Wikis and blogs

Thing 16

I know that Thing 16 is to discover Wikis, but what I really come away with is wondering why my library doesn't have a blog.

How I got to this point: I was searching the Library Success: A Best Practices Wiki (very interesting, btw) and one of the pages I happened upon was the Management: Communication wiki. I then clicked through to a separate wiki called Libraries with Blogs. Where, it seems, every library in the known world except mine is listed. So that got me to where I am now: wondering how I can find time in my crazy busy schedule to rectify this situation. Blog by staff or interactive wiki, either would be a really great communication method with our customers. Hopefully, by the end of these 23 things in a week or so, my colleagues and I should be comfortable enough with the concept and process of blogging not to panic at the technological aspect. The content aspect is another hurdle. However, I think our customers would read a blog from our children's dept. So many parents come up to me after a storytime class and want copies of the fingerplays, etc. that I use. If I posted my storytime plan on the blog, then I could easily point them there, where they could also see the stories that we use, linked to the catalog to help facilitate the customer getting the book into their hands. We could highlight new items in the collection, (once again linking to our catalog), highlight programs that need a little extra publicity, put up 'virtual displays,' and use it to put up instant information about programs and events. The caregivers in this area are pretty tech savvy - they'd read a blog if we had one. Now, of course we'd have to think carefully about permissions for comments and etc., but it is something to think about. We'd also have to check with our publicity dept. One of the great things about a blog is the 'everyman' aspect, but we have to be realistic in that we will probably need to have some sort of publicity monitor. Hmmm..... much to think about.

Anyway, the point of this Thing was to discover wikis. How could we use a wiki in my library? Well, we are probably going to have to have some interesting planning meetings/discussions about Summer Reading this year. Perhaps we could use a wiki to communicate among branches, to cut down on time spent driving to and attending meetings. Hmmm..... again, much to think about.