Thing 10, Wikis

Below is the entry that I added to the 23 Things wiki

"The idea of setting up a wiki so that our library users could list items that they would like us to get (not that we have the funds for acquisition...another story) is something we are going to give some thought to. No idea that this was so straightforward. I can see other uses for wikis outside of the library too, in other collaborative areas of life!!!

(4/3/08, Fire/EMS/Safety Library)"

The You Tube video from Common Craft on wikis was excellent!

The other links were a bit superfluous, other than the one, Wikis, A Beginners Look slide show. In general so many links in a thing are so time consuming and I feel that I just get in deeper and deeper. Each thing takes quite a long time and I end up with many windows open on the computer. Today, probably because earlier work at the library involved downloading some large documents, the computer froze and I had to empty the download cache to continue working on 23 things!!!

I created a private wiki for a group with whom I am collaborating, using PB wiki. I am learning as I go along. I am a bit confused about the notification or not. Will the people I have invited get a notification via email every time the wiki is edited (unless I turn the notification off)?? The idea was to avoid lots of email among the group.

Prior to viewing the Common Craft video, I knew that wikis existed but didn't have a good idea why they would be useful.

I can see how this is a cool collaborative tool!

On Wikipedia: hmmm....I know it is useful for some really obscure information. As an academic librarian, however, I do feel that researchers and students should verify information found there in other sources, including print-based (e.g. reference and article databases) ones.
If I were making an assignment, I would instruct students that Wikipedia could be a last resort, not a first one.

There are many instructors who do limit their students to information by format. This is increasingly interesting to cope with in the library since many journals are no longer held in print format and the student cannot get the most relevant information in print.

However, I do think that it is important for every student to have the experience, at least once, of finding an article (from a citation) in an actual print journal so that they know about this process as a tool.