Thing #16 wikis

I really enjoyed learning about wikis. I've thought of all sorts of uses for them. I especially liked the "Library 2.0 in 15 minutes a day" and plan to do that one when I'm done with 23 Things. Can't learn too much, can we?

I thought the St. Joseph County wiki was very easy to use and very comprehensive. I did notice that they only allow librarians to edit. This makes sense for some of the sections, like new books at the library. I thought it would be helpful to them if their patrons could edit such things as what to do and see in the area, etc. Things not directly related to the library. I don't know if you can make only certain sections of pages available to be edited as most of the pages have books listed on the topics.

I thought Princeton's Book Lover page was great. It looks like anyone can sign up for that. It's nice to see what people are saying about the books and seeing the list of 5 star books.

All the ALA ones looked interesting. I even found the one for DC! They really had a lot of good information for out of town guests. If I ever go to one of those conferences (hint, hint....) I'd make sure to hunt up the wiki to plan before I go.

I noticed the Bull Run wiki mentions Marylands 23 things and also mentions Merlin. I'm still a little miffed at Merlin, I signed up for it June 18th as part of this and still haven't received the password to use it. Grumble, Grumble. I did like Bull Run's wiki. They have a lot of interesting links. It looks like you can sign in to edit, but I couldn't find where to set up an account so I think that's how they limit who can edit. I figure you have to work for or go to the library to created an account.

I think by far the most helpful thing in learning about wikis was listening to and following the slides of a talk given by Meredith Farkas. I found the link on her "Wikis: A beginner's look", at the bottom on the page there are links to part 1&2 of the podcast with the slides.

Now to go play in the sandbox as the next thing is called.