We're Off to See the Wizard, The Wonderful Wizard of WIKI.
Because, because, because, because, because.... Because of the wonderful things it does. Okay, blog world, by way of explanation for the above, it is late, I am caffeinated, and I like (self proclaimed) witty titles. Here are some one of a kind things that you can find in wiki land. The following information was posted on the wiki for the Bull Run Library http://bullrunlibrary.pbworks.com/w/page/11729197/FrontPage
Cemetery Symbolism: What Can You Learn About Your Ancestors From Their Tombstones? Presented by Diane Nesmeyer, Tuesday, September 27, 7:00 p.m. Unravel the mysteries of cemetery symbols from a genealogy instructor. How cool is this? This comes from a library patron, maintaining a wiki about their library's events. How fantastic is that? I also looked at the Archivopedia for a while, because that is one of my interest areas. I was hoping to find a bit more information from this site, but it was not up to date; however, it linked to some other useful sites. It also gave me an idea for how wikis could be used by professionals in any given field of Library or Information Science. A Wiki could allow for networking and sharing across continents an d outside of the typical range of communication. So much could be shared. What if School Librarians had a wiki, academic, specials, etc? I think that wiki's could help people in smaller disciplines and fields as well as larger ones stay connected and feel a part of a learning community. I know that In several of my classes this semester I have used a class wiki for the first time, and I was pleasantly pleased with how we could try to share and collaborate on a project. Also, unlike Wikipedia or more mainstream wiki's I feel as though library related wiki's might not be the target for some of the more challenging elements of public editing.
I also enjoyed the book review wikis that I came across in my explorations. This could be a great tool for schools, and for library programs such as summer reading. A public library wiki could also be a fantastic way for patrons of libraries who may not know each other or feel connected in a community, to share interests and reading insights, and perhaps try new books based on others recommendations. There is so much information out there, and why not employ the readers in the process of sharing it with one another?
On a side note wiki's are also great tools for random interests that are not very mainstream. For example, I can waste a whole lot of time looking up character biographies written by fellow fans of Star Wars novels on Wikipedia.
On a fianl side note,
So far we've looked at within-library wikis, but what about collaborative wikis between different libraries? Patrons could cross-promote their libraries to bring more people into each other's libraries or share resources/services (i.e. maybe one library doesn't carry audio books, but the other does or the other doesn't offer e-books, but the one does). I suppose this could be seen as competition, but encouraging more people to utilize libraries could also be seen as a good thing! On the flip side, it also doesn't do much to bring in new patrons, as those who are invested enough to write and or read a wiki probably are already invested patrons.
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