WIKIS

THING #16

Wikis offer users a lot of benefits, the major one being that a group of people can contribute to develop a website together and they do not need to know HTML or other languages. The main downside to a wiki is information accuracy because any user can add or delete pages. Therefore, if content control is a big issue, a wiki may not be the proper tool to use.

The most famous and largest wiki is Wikipedia. Other projects I researched are wikiuniversity, wikinews, wiktionary, and wikiquotes.

Libraries use wikis to collaborate, share knowledge, and create online communities. Some applications include: pathfinders, subjects guide wikis, catalog annotations, book review wikis, library outreach, ALA conference wikis. Some other uses internally are: meetings, conference planning, collaborative editing of documents, intranets, collective knowledge of the library community, a place to share success stories, advice, and useful materials, librarians sharing library instruction, and library best practices.

I searched through many of the library wikis and my favorite one and most interesting was the Portland Community College Library using Macromedia Flash (Camtasia Studio 2) (audiovisually) to teach users how to search the Oregon Guide.