Week Seven/Lesson #15: Get your hands dirty in the wiki sandbox!

Discovery Exercise:

Once you have edited or created a page, write a short blog entry about wikis. How could we use a wiki in the library? Can you think of another use for a wiki outside the library?

Wow! I edited our wiki! Yay!

Uses in the library? Hmm...as lots of my coworkers have mentioned at the brownbags and/or in their own blogs, I think a wiki could possibly make a great library intranet.

Outside the library? I have a friend in grad school who is constantly working on group projects. Sometimes it is a presentation, sometimes it is a research paper/project. I watch her and her fellow group members struggling to communicate and share resources or other useful information via email or (worse) Blackboard. Now that I am a little more familiar with wikis and how they work, I think that a wiki would be a much better alternative to mass emails and the oh-so-clunky Blackboard. It would definitely be a great way for multiple members to edit and add to a presentation script or a term paper; plus, everyone would know when a change was made, who made it, and why the change was made. Of course, this is assuming that all individuals involved know how to use a wiki...

Week Seven/Lesson #14: Gettin' Wiki with it!

Discovery exercise:

Use some of these wikis to see how this flexible tool is being used in libraryland. Write a short blog entry about your favorite library wiki or about an application for a wiki that you might see in our own library.

All the wikis seem pretty neat, so I don't think I have a favorite. Sure, some are more useful or more attractive than others, but over all I think the concept is a great idea.

As for an application for our library...

Much like my coworkers, I think that a wiki has great potential for a library intranet.

One more possible application...

I hate to bring these terms up, but...when the time comes again, could strategic planning committees in our library and in other areas of the university make good use of a wiki? I remember when strategic planning, QEPs, objectives, goals, and the like became a big issue here...and these big issues came with lots of meetings. It seems that a wiki could lighten that burden. Sure, it would have to have some tighter rules, guidelines, and restrictions on who could create or edit content (only members of the committees, verified by EKU email?), but it's possible and could save time.