My Yard

My Yard

Thursday, September 29, 2011

Wiki

       I like most people on the web have used Wikipedia a great deal. I use it to look up any stray fact that I might need or in order to win or lose arguments with my friends. I liked seeing the different ways in which libraries are using wikis and think that this is a great way of sharing information about your library with the community and having them be able to share with you as well. The wiki does not have the stigma that some social media sites like Facebook have so you could use it to connect with people in a less controversial way. Wikis are easy to use and are often easily navigated through. You could have people from your community reviewing books they have read on the site so that you can get many more options that you might have had if just librarians and library staff could edit the page. This free form editing may also be a problem for some libraries since wikis invite pranks. I librarian would have to keep up to date on what was on the wiki which may take a great deal of their time. I looked at the Book Lovers Wiki and I liked the reviews feature. I would have liked to see more book reviews and on a greater verity of genres.

2 comments:

  1. I like would like to see more libraries invest in wiki for book reviews. I can only imagine a patron asking about a book, since all librarians can't read every book, the librarian can direct the user to the wiki site. I have used Wikipedia to get more in-depth with a book's characters, plot, theme, etc. I'm not a big fan of the self edit as information can be misleading and cause future problems. There is some give and take with free access and the user has to justify the means to this access, ie, using information with references provide. Great post!

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  2. Both of your posts point to an important issue related to socially constructed knowledge through wikis, blogs and even websites. Where is the happy medium between allowing a public voice and control of the accuracy of information? The ability to be able to verify what one reads is skill that's necessary to be taught. How does this apply to the future of the library profession?

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