Week #7 Thing # 16

WIKIS

Well, now I know the origin of the term "wiki" : Hawaiian for "quick". And saying "wiki" just one time is not enough. It is one of those cute little words that you want to say over and over : "wiki wiki". And quickly, quickly is how wiki wikis are built. I think wikis are wonderful. They are the perfect answer to keep creative collaboration strong and vital within an organization. I am so pleased that SJPL Youth Services has established a wiki for staff use. Now we can enter our storytime plans, songs, crafts, booktalks, book reviews, and special programming ideas. This is what we have needed for a long, long time. YS librarians need a central location where they can pool and share ideas and our new wiki is the place to do this. Mid Hudson Library System in New York State has a great wiki site for programming ideas. I spent many years working in a library supported by the Mid Hudson Library System long before the time of wikis. Instead of a wiki we had a central location for programming materials that we could all share. Approximately 70 small public libraries in the Mid-Hudson System depended on these materials for programming. But a printed catalog of all the materials had to be constantly updated, and paper copies of programming ideas were exchanged and often lost over time. It was a cumbersome way of sharing ideas. Now, with the wiki, ideas can be added quickly to a central location . Mid-Hudson Library System's programming wiki is well worth looking at :

http://support.midhudson.org/ezprogram/ezprogram.htm

Hopefully SJPL will be able to create an equally valuable programming wiki for staff to use and contribute to.