Wikis

Now that I can upload a photo, I've moved on to wikis. I see wikis as a great way of amassing knowledge from different sources. It gives people with lots of knowledge the chance to share it with us lesser mortals. I think they would work well in areas of interest, like hobbies etc where people can share their experience and know-how with other interested people. This would also apply to work places - and would ensure all people have access to the same information. Our procedure manual is a great example (and so much easier to use than the old one). However, I have got concerns about the quality of knowledge that is shared eg on Wikipedia, and the potential for people to hijack information or manipulate it to suit their own views. I read in the paper this week about a call from the P&C Association for kids to be tested on accessing quality information on the Internet - great idea!!! We will really come into our own if this happens.
Enough of my ramble - back to the wikis. I loved the SJPCL subject guides - and spent quite a while looking at how to reasearch the history of my house. Amazing how Star Wars has entered the lexicon - I knew instantly what Wookipedia was going to be about before even going to the site. It must be heaven for Star Wars nuts!
I loved the Hennepin County Library - Bookspace. Some great ideas there for Readers in the Mist.
The next generation catalogues are going to be great. Such a blurring between bookstores and library catalogues. I'm sure the public will be happy to use a catalogue with so many extra features and which is so intuitive. The Google Book Search on John Keats was good - I enjoyed reading snippets of his poetry and having the chance to read more if I chose to.