Week #7 - Thing #16 -Wikis

One of my goals when I return to my classroom this year is to create a wiki. It has been a goal of mine prior to this weeks focus on wikis, so having the time to explore many librarians' wikis was a lot of fun. I really believe that a well prepared wiki can help bring the library to the classrooms in my school that use the mobile laptop labs.

I liked seeing that some wikis represent a teacher and his/her courses. Other wikis revolved around a unit of study. I most enjoyed surfing around wikis that librarians maintain to support the teachers and curriculum in their schools. I gathered great ideas for links and pages that would be helpful to the community served. For example: book lovers, MLA and APA citation support, SAT Prep, pathfinders, copyright friendly sources. I could have browsed for hours and hours, but the best part is I am turbo-charged to get my wiki started to make it an integral part of my library. I am sure it will change the way the library is perceived by the students, staff anf administration and most importantly, how it is used.


Lastly, I was really impressed with Wikipedia's sets of external links for library blogs and wikis. The list of links went on and on. Kind of ironic how Wikipedia houses so many resources for librarians and yet librarians' feelings towards Wikipedia runs from hot to cold.