Wikis

Wiki's - wow. I knew basically what they were but didn't see their value to a library... I knew wikipedia and thought, how can this be good? How can you trust the information it has if anyone can edit it, and if you can't trust it what use is it? However as part of this learning experience I have looked at several wikis - some library based, some not - and found that the purpose of these wikis is quite exciting. One wiki was a library subject guide which users can add to and there was a wiki devoted to worldwide law, just to mention 2. Having tried to create a subject guide previously and worried whether the sources I put in it are the best for the subject it now seems, after thinking about wikis, that it makes sense to let the people who are meant to use the subject guide to actually have imput into it in a more hands on way. Naysayers could bellow but a user can always make a suggestion but how often do we find ourselves thinking 'gee that would be a good idea' but then we can't be bothered to go to the effort of letting someone know or we can't find someone to let know. With a wiki, if a person has a contribution, all they need to do is to click edit and add then add their 2 cents worth. In terms of my library, having wiki functionality on my library catalogue would be great. Instead of users asking me what is the best book regarding this subject, and me not being sure because I haven't read it or I don't understand the technicial information contained in it, they could look at what previous readers have thought of the book. And what about the backend of library processes... How many times has someone been away and no one else has known the answer to a problem/question which has come up? We all carry a lot of information in our heads specific to our job and whilst we can sit down and create a manual of our 'jobs' but these sorts of things tend to only be updated rarely. Hence it's a big job and it's easy to forget to add some information. If our manuals were in wiki form they would be easier to update, all in 1 place and any library staff member can update or annotate someone elses manual where necessary or appropriate. Of course this is just a couple ideas and I'm sure there are many more out there waiting for me to discover them.