#17 - playing around with PBWiki

This excercise simply involved adding my blog to the "play" wiki set up for this course. I tried adding in the url and title in square brackets as indicated but this didn't work. I could just put the url in by itself as others have done, but I ended up using the editing menu at the top of the page to insert a link with title.

A very easy and straightforward thing to do. Makes me want to come up with an excuse to start my own wiki. I just need a reason or topic for it. Maybe I'm better of just contrinuting tho others like Wikipedia and Library Success as a way of playing & learning.

#16 - wikis

I think Wikis in general have been somewhat hidden behind the success of Wikipedia. Wikipedia itself is a fantastic site in my opinion. No, it's not Encyclopedia Brittanica and no, I won't cite it in an essay. However, it is so much faster and simpler to search than it is to get into the Brittanica through the library website and for many types of general information it's just as good, or better.

The SJCPL wiki was a great use of the technology. They use it for subjects guides and it is therefore set up to only be edited by library staff. The format allows them to includes listings of new books on the subject and magazine subscriptions (all linked into their catalogue), along links to websites and other useful pieces of information. A really good example of how wikis can be used as the new pathfinders.

I think the Library Success wiki is fantastic too. A true wiki allowing anyone to register and add or edit entries. This is an ideal application for a wiki. It gives everyone the opporunity to share their knowledge about libraries with all interested people. People can add links, book references, quotes, ideas, whatever they feel valuable. This site looks to be a valuable resource and I have now added it to my del.icio.us and also added the updates RSS feed to my reader.