Wikis

Wikis are excellent tools to both collaboratively share information on an ongoing basis and toeither make it public or restricted to the participants. Its ease of use and semi-structured formatting makes it an ideal tool for both web tech savvy and less technologically-inclined participants.

It is ideally suited to support numerous library practices and services given its ease of use and interactive nature. The SJCPL subject guides are an excellent example of how to put up content for users and to group the contentwithin a particular subject guide by topic e.g in the business subject guide there isthe topic "how to start and run a small business". The ability to insert links to other sites enhances the content of these guides. Publicl ibraries could use the tool to create their own subject guides.

The Wisconsin Heritage page had a Collection Development Policy in Wiki format; again public libraries could put upthier public policies using a Wiki.

The Mint Museum used a wiki to highlight their collections and exhibitions and libraries could do the same around their special collections like Local History or Children's materials and insert images to further promotethe content. Library events could be promoted with wikis as the Mint Museum promotes it s services and activities to the public. Patrons can add their comments around the content or the current activities giving valuable feedback to library staff for either future acquisitions or planning of future activities for patrons.

The Library Success wiki is really fantastic and affords librarians from around the world the opportunity to come together to exchange professional ideas, tips, etc. around a host of library issues and activities including leadership training, management, technologies, services, etc. and the numerous links to other pertinent websites enhances the wiki's overall strength in supporting professional development amongst staff.

In my previous position at an academiclibrary I set up an internal staff wiki for my team toshare information and experiences around the new library service that i was implementing. It aided staff development  and was an excellent record keeper of staff knowledge and practices around the new service. We were able toput in links and pdfs from other sites that built up our knowledge library. The team owned it and took great pride in its maintenance and ongoing development.