Weblogs: Their Use and Application in Science and Technology Libraries
I think the success of blogs in this environment is entirely dependent on the communities comfort level with them. Many people doubt the credentials of such an open format, and based on the ease of entry into the blogosphere (I hate that I used that as though it were a word) it’s tough to blame them. I so think that blogs allow for quick dissemination and access to new and current information, and as such could be ideal for administrative, public announcements, and general administration in libraries.
Using a wiki to manage a library instruction program: Sharing knowledge to better serve patrons
Wikis are by their nature collaborative, and as such are great for a workplace where so many people with diverse specialties are under a big umbrella. There is also a high level of accountability, usually. As with most of the tech-in-libraries we have discussed in this course, it will be interesting to see how and where wikis are being used in libraries in twenty years—if we haven’t moved on by then.
Creating the academic library folksonomy: Put social tagging to work at your institution
I think this is a great idea that could really help expand the usefulness of a search process. If I have a class that 5000 other students have taken in the past five years, there is a good chance that they will have already identified some useful materials for me. With some kind of administrative or editorial oversight, social tagging could make life much better for students—especially the dumb ones.
Jimmy Wales: “How a ragtag band created Wikipedia”
I didn’t realize that Wikipedia was such an active community, or so well-policed by volunteers. They seem to really care about their roles and the greater purpose of the site. It makes sense that the people who take time to post on their area of expertise will respect the work and try to keep it respectable.
Like others, I have to respect the folks at Wikipedia more than I used to. I guess it’s not a joke.
I certainly like and use wikipedia, but it has so many pages that while they have many dedicated volunteers, those volunteers care about their specific subjects- I've definitely been on several shoddy pages that were clearly created by one biased person and never made more neutral by more authors.
ReplyDeleteWikipedia definitely engenders a lot of devotion in certain people. If there's one thing I've learned about the web, it's that no matter what the subject, there's almost certainly a rabidly devoted community around it.
ReplyDeleteYour comment on the wiki article makes me wonder if we will actually have moved on from all of these social tools in the next 20 years. It seems like a real possibility, considering how much has change since 1990. I wonder if anyone is making the argument that libraries shouldn't bother wasting resources on these tools since we probably won't be using them in the future. I think that would be a mistake, but with budgets being what they are, I can see people arguing against starting new and possibly ephemeral projects.
ReplyDeleteWikipedia is great, but you just have to be very careful when using it. There is a lot of erroneous info. on there. Personally, I only trust information on Wikipedia that has a citation next to it. That way, I can always go to the citation and verify any information on that specific wiki.
ReplyDeleteI was also impressed by the wikipedia community. I hadn't realized it was so small (relatively). I also was surprised that it is a nonprofit and run by volunteers... That video was 5 years old though and I wonder how it has changed
ReplyDeleteWhere I work, social tagging wouldn't work. We're lucky our patrons can read. And the people who work here, well, sometimes we're lucky they can use computers. I mean, these people are great, but when it comes to computer troubleshooting, it's up to us "younger" (by 20-40 years younger) to do it.
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