Week 7, Thing # 16 Learn about wikis and discover some innovative ways that libraries are using them

Hurrah! This week's Things have brought back my enthusiasm for Web 2.0 after it faltered a bit over Del.icio.us etc. I admit to not being able to see much point in the tagging and blogrolls. Of course, the key word is "sharing," which I had lost sight of for a moment. I have been brought back to the idea of collaboration by doing the discovery exercises in Thing 16.

The extra bonus is that I can see straight away several potential uses for Wikis in my personal life and in my job. Creating a Wiki seems so easy using something like PB Wiki. I am the state president of the Maryland branch of a women's charitable organization. A Wiki would seem to be the way to go instead of creating our own web page, which we have been struggling with.

Library uses for Wiki that I liked the most were: for the public - "directories" of community services; subject guides; reader's advisory. The most controversial and innovative uses are a content management system and a public-annotated catalog. The content management system I looked at looked like an integrated search system. They still had an OPAC (South Carolina at Aiken). An annotated catalog has the possibility of some of the drawbacks of Wikis (authority of content, messy, crowded organization, spam, etc.)

Uses within the library staff seemed more exciting to me in that I could probably implement them very soon myself: collaborative editing of documents, planning space, like an Intranet, sharing of knowledge. I have a plan to collaborate with the members of a committee I am on whose task it is to create system training materials on reader's advisory (gentle reads, specifically). I am also going to suggest we work together on the Book Moderators Committee to create a Wiki on how to start and run a book group. I have already blogged a bit about this and sent out some e-mails, and started to compile a pathfinder. Wikis seem to be a synthesis and improvement on all these activities. This would be a great way to get committee input and also engage the public.

Some key points I took from the podcast: Wikis must have a clear, stated purpose. The Bull Run Library Wiki I looked at had a purpose statement.

Wikis are better than blogs for many things because they are not chronological. I looked at the Book Lovers Blog. That was all readers' comments, but they had been organized into genres.

Don't start with a blank slate because that prevents many people from contributing. The SJCPL Subject Guides were organized so that it had the look of a web page. The structure made looking for things more friendly too.

Week 3, Thing # 7, Create a blog post about anything technology-related - Uses for Wikis

I am overjoyed because already after out Technology Fair I can see some possible uses for Wikis which I can use to my advantage as the current state President of the Daughters of the British Empire in Maryland, Inc.

DBE in Maryland is a nonprofit, charitable organization of women of British or Commonwealth descent who since 1909 have been supporting retirement homes throughout the United States and also local philanthropy. We need to keep renewing our chapters by recruiting new young women. In the last few years we have had some success from our National website. Individual states who can afford it have their own websites which are linked from National. Maryland has investigated having their own site, but for various reasons has decided not to right now. One reason is we cannot afford even the small costs some hosts would charge and we cannot afford a designer and have not been able to persuade a volunteer.

I have been looking into designing a site myself. Now I think we might jump right over website technology and go to a wiki as some libraries have. I am very interested in PB Wiki. Will have to look into all the pros and cons.