A Little Bit Literate

Wiki wiki

I used (and still use) Wikipedia a lot as a quick reference, especially when I need to know what a technology term means, and I think it can be a really handy starting place for simple research projects, as long as you use the references to find more reliable sources. I didn't really think much about wikis beyond Wikipedia until I started library school, and since then, I've nearly contributed to Wikipedia (I'm putting off writing an article on my library hero Suzanne Briet in the hopes that Buckland will do it instead and I can devote my fannish energy to translating her memoir--which she wrote as an alphabetical index instead of a chronological story) and have participated in the silssa officer's wiki and the wikis for this class and last semester's Library Use Instruction wiki. I've also done some research using wikis, like the Cent-a-pedia and the Library Success Wiki's Information Literacy page (worth a look--lots of lesson plans and curricula).

The thing that I've taken away from contributing to wikis is that as much as they can function as handy tools and even reference sources, they depend on participation, either from one dedicated person who maintains the whole site, or, preferably, from a group of people dedicated to the common cause of sharing that information and keeping it up to date. Wikis, like tags, are most successful when lots of people are participating and adding their two cents, because then you have a broad look at the subject at hand. And regardless of the scope of the wiki, if only one person is updating information, that wiki is bound to get out of date and a bit cobwebby before long. Also, if no one in the group using the wiki is using the wiki, even just to look at and use for reference, inevitably you have the one lone person whose continuous refrain is, "It's on the wiki!" (This happened when silssa first got its wiki, and we're all information-tool geeks. I can only imagine what happens among non-geek users.)

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In a library setting, I could see wikis being handy as internal organizational tools, or fun for use in community projects, like a neighborhood history wiki, which you could combine with information literacy classes for older users, teaching them how to scan and upload their old photographs to the wiki and add some stories about their memories of the neighborhood. The crucial factor in using a wiki in any setting is getting people involved and invested, making sure that there is enough participation to make the wiki a viable tool and not just a collection of dusty old links and tidbits.