Week 7, Thing 16

In the past, I have only used Wikipedia as a quick reference tool. When I took the time to look closer, I realized that it is much more entertaining than a standard encyclopedia. With "Today's Featured Article", "In the News", "Did you know...", and so on, it is interesting if you have the time. I definitely think that serious researchers need to be weary because of its free-flow format (questionable authors and information), but, all in all, it is a very good idea. I liked the Wikiversity project which may appeal to some of our homeschoolers, and I checked out Wikiquote and Wikispecies.

In our library setting, we have some very good databases, but wikis would enable us to provide much more in-depth coverage of different subjects, such as local history. For our students, it would be nice to have curriculum-based pages where books, reliable websites with links, and databases could be found. This would require the cooperation of the schools, and, of course, several members of the reference staff would have to be involved. This would be wonderful for small branches.

A book review site would be great for all ages, and parents might want to check out what their children are reading, especially with the popularity of YA books and their varied content. There are a lot of ways that wikis can be used, and I really like the idea that everyone in the system would be free to contribute ideas to a site.