Watch another of these "Plain English" shows: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dnL00TdmLY&NR=1 “Wikis in Plain English”.
Read these 2 websites:
How Stuff Works: "How Wikis Work" at http://computer.howstuffworks.com/wiki.htm
and
Wikipedia article: “Wiki”, at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki
Visit these 5 library wikis, at http://del.icio.us/theskokieten/librarywikis
Answer these questions: What do you think of Wikipedia? Would you, or do you, trust and use it to find information? Can you think of ways wikis can be used by libraries to offer something to its patrons? Can you think of ways that a wiki can be helpful to you and your department?
Bonus: set up a simple Wiki for something in our department, or add to a wiki that one of your coworkers sets up! Game night at Vida's--who's bringing what food and games? "Silly Stories" storytime list? Upcoming "Reader's Advisory" book selection? Other ideas?
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I "opened" accounts on pbwiki, wikispaces and wetpaint. I think I sent each of you an invitation to wetpaint. I'm still unsure how to effectively use a wiki. I opened these primarily to brainstorm about the Resource Center program; even though Carolyn and I are going to be there the most I'm hopeful that each of you will give us ideas. If nothing else this will help us try a wiki.
I love those "Plain English" lectures on youtube. I really understood the concept. One thing they didn't address, or at least I didn't pick up on it: can everyone on the internet access every Wiki? For example, if we set up one for Game night at Vida's, can some stranger pretend to be one of us and sign up to bring the salad? We wouldn't find out until that night, and then we would all be sad that there was no salad.
Yes, I trust what I read on Wikipedia. It's at least a good place to get some quick information, and it does provide links to other sources. However, if I were doing scholarly research or had to testify in court, I probably wouldn't use it as a source.
Libraries could use wikis so patrons could post suggestions for book groups. Patrons could enter what they've read (and grade level, if applicable), and comment on its appropriateness. They might even offer some good discussion questions.
I liked the video on YouTube - very understandable. It also had links to creating your own wiki, like on wetpaint - quite handy. Felt a little better about wikipedia after reading the article at howstuffworks. It's good that you can see the list of changes and that people are somewhat policing the articles. The links are handy too. I still probably would not use it as a primary source for research, but as a starting point. Looked up tortoiseshell cats on wikipedia after reading the article. Cute pictures - did learn some things I didn't know. Perhaps we could use a wiki for our book reviews. For titles that have multiple readers, we could choose the best summary from all our cards, and then just add the comments - perhaps as bullet points. It sounds like we could set it up so only authorized people can add to it. Perhaps bibliographies would work, too. Saw where the Pierce Library allows patrons to have a favorites list. Maybe we could set up something like that for kids.
I have to say I am not a huge fan of wiki's. I think having one for our dept. is fine because it probably wouldn't get out of control.
The Plain English video was very easy to understand and I am glad that I watched it. I sometimes do searches that land me in wikipedia and I will look at it but I would never really depend on it for my research. I know that they do watch the changes being made but I still worry about how reliable they are.
Some wiki's just seem like long lists of things and I lose my interest. I think it would be interesting to try the one out for our dept. though and I will participate on that or maybe start a new one if time allows.
I do think the "Plain English " lectures on youtube make things easier to understand. As for Wikis I doubt very much that I shall be creating one. As for Wikipedia I would not depend on it for research.
The "plain English" videos are great, simple and clear. I really liked the St. J. County PL wiki. If you follow the link for gardening, for example, they show you new gardening books on their shelves, links to community garden info., farmers' market and master gardeners. A great way to highlight their collection and link to community things their patrons might be interested in. I created a pbwiki to play around with it and added Bus to Books info. to it. I like Kathleen's at wikispaces better though. I haven't really had time to set the pb page up. But I can see the value of having a wiki, especially since you can have the rss feeds come to you so you know when they're updated. Better than e-mail perhaps when dealing with a group (like in the camping demo :)). However, I do not really trust wikipedia as an "authority" on a subject.
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