THING 16: WIKIS
I went to three wikis. The first one is Saint Joseph County Public Library's Subject Guides. The page presents links ranging from legal topics to local history.
I clicked Local History, then 1875 Atlas Online. There is a slide for each page of An Illustrated Historical Atlas of St. Joseph Co., Indiana.
Yes the site is successful. There are many links. The site is not flashy.
This is a great site. However, the Subject Guides are not listed on the home page. A patron must go to the Research link and scroll to Subject Guides.
Maybe SPL can have more text on its web page.
The next wiki I went to is Library Success: A Best Practices Wiki. The site presents lists of links by category. The links relate to libraries. The layout of the site reminds me of Wikipedia.
The wiki is successful. An article is presented on the page followed by categories, with links listed below each category. I went to Training and Development For Librarians. There are two library schools from California listed: San Jose State and UCLA.
The Contra Costa County Library was discussed in a short article listed under Online Library Card Registration and e-Card Services.
SPL could use this formal style if we wanted to write information on local topics and places on our home page.
My favorite wiki is The Bull Run Library wiki. The page is mainly a menu for community events such as book sales, musical performances, and classes.
The site is successful because it is simple and informative. The first link on the site is a Translation Tool. The site can be translated into 52 languages. Then comes the list of community events. Following the community events are two links: overdrive and a wiki for all the libraries in that county.
SPL could learn from this site by having our data translated into 52 languages. If we want to simplify our site, then The Bull Run Library wiki is an example to learn from.
Finally, I went to www.sacwiki.org. On the Home Page I clicked Sacramento Wish List. The first item on the list says, "I wish that Sacramento hadn't cut itself off from the river with I-5 and that the city would fund its Riverfront Reconnection project." I agree.
This is the end of this post.
The Walker
Wikis have been used successfully to do many things. I believe SPL is moving its research guides to a wiki, but don't know the time frame. The strength of wikis is that they are editable, depending on the permissions set up by the wiki's owner. That means they can be updated frequently, making them more current than other kinds of web sites.
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