Thing 15: Wikis

Checking out the wikis....

I thought I would hate wikis. What do you mean anyone can change the stuff that's posted? How are we supposed to give a consistent message if it's changing all the time? There's no content control or some Grand Pooh Bah who says what gets posted. You mean I can post anything?

Guess what? All those "concerns" are exactly what makes a wiki so great!

First, let me put a plug in for a wiki... There is WikiMart, the InfoLine/Rover wiki. It pretty much rocks. Tons of info in one handy place. No more, "where's that memo about MOLDI?" or "I can't find that phone list." Nope, I just have to go to one handy online source. And it's moderated. So people can't just post stuff willy-nilly. There's a core group that takes care of posting most of the stuff and the rest of the InfoLine/Rover gang can post critical, time sensitive updates without having to go through the moderators. It's just pretty cool.

AV has started a wiki. We are just beginning to get things on it. So far it has things like an equipment list for other libraries around town, our homegrown "rolodex", etc. I'm sure we will be adding lots more stuff to help the staff.

I like the idea of using a wiki to post favorites (see next post about Thing 16). This could be a lovely way to engage our customers so they can see bibliographies, etc. in their search for material suggestions.

I am concerned that there are so many different wikis out there. I could see CR&D and IT setting up a standard so we all have the same accessibility and the same look. But the content possibilities are endless.

So let's see what I have to say about Thing 16....