Wiki pages are another tool that I have known a little about, but not really used very much. I had a principal one time who used Wiki to get teacher input into creating a mission statement for the school. At that time, I knew so little about Wiki (and I was so new on the campus) that I didn’t participate. Now I can see what a useful tool that would be. Instead of everyone editing and emailing their revisions, everything is in one place and accessible to anyone. Changes and edits can be tracked easily.
I enjoyed looking at all the examples of how libraries are using Wikis. One that I thought could be really useful is Library Success: A Best Practices Wiki. It seems like a good place to share ideas that really work in libraries.
One Wiki page that made me laugh was the 2009 Annual ALA Wiki. The reason? It has a page entitled “Events with Food.” That just struck me as funny—not that I wouldn’t be tempted to take advantage of it.
Anyway, looking at all of the Wikis and reading about all of the ways they can be used has inspired me to try again to really develop and use a library Wiki. I have started on it and plan to use it to let teachers sign up to bring classes into the library, reserve equipment, request books, and share with each other what resources they are using for particular assignments. I think it could be a real time-saver and a good way to collaborate.
PS—I’m not at all sick of the “In Plain English” tutorials. I agree that they are very good. Lots of good information in an easy-to-follow format. Besides, I love how the guy uses his hands to show “old way bad” and “new way good.”
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