Conclusion

Welcome to the end of my blog. This online journal was a project for my LIBR 500 course, Foundations of Information Technology, at UBC, where I am studying at SLAIS. To read it from the beginning, you have to scroll all the way down to the bottom of this page.

“The term wiki (derived from the Hawaiian word for “quick”) is applied to a diverse set of systems, features, approaches, and projects.” (from Elements of Wiki Essence, but which I read in Wide Open Spaces: Wikis, Ready or Not, by Brian Lamb, his blog).

In this brief journal, I have tried to examine diverse ways in which libraries are using wikis: a book club sharing reviews, university libraries providing high tech services to students, staff training and support and an encyclopedia of local history! These wikis, from the basic to the large-scale and ambitious, are all examples of libraries and their staff, patrons and volunteers working hard to encourage participation from the community, to engage patrons and empower them to contribute (directly and indirectly) to the web presence of their libraries.

Clearly, the library staff and patrons of the library wikis I reviewed are ready!

The Irving K. Barber Learning Centre at UBC, in beautiful Vancouver, British Columbia, which is the home of my school – the School of Library, Archival and Information Studies or SLAIS.

Special thanks to my cousin, Sonia Caroline Shapiro, for all the typing!!