#16 and 17 -- Wikis

Wikis. I am somewhat familiar with these. We learned a bit more about Wikipedia in 451. We chose a "stub", searched for 25 citations and wrote a 25 page paper to fix that stub. During that same semester, we used a Wiki for the Youth Services class. When doing this exercise, I did not need to create an account. I already have an account at PB works because of that Wiki. I did log in and add a post to a two of the "favorites" -- books and physical activities. I wasn't able to add my blog to the list, however, because there was no "edit" button to click. I noticed that another class member had added her link in the comment section. We have also created a Wiki for a volunteer group that I am part of -- the Reach Out and Read Program at the American Family Children's Hospital here in Madison. On December 1, the new in-patient reading library was officially opened with over 600 new, high-quality books available for the pediatric patients to read and be read to. Wisconsin's First Lady, Jessica Doyle participated and read to the children Opening. We are using the Wiki to mobilize the volunteers. This blog is getting a bit lengthy but I should mention that I visited several of the library wikis highlighted at the Learning 2.0 site, all of which illustrated how this tool can be valuable for libraries and their patrons.