Wikis

Today I am learning about wikis. These are basically webpages that can be edited by just about anyone--though, in an effort to prevent erroneous editing, most wikis require editers to set-up an account before they can change or add things to the wikis. The classic example is wikipedia, which I've linked to a lot from my blog. I am a shameless user of this resource, if only to familiarize myself with the wealth of information out there and to see what other users have deemed worthy to include as reference links in their posts. For an example of a really cool entry, see the post on J.R.R. Tolkien. If I'm frustrated with an internet search on some particular topic, I will look it up in wikipedia to see if there are any worthwhile reference links to check out.

Wikis would be very useful to libraries, particularly for behind-the-scenes work. With so much stuff to be aware of, and people located in different parts of the building, it can be hard to keep track of what is going on. Wikis would be a way of consolidating all this information in one place. Giving a particular group of people permission to edit a wiki would enable them to post information to the wiki themselves, instead of relying on a webmaster to do it.

I would love to see a wiki set up for the technical services department of EKU, especially for the serials portion. My supervisor and I each have huge amounts of information related to the journals of EKU, and no good way of sharing it. A wiki could be a way to keep track of projects, publishers, misbehaving journals, etc.

(I feel very funny writing and saying "wiki" a lot).