#16 WIKI WAKI WOO

I find Wikipedia a great source for pop information--ultra-current information but also pop culture of the past. If I want to find out what has happened to a pop star of the past, I go to Wikipedia and start there. If I want a definition of a current slang term, I find Wikipedia a great place to look. Since it is edited by all and sundry, however, I tend to verify facts in other sources if I need total veracity. I think it is a great informational springboard, however. There's even a Wikipedia article about me! But it has some misinformation. Maybe I'll register and add some information as part of this learning experience. Hmmmmm! There's a thought.

I haven't explored other wikis as much. We have a community wiki for my town but not much was going on there the last I looked. I think it would be a good source of local information if more people contributed. I would like to share information about contractors and handymen, for instance, but the references there are old. New recommendations from neighbors would be very useful. Of course, how do you know it it's not the tradesmen themselves or their friends who are posting good plugs? That's the sort of thing a local library could partner with their community on.

Wikis would make it easier for more staff to contribute to updating library Intranet pages instead of it falling to a small set of people with the right log-in and knowledge.

I like the use of wikis for book lists and subject guides--at least open to staff to edit. It might be interesting to pilot opening it up to the public and see what happens. Time has to alloted for someone to monitor the site, however.

Some wikis seem to have problems with spammers inserting links to their ads. Any library who uses wikis needs to figure out how to block those and have someone on spam patrol. The Library Instruction Wiki I looked at, Library 2.0 in 15 minutes a day, was totally infested with spam. I'm glad to see from the Princeton Public library BookLoversWiki that not all wikis need have that generic Wikipedia look.

What surprised me about the Bull Run Library wiki was that it was created by a patron and not associated with the library. Can they do that? Anyway--news flash for library patron--when I checked the "add features" tab it said your wiki subscription has run out and you owe the wiki people money.