Wee Willie Wiki

It's been a long time since this old girl was in a sandbox ... but I have duly added my blog to the star picks on the ACL wiki (and stuck a naff little 'new' logo next to it - courtesy of trademe icons) and added my favourite book to the wiki book page. And gosh, wasn't that easy! Much much easier than a real sandbox - no wind blowing the sand up your knickers and anxiety about your sandcastle being smaller/rattier/not as fancy as everyone else's sandcastle.

I will confess to being slightly reactionary and adding my favourite Dr Suess book to offset the seeming predomination of weightier tomes on the books' page - you know the ones, that are called Literature with a capital L.

I do love the idea of wiki based writing and co-operation but also see it as yet another thing to 'keep up with' which means it will probably fall by the wayside unless I find it really useful and really interesting. The fitch being a case in point - great way to collaborate and share reference information and stuff - but when was the last time you looked at it and/or used it?

To get deep and meaningful in a political sense, I think wikis and such things rock the world as tools that everyone with computer access gets to use without having to go out and buy x video card or y software program and z hardware add-on and spend time learning html and such like. Bill Gates must hate them ... which is not such a bad thing:) Plus all those people that did go out and buy x y and z and learn html ... bugger!

Sticky Wikis

So the Mad Hamster strikes again and says pretty much exactly what I was going to say about wikis ... what is good about wikis is also bad about wikis.

And for everyone that thinks I should hush my mouth and that wikis are damn fine ideas and the best thing since the Spice Girls' reunion (see above post) - check out Conservapedia, a wiki encyclopedia based on "good Christian values" ... reading their commandments and then their entry on the origin of kangaroos is particularly enlightening.

That said, I do like the idea of a community space that allows everyone to participate without attending a 14 week course on writing computer language and general programming. It's all so, like, free and radical man!

• Patrons could post reviews (as well as ratings) on the OPAC
• Patron interest groups (book groups etc) could set up wikis on our website - posting what they're up to
• Patron could add their own tags to catalogue records, especially self-designing their own OPAC
• Answers and links to resources for commonly asked reference questions could be posted in one place so all library staff could access it .... and we could call it something really cool like the fitch or something!