Selling out, err a note about Wikis

First things first, those of you who actually follow this blog will notice a few changes in some of the posts. Mainly they will be a little more library-centric. There is a reason for this. The SLC Public Library has a pretty cool Learning Library 2.0 program that covers a lot of the web 2.0 functionality. And a lot of the exercises involve blogging about the topic at hand. So, some of this will be old hat (or possibly things I've talked about before), but some will be new. At any rate, you'll just have to go along for the ride. That or come back in a few weeks or something. Regularly scheduled content will appear at random just like normal.

So. Wikis. The first topic in the program. I've mentioned before that I think wikis are fascinating little things. I believe I've even talked a little about the internal wiki the library has. Personally I find them to be useful little tools. As long as you keep a couple things in mind. One of the biggest strengths of the wiki is also in some ways it's biggest weakness. Wikis live or die by their user base. Since a wiki is a community created thing, if you have no community, you have no, err, thing. Content. Yes, you have no content. Also, since in most cases you can let just anyone add content you have a slight quality control issue. So while they can be a fabulous place to get information out there, you do have to be careful.

As for libraries and wikis, well personally I think it's peanut butter and chocolate. There are a whole slew of ways a library could make use of a wiki. On the back end, it's a great place to store library policies and procedures as well as document how things work. And as the function of the library changes and shifts, amazingly the wiki can keep up. On the public side you could have a wiki for book clubs, a place that your patrons could rate and/or discuss books and an online presence/community can be created. (you can take a look here and here and even over here for a couple examples of possibilities.) So, yeah, wikis = pretty cool.

Again reaching "critical mass" is probably the hardest part. Getting a good framework that people find easy to use and then encouraging them to use it. You probably need a couple teenagers.