Week 7, Thing 16

Checked out SJCPL Subject Guides. Great stuff! Looked at edit function and saw that it was locked down to librarians only. I wondered how they would keep it valid. Also saw that the last edit for biography was 2006. It seems like one of the difficulties with Wikis, just as it is with webpages, is how to keep them current to make sure you continue to have visitor traffic - especially when visitors can't edit the page. This isn't necessarily a topic that would change frequently or that visitors would need to check out daily but it's a thought... especially for school sites. I'll look further and see how others handle it.

Looked at their one on Antiques. I like the consistent format and the links to community resources. Makes access easier. Goes along with the idea of using signage and other things to increase accessibility. Good stuff. I can see using this for a curriculum map/resources for a school library.

Interesting. The Book Lovers wiki was created to post book reviews for a summer reading program. They've discontinued it because they now put book reviews in the catalog. This seems like a great idea. Since the catalog exists and patrons are directed to it, the information stays in one place. I've pondered this as our district has written a proposal for an information portal. Now that there are so many tools available for collaboration and information sharing, it seems like the next move will be to figure out how to bring them all together to improve accessibility and lessen info overload.

Library Success Wiki - Like the idea that this is user driven but it seems to suffer a bit from inconsistency in format. When you create this type of wiki, it seems like it would benefit the user to create a fairly tightly structured format... not to restrict them but to increase usability.

Alby Staff Information Station - Like many others collaborative tools, this seems to suffer from have no leadership. In my experience, someone has to be responsible for guiding people, reviewing what's there, providing structure and championing the cause (much like the CSLA staff for this course!) This is a great idea for a district, though. Our handbook is still on paper only and lessons plans are shared via email. How much better it would be to have a place to keep these things and encourage all to participate.

Blogging Libraries Wiki - I'm still having trouble getting into Blogs. It just doesn't seem very efficient to me. It's nice to have a place that lists all the links.

Westwood wikispaces (Sample School Wiki) - This site makes me thing about the difference between webpages and wikis. At some point, I think they'll merge to become a new entity. Some information/data will be maintained solely by the owner/editor and other portions will be editable by all. Information (and links to information) will be in one spot. I was just thinking about some notes I wrote for a steering committee meeting at the end of the year. I wrote them up then emailed them to all the faculty. I then took a look at the "Scribe Award" on this wiki and looked at the post in question. There in the blog were notes for a class session that the appointed scribe had written. This makes MUCH more sense. Notes are available for all. There's an archive of what went on and there's the capability for people to comment on them. I think I'll propose this in the fall. I like this.

History Wiki - Looks like Webquest, Phase 2.0

TeacherLibrarianWiki - Good stuff. Again - the trick is to get people to really belong and continue to contribute in meaningful ways. Again - I think part of the issue is just too many possibilities leading to inaction. Seems a bit like the VHS/Beta issue.

Good "thing".