I love Wikipedia, and I think wikis are an invaluable tool for organizing and sharing information. One of the librarians in my department is developing a storytime wiki for our district that I have already found immensely useful, and one of our library specialists has started a wiki for our department. Both use PBWiki.
I was very impressed by the SJCPL Subject Guides. It looks like it’s a valuable resource for the citizens of St. Joseph County, and an excellent example of the role information professionals will occupy more in our increasingly electronic world. The Princeton Public Library’s BookLoversWiki illustrates how wikis can be used for library programs or short term projects. I especially like that they include links to their library catalog records. I’m already a big fan of Library Success, where libraries from all over the country can share their best ideas with each other. The Albany County Public Library Staff Wiki is an example of how libraries can use wikis to organize and share important information and procedures within a library/department/system; as I mentioned above, my department has just started this type of wiki. The Blogging Libraries Wiki is another example of how wikis can be used to share information between libraries; in this case, how libraries use blogs.
A few of my favorite library wikis are YALSA, Library Success, TeenLibWiki, and ALA’s Gaming @ your library wiki. I added our department’s teen MySpace page to the YALSA wiki article “Examples of libraries using social networking technologies to connect with teens”.
All of the wikis I’ve discussed or mentioned should illustrate how useful this tool is. I think it’s foolish and shortsighted for teachers or faculty to prevent students from using Wikipedia as a resource. They should take the opportunity to educate their students in information literacy and teach them how to evaluate available resources and recognize those that are authoritative. Perhaps this is an area in which librarians should become more involved.
Tags: wikis
February 26, 2009 at 9:07 pm
Oh yeah, here’s that Harold/Watchmen mashup I’d mentioned: http://www.freshmanforlife.com/search/label/Blotchmen
February 27, 2009 at 10:12 am
Wow. I love what Harold does with the crayon dust.
March 3, 2009 at 11:39 am
I left this on my blog, but who knows if anyone ever checks for followup comments?
Allconsuming.net might make more sense if you know if its ties with Lists of Bests (which is useful mostly if you’re in love with lists).
March 4, 2009 at 6:53 pm
Both sites look interesting. I bookmarked them and intend to investigate them more thoroughly when I have more time.
March 9, 2009 at 7:44 pm
Haha that comic is funny. It’s cool how you know so much about wikis. I never knew there were so many out there. o.O