Wikis

Lambs in New Zealand
Originally uploaded by jcolman.

'Tis the season for lamb-ies! Too cute...

As with most Learning 2.0 subjects, I find myself meeting internal resistance to the latest 'trend.' In trying to absorb the idea of wikis and asking myself when/how would I ever use it, I came up with very little. That's due, though, to my dependency on email and my comfort with email. I can't fully wrap my head around the idea of wikis.

One idea I heard that would be used in one department at KCLS is to establish a wiki as a department procedures manual. The idea of wikis having the ability to be edited by everyone and the idea of collaborative content is what appeals to this department.

I thought about this idea for my own department. Currently, I have assigned each staff person several topics to write about. Then, as supervisor, I edit the documents as needed and post them to a shared internal-user-only server. The downside of this method is that each topic would have to be opened in a separate document; in a wiki, it would all be accessible in one continuous
document' and more easily updatable...and accessible.

In looking at the ALA Midwinter wiki, I could see how it would be valuable to have the most current information posted in one updatable place. My 'internal resistance' comes up again because I wonder how easy it would be for a lot of non-relative content to be posted there. However, I understand the 'wiki community' is supposed to quickly revise the wikis because the community is 'lively and active' and wishes to maintain the wiki in a creative...but editable way. Wikis are described as 'community policed forums.'

Wikis put website creators and non-tech-folks on somewhat equal footing. Librarians who don't know how to create websites can become equal partners of a wiki community simply by knowing how to access the wiki and type. www.libsuccess.org is a "one-stop-shop for great ideas for librarians" that provides easy access to helpful hints from librarians far and wide.

Since I tend to 'process' ideas through writing, I find that I've turned a corner even by writing this blogpost: I definitely want to try out a wiki model for our department procedures manual. :-)