I’ve always been fascinated by the wiki phenomenon and I’ve really enjoyed learning a bit more about them. Wikis represent what I think is the best aspect of the internet – the chance for anyone to share information with the world on any topic imaginable.
I enjoyed watching the tutorial, for although it was quite simple in it’s format, it showed in a concrete fashion the benefits of this technology. And although I’ve been a fan of this technology for a number of years, I’ve never tried to actually set one up before, and as we were shown in the tutorial, it’s not difficult at all.
The wikis that I examined from the list was the:
-
Book lovers wiki
-
Wookieepedia
-
The full library success.
I was quite impressed with the first site, I can see why they decided to retain it for archival purposes. It was so nicely set out, with the book cover illustrations and the categories chosen to link to the different sections of reviews were well chosen. I felt really quite inspired by this one, and thought of the potential applications for the three book groups that I organise through our library. Our online library catalogue is being updated shortly and our manager is quite keen on the concept of utilising wikis as part of the new format, so I will most definitely keep this address as evidence of what we could possibly do with this kind of technology.
The second sight was fairly lame – I am a bit of a Star Wars fan [though like so many people I know, this is limited to the first three movies that he made - shame on Lucas for disappointing so many millions of people with the travesty of the other movies] but the appeal of this site was fairly limited to me. It’s design is good, it was quite easy to navigate through and there was a wide range of topics covered. This would a good site to have linked to the young adults online resources.
When I looked at the third site, I was initially so excited - a huge massive wiki dedicated to all sorts of issues for librarians all over the world! I looked through the topics offered, and wondered excitedly where to start …. This is obviously building up to a grand disappointment & I was disappointed – hardly anyone has contributed to this site, other than the US based librarians who set it up! Perhaps it has not been established for very long? Perhaps our wonderous community of worldwide librarians aren’t actually aware of this shared space [I was certainly ignorant of it's existence until today] or perhaps I haven’t searched the site enough [I only searched through half a dozen topics, I will continue]. The possibilities of this site really grabbed me though, to think about how many amazing things we could share with each other. It is a site that I will most definitely keep an eye on.
I have also been chatting with the other branch librarian here about the amazing possibilities offered by the library launching it’s own wiki through our new online catalogue [when it is up & functional]. I feel quite inspired, which is not such a bad thing to be able to say on a Friday afternoon.
