la la la libraries

Something else I’ve recently learnt about are wikis.  I was surprised at first that we were learning about them, since I’ve always been told that wikis (more specifically Wikipedia) are not to be trusted.  If you are not sure, wikis are like websites, the only differnce being that the general public can update and edit the content contained on the page. 

At first wikis might seem very similar to blogs.  They can be compared to blogging because of the fact that they are both “social software” sites, however, the one difference is that the content of a blog is usually controlled by one blogger, while a wiki can have many contributors, or a set number of contributors.

When you think about it, wikis are very useful for a variety of things; group work, brainstorming, notes, etc.   Since I am interested in working in a school library, or at least in the children’s area of a public library, I took a look at this article.  Within an educational setting, wikis can help keep not only teachers and teacher librarians connected, but also the library staff itself connected. Library staff could use a wiki to contribute to posting helpful resources for each other, any general information or insights, meetings, etc.  The term that the article used which I thought described wikis perfectly was as an ”electronic bulletin board.” 

I guess up until now I’ve always found wikis not so appealing, the main reason being that I thought all wikis could be edited by anyone from anywhere.  I never realized that you could make a wiki that was only available for a certain number of people who are granted access to edit the page.  This makes me feel more comfortable with the whole idea, knowing that Joe Somebody isn’t always going to be messing up my wiki!

As I was using our class wiki, I didn’t really notice anything that I had expected to see but didn’t.  This is mostly because I’ve never had experience using a wiki before, but it was very straight forward to use.   When editing the page on our favourite books, I simply clicked the edit button, and clicked on the grid and filled in my information.  I’m really enjoying reading all the recommendations my classmates have given, and hopefully I’ll have more to add myself soon!

So I think I am in love with…RSS! For those non-techies out there such as myself, RSS means you can subscribe to and receive feeds from several different sources on the internet (like blogs) and these feeds will all gather together conveniently in one place called a reader.  The reader I use is Google Reader, where I can go everyday and check in on my fellow Library Technicians, and the newest blog posts they have written. 

I’ve followed blogs before, but I never really knew what RSS was,  and so I would sometimes spend up to several hours going through my bookmarked pages and visiting all of my favourite blogs, not knowing if there would be a new post, or if I was just wasting my time.  Now I just have to go to my reader, and all the new posts are there waiting for me without the hassle. 

Unlike most of my other classmates, I would definitely call myself a non-techie, and so to help understand the magic of RSS, I chose to read this article: RSS For Non-Techie Librarians.  I agree that RSS is quite easy to set up and use, even if you are a Library Technician who is not up to date with the newest in Internet trends.  In regards to the use of RSS within the library, I think it would be very helpful.  If your library has a blog, then you are one step closer to keeping your patrons up-to-date with the newest goings-on in your library.  It’s also helpful for the library staff who want to keep up with the newest in library trends, as they don’t have to waste time when looking through websites for Library Stuff.

The only complaint I have about using RSS concerns the reader.  I am a very visual person, and I enjoy seeing all the work that someone has put into the appearance of their blog.  For me it helps set the atmosphere and a tone to what you are reading, and I feel that sometimes the reader can come off as cold or distant.  Maybe this is just me.  Otherwise, I think it is very useful, and I’m happy that I’ve been clued into the wonderful world of RSS!