Quest 9 - No, Not A Wookiee, A Wiki!

So if it's not a furry space alien, what is a wiki? A wiki is a collaborative website and authoring tool that allows users to easily add, remove and edit content. Wikipedia, the online open-community encyclopedia, is the largest and perhaps the most well known of these knowledge sharing tools. (And, perhaps, the most controversial. Check out this blog post which gives you a snapshot of the debate over Wikipedia's reliability & authoritativeness as a reference resource.) With the benefits to information-sharing that wikis provide, the use and popularity of these tools is exploding.

Some of the benefits that make wikis so attractive are:

• Anyone (registered or unregistered, if unrestricted) can add, edit or delete content.


• Tracking tools within wikis allow you to easily keep up on what been changed and by whom.


• Earlier versions of a page can be viewed and reinstated when needed.


• Users do not need to know HTML in order to apply styles to text or add and edit content. In most cases simple syntax structure is used.

As the use of wikis has grown over the last few years, libraries all over the country have begun to use them to collaborate and share knowledge. Among their applications are pathfinder or subject guide wikis, book review wikis, ALA conference wikis and even library best practices wikis.

Discovery Resources

Use these resources to learn more aboout wikis:

• Wiki, wiki, wiki - from the Core Competency blog of the Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenberg County.


• Wiki’s: A Beginner’s Look – an excellent short slide presentation that offers a short introduction and examples.


• What is a Wiki? – Library Success wiki presentation. (Be sure to follow the "Continue to" links at the bottom to see the whole presentation


• Using Wikis to Create Online Communities – a good overview of what a wiki is and how it can be used in libraries.

Discovery Exercise
For this discovery exercise, take a look at some library wikis and blog about what you see. Here’s a few examples to get you started:

• SJCPL Subject Guides – a pathfinder wiki developed by the St. Joseph County Public Library system


• Book Lovers Wiki - developed by the Princeton Public Library


• Library Success: A best practices wiki


• 2007 SCLA Annual Conference Wiki – an example of a wiki created to support a specific event


• The Bull Run Library wiki- a public library wiki functioning as a mini-website for a regional library in the Prince William Public Library System in Virginia.


• Other library wiki examples

Be sure to create a blog post about your findings. What did you find interesting? What types of applications within libraries might work well with a wiki?


OPTIONAL:
Are you ready to explore posting to a wiki? You're in luck! Head over to http://techtrek20playhouse.pbwiki.com/ and follow the instructions on the screen to add a favorite thing to the list. Be sure to mention what you thought about editing the wiki on your blog! (PS: To edit the wiki, you will either need your own pbwiki account, or you will need to know the wiki password. Click "Edit Page," then choose the "Contact" option to ask us for the password via email.)