Wikid Good

Alert for family and friends: long boring work post ahead.

Today I looked more closely at wikis as part of my ongoing Learning 2.0 challenge at work. I admit to frequently grabbing quick info from Wikipedia, although there is some debate among librarians as to whether or not this is a reliable source of information.

I didn't realize that there are many levels of collaboration that can be set up for a wiki so that it can be editied by anyone or only one person, or anything in between. With that in mind, I can see this as a great resource on our intranet at work or even on our KCLS webpage. The different levels of wikiness that I can envision using are:

• Branch/cluster level: As a part-timer, for once I would love to know what is going on when I start my shift. There's nothing more embarassing than having a patron ask you something like "So what was the result of the big fight/police action/politcial protest that happened three nights ago at the library?" and I have to gape and explain I have no idea anything happened. A local wiki that we can all contribute to regarding events, facilities statuses, patron interactions etc. would be fabulous.


• System wide Intranet wiki: Collaborating on committee work would be wonderful; sometimes e-mails flying back and forth cross each other and don't contain all of the pertinent back info. Also, the equivalent of a system-wide Rolodex would be wonderful; there are times when I really do need to know where the closest fax to the Auburn library is, even though I work in Shoreline.


• Public view wikis: It would be a wonderful way to keep the homework help or web links pages current and up to date. However, I doubt that KCLS would allow staff to do this without someone still having to approve everything. Sigh.


• Comments/tagging in the catalog: This would be something patrons can contribute to, though I still believe we should have some ability to moderate. This is actually in the works right now via our current OPAC. A great way to forge another link with our community.