsletter. Each branch posted staff happenings and pictures. They used the wikis as a means of communication and to gather information about different topics. Almost like a long-distance brainstorming session. I'm betting these help cut down on some meetings and was a way to get information from a larger group of people.