Do Wikis

I've been a fan of Wikipedia since its inception. It's an example of collaboration, community knowledge and checks and balances. It has a reputation of being reliable, even if its content is primarily provided by users, because users who see inaccuracies can and do correct them. It is self-maintaining and non-commercial. While not flawless, it's a very democratic source of information on just about any topic imaginable.

Wikis are a great tool. They put the responsibility on users to provide the content and maintain the integrity of it. Users can ask for help from other users to fill in the gaps and to make corrections if needed. If you don't know everything about a given topic, no problem; just ask another user to finish where you left off. And pretty soon you have a nice collection of fact-checked and constantly improving information.

We have a wiki here at CML that our Information Technology and Digital Services teams use frequently. We have all collaborated in one way or another to provide everything from step by step descriptions of how to perform different functions to lists of ip addresses throughout the library system. I know that I for one refer to the wiki often as I'm learning a new process or if I haven't performed a process in a long time and need a refresher. It's easy to navigate and easy to edit. My work time is spent more efficiently now that I can quickly refer to the wiki rather than sifting through paper and electronic notes that I had written for myself on how to perform specific functions. And best of all, I can quickly share those tips that I have discovered with the rest of my team.

It seems that libraries can find lots of good uses for wikis. Our wiki at CML was originally designed for IT and DS staff, but it has been expanded to become a general staff wiki. It's only a matter of time before other CML employees discover how useful a tool it is.