What interests me most about a Wiki is the diversity of perspectives contributed. In the academic world, this used to be called “eclectic sources.” In a library setting, I think Wikis have their greatest potential for subject guides, book reviews and internal department manuals.
I also like the idea of setting up a library community website to feature “about town” restaurants and tourist sites within the area. Residents usually know the best places to frequent and can give you off-the-record advice that official travel sites may not be willing to offer. People love to contribute information about their community and usually are responsible about not submitting inappropriate comments.
Amazon’s book reviews are very helpful and for that reason I think a local, library book review site would be ideal. I’m interested to see what OCLC has to offer in the near future about including book reviews with their bib records. They have already done this to some extent with URLs linking to descriptions and publisher info.
Some department manuals are already set up so that members can add to them or alter them, and I know this has saved supervisors a great deal of time.
My only concern with contributing research work to a subject guide is that inaccuracies can result. I still say you are more responsible when you have to sign your work rather than submit it anonymously, although “Diary of a Librarian” reminded me that they can always trace your IP address.
Bring on the wikis.
I also like the idea of setting up a library community website to feature “about town” restaurants and tourist sites within the area. Residents usually know the best places to frequent and can give you off-the-record advice that official travel sites may not be willing to offer. People love to contribute information about their community and usually are responsible about not submitting inappropriate comments.
Amazon’s book reviews are very helpful and for that reason I think a local, library book review site would be ideal. I’m interested to see what OCLC has to offer in the near future about including book reviews with their bib records. They have already done this to some extent with URLs linking to descriptions and publisher info.
Some department manuals are already set up so that members can add to them or alter them, and I know this has saved supervisors a great deal of time.
My only concern with contributing research work to a subject guide is that inaccuracies can result. I still say you are more responsible when you have to sign your work rather than submit it anonymously, although “Diary of a Librarian” reminded me that they can always trace your IP address.
Bring on the wikis.
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