Sunday, December 7, 2008

Blogpost about wikis for twenty three things

BookLoversWiki Princeton Public Library is nice but seems a little limited when you consider that libraries have huge collections. I wonder how the reviews are accessed, tags or hypertext on the catalogue record would be a sensible way for patrons with specific intent I think, as book reviews are something you are interested in either because you want a book on a subject or by an author and would like it evaluated; or conversely because you might like to be able to access the whole wiki of reviews, to find reading suggestions. Such reviews should have a number of additions I think, i.e writes like and the reviewer could also name her favourite authors. I had a lady who came to check out three books by authors I read all the time. I asked her if she had read such and such and she immediately whipped out a pad and started jotting authors names down, confident I guess that we probably had similar taste.



mintwiki
Slightly bewildering in the way that the hypertext continuously opens popups and pages just by moving cursor over, IE without clicking even singly (let alone a double click). Very interesting information but it is difficult to detect any public contributions. Many links to blogs and wiki's that contain more commentary than the mint's; this also can get quite confusing as you need to be aware that you are now looking at a completely different museum /or website.


Montana history wiki does a strange thing, it disappears permanently, when I enlargen the page to full-screen.

Winsconsin Heritage wiki asked me to login and would not allow me guest access so we will wait till I'm granted access

SJCPL Subject Guides wiki
You have to email comments to be vetted by library staff here, which I guess reduces vandalism and inappropriate remarks. This does seem to impact however on the sense of a discussion board. It would be nice if the ask it services could be amalgamated somehow with the wiki and a greater sense of connexion and access to the collection fostered through being able to dip backwards and forwards between the wiki and the catalogue. They have a partially achieved this with their local authors page.

I can see that wiki's are good for allowing feedback and offering advice. Eg info regarding services can be provided at entry points like the hold tab in OPAC's: a good place for providing access to FAQ's in a wiki form. Example, can I move my holds to a different library after they arrive? Answer Yes but I really wish you had thought ahead. (KIDDING) More seriously what about a library service wiki that has a subject of the day.Eg How to donate items, IE criteria and the necessity of clearly labeling donations etc.

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