Wiki Week

This past week we read a lot about Wikipedia. Call it what you will, adding information onto a public site that is accessible to any and all who have internet connection is something I never thought would be part of getting a degree in library science, but this course and others now offered at USF prove that wrong. 

So, the argument goes something like this, if we [scholars] do not add and and edit wiki pages, then how reliable is the content on any such pages, specifically, for this course, wiki pages related to library stuff?

What do you think? Do you think that by editing and or adding content to library wiki pages, it makes one a better librarian? Perhaps it makes one more knowledgeable about how finding ones way around the wiki itself.

What do the published professionals say about this: Tay Pei Lyn Grace touts "ease of use" as one of the advantages in using Wikis. To this I say, okay, but ease of use doesn't necessarily make it a vehicle librarians are going to want to use as their main source of information. "Central repository for information," is listed as her second advantage. To this I say, Yeah and Amen. If there is one thing I think librarians can appreciate it is being able to go one spot and have a collection of information.  I see this one spot shopping if you will as a benefit that would reduce information duplication. But, on the down side so many other new wikis can be created and this causes more information replication. It's a bit of a endless cycle of overlapping information. Is this a good thing?

The fact that Wikis can be edited by people simultaneously, I do see as a real advantage. But because Wikis can be changed and re-edited on a continuous basis makes me wonder about the how permanent or concrete is the information that is obtained. But as the name implies, Wiki means quick in Hawaiian,  and creating Wikis is free!  I suspect that the "free" feature of Wikis has caused it popularity even among academic libraries. But let's face it, we are all about getting information fast.  Because of their fastness to obtain information I would reason that is another reason Wikis are very popular.

Like most things in this world that are quick and free one get's what they pay for. Or in the case of free information from a Wiki, one may get exactly that,  something that may not have lasting value.  It's a gamble.  It may take longer to check the sources of the information found on a Wiki than it would to go to the University's library and look for peer reviewed literature on the topic.

For my own experience this past week of editing a wiki, I felt rather naked and ill-prepared yes even after all the 10 plus readings, videos and supplemental information posted in the module. I can only relate my reluctance to jump in and start adding/editing due to my own insecurities. Thoughts like "OMG, what if what I add is so lame and so not needed for the world of librarianship..." In the end I decided to add a link about library blogs since our class was asked to post a library blog which is where I find the blog I decided to explore, http://librarianbyday.net/.