» wikis

The Open Library

Mon, 17 May 2010 14:13:19 +0000

Have you ever visited the open library? I never had. I didn’t even know it existed until this past week when one of the speakers at the Utah Library Association conference mentioned it. That said, I am certainly not an expert on it. What caught my attention the most is that it seems to be quite similar to Google Books and it also shares some of the features of other book sites such as Good Reads, Library Thing and Shelfari. The main difference though is that it is like a Google Books where the whole world can add, edit and make changes.

It’s created wiki style as well. I have to say at first glance I am quite impressed and I think everyone should check it out. I will be adding this site to my list of things to take a better look at later.

If you’ve used the open library what do you think of it?

Wikipedia

Tue, 17 Feb 2009 03:54:12 +0000

div > What do you think about Wikipedia and libraries? I know as a library school student wikipedia was always approached as a taboo website and viewed as bad. But it is really all bad? I thought this article was interesting.
AnnaLaura Brown
http://www.squidoo.com/socialnetworkinglibrarian

clipped from www.infotoday.com

What to Do With Wikipedia
By William Badke,
Trinity Western University

If you want to get five opinions from four information professionals, just mention Wikipedia. Often banned by professors, panned by traditional reference book publishers, and embraced by just about everyone else, Wikipedia marches on like a great beast, growing larger and more commanding every day. With no paid editors and written by almost anyone, it shouldn’t have succeeded, but it has. In fact, it’s now emerged as the No. 1 go-to information source in the world. It’s used not only by the great unwashed but also by many educated people as well. ONLINE reported on the Pew Internet & American Life Project’s findings that 36% of the American population regularly consult Wikipedia (July/August 2007, p. 6).

Admit it—you use Wikipedia too. Someone c

The Montana Library 2.0 Challenge

Tue, 17 Feb 2009 03:18:16 +0000

Even though I don’t live in Montana, I was browsing library wikis the other day and I found this one and thought I would share it as it is full of all kinds of great information and ideas for using social networking in your library.

Montana Library 2.0 Challenge

Although still under construction this wiki will eventually offer information on all kinds of library 2.0 tools including blogging, RSS, youtube, podcasting and more.

What a great resource!

How To Use a Wiki With Your Library

Tue, 17 Feb 2009 03:15:40 +0000

Are you thinking about taking the plunge into the world of web 2.0 with your library and creating a wiki? I recently put together a successful wiki for my college library and so I would like to share some success tips for how to do it successfully.

Which wiki platform are you going to use? This is crucial because there are hundreds of them out there and they all vary in terms of ease of use, price, and setup as well as the ability to control who can view your wiki as well as who can post to your wiki.

Do you want to use your wiki exclusively as a method of organizing and changing material on your website? Or do you want to use the wiki to allow your patrons to interact with each other?

What is the exact purpose for your wiki? To communicate between library employees? To communicate with your patrons? To let your patrons communicate with each other?

What content are you going to include on your wiki? Just links to other pages on your library web site, a searchable library catalog, information about library classes and events, popular books, news and announcements or other items?

Do you want to pay for a wiki service or do you want to use a free wiki?

Is there a tech support person available to help you install your wiki and to assist with some periodic maintenance? If not, do you have a librarian who can take charge of the wiki and its updates and the technological side of maintaining a wiki? A wiki is a lot easier to use and keep up with on a regular website, however, you can’t just put it up and never spend time working on it.

It also helps if you can develop some wiki specific content. In our case we created subject pages for each of the major subjects taught at our college and included links to databases, magazines, books, ebooks, specialized encyclopedias and websites for each subject. We also have our library news and policies amongst other items of interest to our patrons on our wiki. You need to give your patrons a reason to read the wiki and to use it.

Wikis are one of the technologies of the future and as more and more libraries and other businesses begin using them, it is to your advantage to learn how to use one and to decide if it is right for your library.