It was great learning about Wikis. I listened to a podcast by Meredith Farcus, a distance learning librarian at a college in Vermont. She explained that Wikis are wonderful for gathering information from a diverse group of people who may or may not know each other. She stated that Wikis are easy to use and are limited only by the participants' imagination. Unlike a blog, no one person owns the content--it is owned by the community of participants. It is a constant work in progress.
After attending her first ALA conference and feeling totally overwhelmed, Ms. Farcus decided to enter the WIKI world by creating a WIKI about Chicago, the site of the next year's ALA conference. She enjoyed learning about Chicago and it attractions, restaurants, etc. from natives and from librarians who had attended previous trainings in Chicago. The WIKI was hugely popular and very helpful to the attendees.
Looking at the library WIKIs provided in the 16th Thing, I can see how patrons might enjoy giving feedback on books, music, dvds and other resources and services. A WIKI could be helpful in communicating to library stafff working on a library project. It would cut down on emails and the time required to read them. It would also be helpful when updating the policy manual.
I have a feeling that we will be utilizing WIKIs a lot more in the future.
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